Some Modest Tulips

The show of tulips was underwhelming this year. It made me lose hope in tulips, really. Perhaps I just need to dig out the old ones and install some new ones this fall, with a good helping of bulb fertilizer thrown in. Most (non-naturalizing) tulips get smaller and more pathetic after three years, so maybe now is their time to go. It was especially disappointing after not one single daffodil appeared this spring. Oh well. I've had a narcissus skip two years and appear the third, so I won't lose hope on the daffodils.

I like the tiny blue forget-me-nots which have self-seeded themselves around the bases of the tulips. I planted those in the fall of 2008 and am happy that they produced some future generations (they are biennial). In the absence of tulips, what else could provide me with great spring colors? Maybe more Aquilegia? Mine aren't blooming yet, but I think they will soon.

Here's a very hardy clematis, as its survival over this past winter proves:
Clematis macropetala -- a spring bloomer:

My friend Barbara gave me some of her Cypripedium parviflorum (Yellow lady's slipper) orchid this spring. She had "liberated" it from a ditch outside of town where machinery was bulldozing the native landscape to make way for new power lines a few years ago. I am enjoying the yellow flowers, though I am not quite happy with this photo. I have become a bit more of a photography critic now that I am learning the finer points with my new Nikon SLR. I wish I had a greater depth of field in this shot.

However, the no-see-ums were chewing away at my head and hands and the need for escape took priority over photographic perfection at one point. There was no way I was going to fiddle around getting the tripod positioned and all that stuff. I'd have been chewed up and carried away. I hate the bugs. Can you tell?

Tiny Little Flowers

There was some light rain today, but not enough to keep us indoors. I ran out with the camera to capture three diminutive flowers blooming in the perennial bed along the driveway. All of these are growing in part-shade, under the mountain ash tree.

Firstly, I have been encouraging the painfully slow growth of this pink-flowered lily of the valley. Yes, I know. It is ridiculous that I keep its territory free of weeds and speak kind and encouraging words to this plant, which is widely known as invasive in many gardens. It has been in this location for three years now and I'm hoping for more exciting flower shows than this:
Convallaria rosea:


This tiny Primula frondosa plant could easily fit in the palm of your hand. It came from my friend Barbara, who fawns over primulas like darling children. This flower is rather cute:


From the same friend, I got this little Aquilegia glandulosa last year. Even with the flowers, the whole plant is less than 6 inches tall.

The other dwarf Aquilegia (Black Currant Ice) in this bed seemed to have died over winter. Speaking of which, it seems the bleeding hearts, hostas, Digitalis grandiflora, and sandcherries are also dead. I planted some perennial seeds under lights in the basement today, realizing that I'm going to need to fill a lot of empty spaces this year.

Blackfly, the Little Blackfly...

The surviving flowers are doing their best to grown and bloom in our warm weather these past few days.
Some "Blue Diamond" double late tulips which have reached the end of their term in my garden, having miniaturized in their third blooming season:

I spent nearly all of yesterday sweating and grunting as I pried the dead shrubs and perennials out of the ground. Among the dead were the Alchemilla (lady's mantle), Penstemon ovatus, the daylilies, blue oat grass and blue fescue, Aruncus dioicus (goat's beard), lupines, spirea shrubs, Liatris spicata, Chelone (turtlehead), Pulmonaria, Brunnera, Heuchera (coral bells), Dianthus deltoides (pinks), Stachys byzantina (lamb's ears), possibly the Echinacea, and probably some others I have forgotten. As a further insult, the blackflies chewed away at my left ear as I toiled and now I have a painful and puffy red ear to remind me of why I want to move to southern BC. In, the back of my mind was the national film board video about the pesky blackfly (albeit, in northern Ontario). I think any 20+ year old Canadian is familiar with this oh-so-relevant tune from the NFB.

Here is a plant that was undeterred by winter, Saxifraga arendsii "Purple Robe":

I only noticed after I took the picture that there are some horsetail weeds growing in the foreground. Oops.
Also doing well is the Erigeron compositus, which I started from seed two years ago:

I'll bet this plant is called a weed in someone else's garden, but I find it cute and pretty and am presently enjoying it in mine.