February Bloom Day 2013-It Begins

Here we go…

The blooming has begun for real. No more flowers playing hide and seek with the gardening photographer trying to find something to share for Bloom Day.

In case you don’t know, Bloom Day, officially known as Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day was invented by sweet Carol of May Dreams Gardens on February 15, 2007. Click here to see that first post inviting one and all to share from their own gardens on the fifteenth of each month.

Bloom Day is the reason that I jumped into the blogdom myself on December 7, 2007. Not a single month has gone by since then that there was not a post for Bloom Day. Sometimes they were late, sometimes early, but always there was participation.

There was a digital camera, check. There were photos of the garden going back to fall of 2002, arranged by month, check. I still archive them using that system, in fact.

But enough ancient history, there are flowers blooming here right now!

There are bulbs, the earliest crocus and daffodils. There are heaths, Erica ssp. and primroses.

There are hellebores of various pinks and whites and one darker Helleborus orientalis ‘Blue Lady’.

There are fragrant shrubs like Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’, click here for an in depth story, and Edgeworthia chrysantha, click here for more about this one. With scent that strongly suggest honey, the Edgeworthia is now in a new position in the garden, the better to smell you, my dear.

Formerly located in the prime real estate of the yellow/white garden was the witch hazel Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’. I say was because part of Arnold, the root stock has taken over his persona, leaving but one stem of yellow curly petals, and even that branch looks diseased. But happily, it seems that Arnold has reverted to become the native Hamamelis vernalis. The above photo displays both old Arnold and new vernalis sporting the tall, straight stems and smaller apricot flowers. H. vernalis grows to become a larger tree than the design of the white/yellow garden would allow, so the executive decision was made to dig up Arnold and trade places with the lower Edgeworthia, one of two growing under the tall pine trees. It was a big job for me to do all of that digging, but January was the perfect time for such a task. The soil was soft and moist and both shrubs would have the best chance for survival with plentiful rains in the forecast.

That move leaves dear Diane, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ without a boyfriend. It was hoped there might be some sort of cross pollination between Arnold and Diane, but she is now a single lady, once again, and appears to be loving life and living it to the fullest.

Frances

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~ by fairegarden on February 15, 2013.