Hyacinth Pink Pearl

A strong wafting sweet fragrance in the chill spring morning greets me as I open the door to let the dog out. Its heavenly smell froze my legs, as I stood there for a few minutes, lost in my thoughts, while my dog had disappeared to his running field at the back of the garden.

They can be grown in the most shaded parts of the garden and the flowers last longer when planted with some indirect sunlight. This is very easy care plants, being bulbs like daffodils, they don't need much watering.

Mine is growing along the side walk entrance and never get any special treatments. They get their water and nourishments from whatever the other plants in that planting area receive in spring, and that's about it.

In some cultures, Hyacinths are sometimes associated with rebirth.
I always thought that chinese calender begin sometime around this time of year, but I just found out that Hyacinth also marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Iranian calendar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haft_sin_table

For me, Hyacinth is an affordable luxury worth enjoying once a year in early spring, and who can forget Patricia Routledge's role as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping up Appearances. She is such a roar. I missed that comedy series.

http://rosesarerae.blogspot.com/2009/03/hyacinth-delfts-blau.html

Pieris Japonica Passion

There are lots of reasons to get all excited about this lily of the valley shrub.

Everytime they fully opened their bells, it is a kind of confirmation that spring is really here.

Their ringing is loud and clear; a new beginning to a lot of things, and everything will be on a speedy growth from now on, because the daylight gets longer and brighter every day.

It is a very useful evergreen shrub with neat growing habit and beautiful green leaves.

I use it to provide some refreshing green colour to the garden for the grey boring winter months.
They began making tiny little buds during late winter while there was still snow on the ground, but these little bells did not open up in my cold garden in time for valentine's day.

I don't blame them for their late arrival. The temperature here is just too cold, but still, at least they are making buds while other plants are still in deep hibernation.

This is one of my favourite shrub amongst the numerous everygreen in the garden, simply because they are the first one to produce blooms and provide colours. They require good drainage and acidic soil to thrive and prosper.

Just as the name suggest, these cherise red tiny little bells really rings the chorus;








P-A-S-S-I-O-N !!



Love is in the air!!


Unfortunately, Magpies are not my favourite birds because of their stealing habits but I just found out that they could be a good solution to the pair of stray pigeon that nested outside my garden shed last year. Those pigeon family has now double up to 4 because the chicks which I've written about before are now fledglings. Unfortunately, before I could get rid and clean up their mess, I found another 2 more eggs in the vacated nest .

It was fascinating watching the magpie fly into my woodland, perch on the tree top, break a twig and fly away to build their nest somewhere.

Summer and Winter on the same day

The very same day we adjusted our clocks to summer time, was also the day winter revisited.

After a short preview of harbingers of spring and all the pretty tiny signs of spring featured in here some days ago, the snow and the awful heavy sleet with the usual frosty morning temperatures gnawed right into our bones.

It was enough to make a lot of people sick. I was more sick in the heart than physically ill.
So, I decided to strategized my daily life plans and took such bad weather as an opportunity to get away and get busy concentrating on other things. That way I know I will not be torturing other people with my endless whining and frustration about lousy weather.


I hope that is the last of winter weather we will be seeing, at least until end of October this year, when life will once again go back to the long endless nights.

Officially, we are already a few days into summer time. Summer time? Yes, Sunday 29th of March, all our clocks and watches moved forward by an hour following the Central European Summer Time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_European_Summer_Time

Even though it is understood that this CEST clock adjusting is more for synchronizing official timing and flight schedules etc, to make sure that no one will miss the flight or an hour late for the meeting etc, but the reality remain the same, Petrus versus weather and nature gods don't work together. This action of pushing forward the clock by an hour doesn't help much at all to speed up the bio-nature of phenology growth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenology

Nevertheless, life certainly will be much more more interesting in the coming days and months. There are more colours appearing around me as the sun ray become more and more intense each day. Everyday is 3 minutes and a few seconds longer than the day before that.

Today, the quicksilver made a leap and rised up to 12°C, which is not that bad compared to my friend Camilla in Norway and others in the Nordic countries whose gardens and vegetation growth are only beginning to get the magic dust from spring fairies.

There are a lot of seedlings sprouting out at the moment, all over the place. Most of them must be weeds as I haven't broadcast any real annual seeds yet. Sometimes I wonder why is it so easy for weeds seeds to germinate?

I thought this one in particular looked very interesting, as if telling me "have a heart! Don't pull me out. Let me grow!!"

Amazing how plants communicate.

I'm sure you've heard or been told by some people that "you must talk to your plants". Well....my father thinks otherwise. He said, I should learn to listen to the plants instead. Some people probably think I'm crazy writing this, but plants do complain if their living conditions are not optimum to their requirements, by showing symptoms or signs which are actually very easy to diagnose. When all their growing basic needs are met, they without fail will show their gratitude and give you beautiful flowers that can make you smile for hours or even days....and that's happiness in the garden. This is a special relationship.

Outdoor living is definitely here. You can't see my dance of joy behind these writings, but I can tell you, I am diving and jiving and rocking around the clock these days, trying to sort out my priorities. With the new concept, I hope to gain a bit more extra minutes, maybe hours partying with Mrs. Spade in the garden.

Check out this Bill Haley video. The girl on the right reminded me of my kiddie days when dad use to swing and twirl me around like a spinning top. He love the outdoor. For him, life is a big outdoor party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqYctXgM

Hyacinth Delft Blau

My guess is, this hyacinth probably got its name Delft Blau from the Delphinium blue, due to the similarity in the colourings.

The colour is not really outstanding during these early days of spring due to overcast sky but the fragrance is really powerful sweet and wafting in the air even when the temperature is very cool in the early morning.


It is so top heavy that it bend to the ground even before the last snow hit us last week.

One of those that got cut away, fill up the vase and perfume the indoor!

Harbinger of Spring - Helleborus

Phonetically, the name may sounds like a "hell-of-a-bore-rose" but in reality, this is a very interesting plant and a joy to behold when they are in bloom, especially after many months of winter boredom. Even though the 5 petals strongly resemble the wild roses, and its common name being Lenten Rose or Christmas Rose, Helleborus is not at all a rose. They belonged to the family of Buttercup or Ranunculaceae, usually blooming in-sync with the snowdrops and the crocus.

This is another one of those easy care, very well behave plant and requires almost no maintenance. When given the right growing conditions, they will be there forever, slowly multiplying over the years. Some are very cold hardy and able to survive my freezing cold alpine winter climate. The leathery leaves remain evergreen during winter months, though sometimes can look a little bit savaged after getting buried under the snow blanket, and all the freeze and thaw, but that does not affect their ability to produce many beautiful blooms that made me smile even on grouchy grey and dull mornings.
There are so many attractive interesting colours being created by hybridizers.
Some are plain looking, others are with darker streaks of green, yummy creamy pink undertones, reddish brown, purplish spots and tinge, ....or simple plain white like this Helleborus Niger or Christmas rose below. In my garden, this white one is the first one to appear ahead of the other cultivars. This white is the most common one here. Sometimes during mild winter, they started blooming around Christmas or around that time. Unlike many flowers with true petals, the hellebore flowers are actually made of 5 sepals which do not fall off . They turn green and stay on the plant, holding on to the seeds pods and remain very decorative for months.

These are very short plants, a little over 12 inches tall, making it a perfect ground cover plants. The blooms faces outward with a tendency to nod as if very shy. I found them most suitable and effective for my upper slope garden as I could see the face of the nodding flowers by looking up from the patio without having to get down on my hands and knees to enjoy their beauty.

Harbinger of Spring - It's Electrifying!!

When weatherman said sleet over the weekend, I was disappointed. Wet soggy spring snow are very heavy and will definitly foul up lots of those lovely harbingers that are low growing plants.

Lo and behold!

Weather gods decided to send spring snow to other parts of the country.

Isn't that a tiny bit of blessing to be joyous about?

I'm certainly counting my blessings.

Though a bit cold, 1° celcius, partial cloudy and the wind chill factor made it even colder, I can't stay curled up late. The dog must go out, and its always urgent in the morning.

I tried to catch the light whenever the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, and took pictures of this lovely furry Pulsatilla. Long time ago, this flowering plant was called Anemone Pulsatilla, but now the taxonomist decided it should be called Pulsatilla Vulgaris. Don't know what made them change the name, but I think I like the old name much better.

After 30 minutes not moving much behind the camera, and waiting for the wind to kind of calm down a bit, my fingers turned numbed and I can't feel the camera button, ran into the house, put my hands in the toasty warm oven gloves and try to sip a warm ovomaltine while sifting through the pictures.

The wind was also extremely dry with charged atoms, that static electricity built up in my body similar to during the time in the depth of winter when the air in the house used to be very dry. Actually, I really shouldn't be complaining even though my hair is standing on its end. Pulsatilla Vulgaris Papageno having its hair standing on end.

Everything I touched became an electrifying experience. The dog jumped nervously when I tried to fix his leash. The camera goes a bit haywire when I switched it on. A simple pecking kiss to my husband and we both were electrified.



When the clouds moved away, and the sun shine brightly....
.......there, you can see my smiles are reflected right here in that fully opened flowers.

Ooinunofuguri - Dog's Scrotum Major

Few days after I published Seeing Heaven in Wild Flowers http://rosesarerae.blogspot.com/2009/03/seeing-heaven-in-wild-flowers.html

Maki wrote me an e-mail;

"Hi Rae,
That tiny blue flower is flowering in my garden too. In Japan, it is called Ooinunofuguri.
It means dog's scrotum major !! haha. I've no idea who gave such strange name to this cute weed or why??"

Thank you for sharing this with me Maki. What a name! I burst into long train of giggles when I read your lines.....was a good mail to start the day. The people who gave this plant such a name like this, surely have got a good sense of humour.

When I think again about it, that name actually fits well to the tough surviving qualities of this plant. They really can take all kinds of abuse. This is the kind of weed which will not shrivelled and die from heavy foot traffic and don’t even burn and turn brown when dogs peed on them.

Luckily it is a low ground hugging weed and not invasive bushy type, or otherwise would be a nightmare to get rid off from cultivated areas of the garden.

If that blue weed wild flower belonged to the dog, here's another one blooming at this time of year in the garden, commonly known as Dog’s tooth or Erythronium Revolutum





There are many varieties of Dog's tooth and this one is called White Beauty.
Now I wonder if there are other wild flowers called dog’s droppings, which I’ve yet to discover…..