This is one Mean Old Lady!

This is one Mean Old Lady!
Self-portrait: 'Quilter on Fire'

Friday, March 11, 2011

Spring

Though the nights are still cold, we are enjoying some warmer days.  Early flowering is always welcome.
Hyacinth






Faithful bulbs multiple without any special assistance.  







The bed is also full of violets.  Some of my friends regard these as weeds and actually pull them out.  I planted these on purpose.  Even the smallest bit of root will take hold and grow.  Violets are prolific self-seeders. 
White Violet

Not every plant is eager to risk a frosty morning.  (Our last frost date is April 7th--or so they say.)  This fig is not a believer, despite its protected location.


Fig branch tip, just beginning
















Spring Beauties in the grass


Volunteer bloomers are everywhere.  These are a native wild-flower that we see every year:  Spring Beauties.  Tiny and prolific,  they literally carpet some of the sunny yards in town.  Notice the dainty pink lines on the petals and the pink stamen.




Today's surprise--a lovely 'flag' in the front yard, donated by a friend who disliked this plant's habit of spreading.  I am the go-to gardener for orphaned and abandoned plants.  I have no idea why similar plants like iris and flags are classed separately.  (My iris have not yet sent up bloom stalks.)  


Spring in Arkansas is lovely.

3 comments:

  1. We have lots of wild violet in our yard, and I do consider it a weed. If only it would bloom all summer, that would be fine. But I don't pursue it as relentlessly as some other "blooming" weeds like creeping Charlie and henbit. Then there's that weed with the tiny white flowers that turn into exploding rockets of seeds when they mature.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know what the 'shooter weed' is, either, but I've got 'em all over. Pulled a few today as I worked my way around the asparagus bed...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah! I found it:

    Hairy Bitter Cress (Cardamine hirsuta)
    An elegant little plant, with a lacy basal rosette and little white flowers in clusters. 1" to 1' high, flowers from February on, quickly forming seedpods which explode and send seed in all directions. Can form large mats, and has several generations a year. Shallow rooted, so can be hoed, and flimsy leaves dry quickly if left on the surface. An annual, but difficult to eradicate.

    ReplyDelete


Rose 'Crepuscular'

Asparagus bed--post harvest

Lake Conway Mutti und Kinder