Spring Recap Part II

Yay! I found my camera.  This made me very happy.  I also realized that there were a lot of early spring flowers on it that I didn't get to share.  So before we move onto other things you get to see more of what my Mother's garden was like a little while ago.

These first few bulbs are all more rescues from my Grandpa's garden.

Grape Hyacinth

 These guys were kind of funny.  I think they might be a more wild type.  They were much larger with heavier foliage than I'm used to seeing grape hyacinths with.

Peach Daffodils, one of my favorites

More Daffodils

Shhh.  Don't tell anyone, but I think daffodils, or 'Narcissus', were named after my Dad.  Well, at least his personality ;)

Pink Tulips

Top view!

These were quit the surprise!  I found that was half the fun of saving all of these bulbs from my Grandfather's garden.  We had no idea what we would be getting.  I don't think these are something either my mom or I would have picked out but we both absolutely loved them.  They were giant!  Especially compared to the little yellow ones. (remember?  midget tulip?  No?  Go look at the previous post then.)

Rock Cress

Love!  Another favorite.  It's sooo much happier this year.  My mom and I went through the trouble of removing the weed barrier that Dad had put in years ago with such good intentions.  That's whole different post though.  Suffice it to say, the rock cress has been as thrilled to have it gone as us.

A Hybrid Tulip of some kind

Sorry for the poor focus on that shot.

Mountain Alyssum
 

Red and White Snap Dragons

Every year we have snap dragons come up everywhere from seed in all kinds of different colors. It's a fun way to see genetic recomposition in action.  We have blooms that we never planted, or I've ever seen in the stores.  They love to grow up between cracks and between rocks in particular.

But I won't ramble here.  I could easily make a post about the snap dragons in the garden alone.  I'll rant then :)

Tiger Lily

 You know what?  It's nice growing up, having a job, and having money to spend.  Being able to buy this lily and plant it for my mom as an early Mother's day present might have made me even more happy than her!  And she was really happy about it.

Garden Gnomes

And last but not least, garden gnomes!  No, not the creepy plastic ones.  These cute little guys make fabulous ground cover and seem to do really well in our dry climate.  They're another one that we never have to plant because we always get tons of them from seed.

I have to confess.  I have a love hate relationship with the gnomes.  Why you ask?  Because they consort with the enemy!  They hide nasty baby weeds beneath them and say "nothing to see here but us!"  So I don't see them, and don't get to pull them out when it's easy.  Guess the garden gnomes think I should wait until those weeds grow up a bit and pick on some one my own size.  Also, they're learning bad habits from their weeds friends.  The june grass has taught them how to take over beds and even choke out other flowers!  Because their so cute though, I have a really hard time pulling them out.

And that's it for this year's early bloomers.  Admittedly some of these guys bloom all summer, like the gnomes.  But I wanted to share them anyways since they open up so early in the year.

Spring Recap Part I

Oh dear lord.  It's already May.  How did this happen?  It seems like only a week or so ago I was enjoying the first spring blooms and buds, but now things are a riot of color and our earliest bloomers are going to seed.

Originally this post was going to be a day early Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  But then I realized that I've lost my camera, which has all the pictures of what's going on right now.  The only stuff on my computer is from earlier this year.  I really missed out sharing this stuff earlier.  So, I'll share it now!  And, provided that I find my camera today, you'll get the official Bloom Day post tomorrow.  Two posts in a row would be a good way to get things moving after months of nothing right?

But enough chit-chat.  On to the pretty pictures!

Violets in the lawn

 My mom and I are both drawn to the purple flowers.  There's a lot of yellow, pinks, blues, and reds that show up later in the year.  But when flowers first start blooming in her yard it's pretty much just purple with a little bit of yellow.

So proud of this photo

Pasque!  Our first bloomer every year.  This fabulous fuzzy purple plant has gladly taken over the north end of our 'island'.  Be prepared for more pictures of these guys later.  They're actually going to seed right now, but I spent weeks dead heading hundreds upon hundreds of blooms (one day last year I counted. 400 some odd faded flowers I removed, and that was only one day of many!) to keep them going as long as possible.  You would think dead heading that many flowers would be a chore but it really isn't.  It's by far one of my favorite spring activities.  It definitely helps that they are so soft!  Seriously, when they get warm from the sun they feel like a living critter.

Pretty pink primrose

Another spring favorite.  Because the primroses have been doing so well my mom and I went and bought a ton more this year.  This pretty pink one is my favorite and was the first one to open up.  Mom got it to cheer me up last year when I struggling with depression.  Pictures of all the new guys will be coming ;)

 The bleeding heart was a new introduction to our garden this year.  And he is just so pretty surrounded by the pasque.  He seems to like his new home.  He's still blooming!

Pasque, bleeding hearts, and those fuzzy things in the background are my neighbors daffodils :D

Yellow tulip

I can't look at this little guy without laughing.  These yellow tulips are rescues from my deceased Grandfather's garden.  We have no idea if they are blooming so close to the ground because of trauma from being moved, or if he remembers not being able to bloom for years because of getting mowed down by deer, and is therefore afraid to go any higher.

Mountain cress (i think)

 Another plant inherited from a grandparent's garden.  This one came years ago from my Grandmother's garden.  My mom adores it.  I think it's pretty too.  This is admittedly, not the best picture of it.  *grumbles* stupid missing camera

English daisy

And another new comer!  It's cute!

Alright.  I'm off to find my camera.  But wait!  I'm curious, what are your favorite early bloomers?  And is your garden dominated by one end of the color spectrum, or is it a rainbow?  Does is shift from cool colors to warm along with the season?  And one more question.  Does anyone want pasque seeds?  If you do just ask!  It's time for me to collect seeds and there are just so many of them.  I'm already sharing with family and neighbors but there's plenty to go around.