Fresh Needles

Hurrah for bristling bundles of fresh needles and drooping clusters of colorful cones on my evergreen conifers! Spring is in full swing.

Weeping Norway Spruce

Juniper 'Goldcone'

Dwarf Colorado Blue Spruce

Japanese Black Pine 'Ogon'

In fact, I think I feel Summer creeping in...

Blooms for Hubby

Just a happy little combo, here. Lobelia with irish moss and a tiny korean rock fern. This planter is visible from our dining area window and is bright and cheery even when fully shaded by the carport roof in the afternoon. Hubby loves those sweet little purple blooms.

I also planted a pair of urns with geraniums, dwarf snapdragons, calibrachoa and bacopa. Hubby and I picked out these flowers together. I have enjoyed them even more because of his input and appreciation.

Gardening loves company!

A Perfect Day for a Garden Tour!

April 15th was a glorious day here in Western Washington, so Hubby and I drove northward to Federal Way, where we spent a sunny afternoon walking among the many woodland wonders of the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden.

Lots of photos after the break!

(Please forgive the awkward exposures of many of these shots. It was a very sunny day and I was using my camera-phone.)

Tortoiseshell Among the Tulips

Lizzy does just as she pleases.

I thought I'd take advantage of a sudden sun-break and finish my morning tea on the porch with the cats. I lazily soaked up some sunshine and snapped a few flower pics with my phone while the furry beasts, always pleased to have me around, took turns visiting with me and checking my tea mug for tasty smells.

When Lizzy, my gloriously fat mama cat, came over to visit, she rolled around on her back in order to tempt me with the baby-bunny softness of her expansive belly. I fell right into her trap. As soon as my hand made contact with that soft tummy, she immediately seized it in her paws and tried to eat it, the playful beast. Fortunately, I managed to free myself from her clawed clutches without any loss of blood. Now clearly in a wild animal type of mood, Lizzy proceeded into the brightly blooming container garden, leaped up into a large square pot, plopped her enormous tush onto the creeping jenny and started poking her nose into all of the red tulips that she could reach.

Look at that tubby tortie. She thinks she's a jungle cat.

What a pretty kitty that tubby tortie is!

When I tried to take a wider shot of my containers, the jungle beast took the opportunity to show off her wicked claws. Just look at her ripping splinters out of my poor wooden fence!

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”

—Robert A. Heinlein

Frozen

Fallen baldcypress leaf frozen in concrete birdbath

This November's unusually sudden turn to freezing weather has left many deciduous trees, shrubs and vines looking rather disgusting. My lilac is a nasty mess. Some of the now limp, blackened leaves of my big-leaf and panicle hydrangeas are still clinging pathetically to their stems. Not so, however, for the leaves of my climbing hydrangeas, which turned a very pleasing butter-yellow, then dropped of their own accord before the big freeze. The foliage of the autumn-blooming clematises appears a bit battered, but the fluffy, white seed heads are sweet and friendly-looking. Succulent sedums look tired. Iris fans look spotty. Heucheras and heucherellas look anemic. Wire vines are dying back unexpectedly. In one nursery pot I have a baby baldcypress (Taxodium distichum), which is still holding onto most of its rust-colored leaves. We know that at least one leaf has fallen. There it is, now frozen in the birdbath. The birds fight over the berries of nearby trees and the cats have to come indoors for a drink. A muddy field of bootprints and puddles has become a frozen network of ice lattice and intricate bubble patterns. Ready or not, winter is coming to the garden.