What a Difference a Day Makes!

Ocean City, Maryland - March 26, 2011

Ocean City, Maryland - March 27, 2011

Here ... and There

We've spent the past couple of days with this as the view out our windows:


Gorgeous water, rolling breakers, and sand as far as the eye can see. At night - when sleep has been elusive - I've lain awake listening the the roll and crash of the waves and watched the moon rising over the ocean. A wonderful place to be ... if you happen to like 42 degrees! Yet another one of those things that nice to look at, but not to touch - at least not this weekend.


On Thursday, things had slowed down in the garden with the arrival of that mass of cold air that the rest of the East Coast bloggers have been talking about. That's ok with me because I don't really want Rose Marie's first born to bloom until I get home to watch. Am hoping the colder air and lack of bright sun will cause it to wait until Monday for me.













By then, I hope the harbingers will turn into the real thing!

So Much to Do - So Little Time!

This has been a wonderful week in the garden - lots of work and lots of satisfaction.

All the spring bulbs are blooming, as well as my mystery plant. The camellia is dropping its blooms now as the end of its season is coming, but it is still pretty. The flowering fruit trees are all in full glory and the flowering almond is finally open. Everywhere I look perennials are poking their first leaves up.

And, I? I am still cutting back last fall's debris and raking leaves and winter trash off the beds. But it gets me up close and personal with what's going on. Like the lily pond. It's already putting up new leaves.

I need to drain it, scrub the liner and cut off all the old [very nasty old] leaves but it has started its year without waiting for me. The fish pond is larger and more shady, so it will be weeks before its lilies start to grow, but obviously the water in this one has warmed up enough - and gets enough daily sun - to kick start the process.

One huge clean-up task that I have taken on this spring is digging out several large areas of mondo grass. I love mondo grass and have used it a lot to make the edges of beds, but it can become a bully. In these areas it was once the front edge, but as the beds have expanded, it has become an island in the middle where I would prefer more flowers. So, I have been digging, and digging. One area is completely done, but the other will have to wait a bit longer. I have several packages of annual flower seeds that will go in here in the next couple of weeks.

A bit of sun helps this picture, too!

The current excitement in the garden is that Rose Marie is pregnant. That would be magnolia 'Rose Marie'. The odd looking "leaf" that I have been watching for weeks has started to open, and it's so not a leaf. Actually, there are two of them and currently they appear to be about a week apart in maturity. We planted this tree about three years ago as a stick. It's still not much more than a stick altho it has grown to nearly four feet tall and has added tiny little branches. It will be years before she is full grown, but I am thrilled that she is going to give us some blooms this year.


And, then there's my mystery plant. It bloomed spontaneously the first year we lived here (new house on undeveloped lot, so not from a prior owner) and has come back every spring. It comes up and immediately blooms, often I notice the flowers before I see that the leaves are up. It's a glossy green with almost heart-shaped leaves. The flowers are a deep yellow with very distinct leaves. It is either a perennial or a self-sewing weed, but it appears to spread by rhizomes, so I am hoping the former.

Anyone recognize it?

Blue Mystique

Walking thru the grocery store tonight I came upon this:

A blue phalaenopis orchid. In fact an entire table of them - probably 50 - at the very low price of $29.99 each. "WTF", I say to myself.

Then, I do something I had never done before. I pull out my phone and take photos and email them to myself.

[I know. The rest of you do this on a daily basis, but I still have trouble remembering which button to press to answer when it rings.]

You know how it is - even if you are not a big gardener or flower person. Blue is the holy grail of flower color. Hybridizers all over the world are working to breed a true blue orchid - but this ain't it.

Remember 4th grade when Miss Wells put green food coloring in the water of the carnations? That's what this looks like. Apparently it's not how it's really done, but it is "done". The developers say that they are created, but not exactly dyed.

There is variety in the saturation of the color, so they do vary a good bit. I rather liked this one that was more pale, but there were some that were so blue that they looked spray-painted. (Think purple poinsettias!)

Apparently they are very popular. I found them priced on the Internet for $80, while these were much less.

So , what do you think? Does it match the wallpaper in your guest bathroom? Would you buy one?


I wonder if Miss Wells did the green carnation thing for St. Patrick's Day? Maybe she wasn't as old as we all thought....