Narcissus ‘Art Design’
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Springtime in Virginia is simply fabulous. So fabulous, that garden clubs all over the Commonwealth open public and private gardens to celebrate Historic Garden Week while our dogwoods, azaleas, daffodils, tulips and redbuds burst into bloom.
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Newly opened leaves blur in a haze of color around the crowns of tall trees and the stately boxwood, a fixture in so many historic and public gardens, glow with new, green growth. It is a sight worth celebrating.
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Our garden on Wednesday morning
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We are celebrating April in our own Forest Garden as dogwoods and azaleas bloom and the landscape wakes up for the new season. Our Iris have produced scapes covered with buds, seemingly overnight. Leaves emerge from bare branches. Perennials keep breaking ground with new growth, reminding us that they, too, survived the winter.
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Brunnera
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Historic Garden Week traditionally falls the week after Easter, here in Virginia. With a late Easter this year, Garden Week gets an especially late start. Combined with an early spring, gardening friends and I have been wondering what may still be in bloom by then to entice visitors. Surely there will still be Iris, and probably Rhododendron. But tulips, dogwoods and azaleas are coming into their prime, at least in coastal Virginia, right now.
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Tulips and daffodils blooming in a public garden in Gloucester Courthouse for their Daffodil Festival last weekend.
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One of the strangest sights to celebrate this Fabulous Friday is our blooming rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum. Rhubarb is best known as a tasty filling in spring in pies. Its long petioles are stewed with sugar and spices to make a tart seasonal treat. But I’ve noticed Rheum used as an ornamental, especially in Pacific Northwest gardens. I decided to give it a try in our garden, especially since its poisonous leaves leave it impervious to grazing.
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Rhubarb in bloom
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This is the second year for this plant, which I grew in a pot last summer and planted into the garden in September. I’ve enjoyed watching its progress, but was amazed to see flower buds emerge a few weeks ago. I’ve never before watched rhubarb bloom, and thought you might enjoy its unusual flowers, too.
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We are still enjoying daffodils as the late season varieties continue to open. These hybrids all carry interesting names, and I keep my Brent and Becky’s Bulbs catalog handy to look them up and try to remember them. Handily, we received the new fall catalog in the mail last week, so we can begin penciling in a fall order, while this year’s crop still fills the garden.
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Every tree and shrub in our garden dances in the wind as a cold front blows through today. Often, a particularly strong gust carries flower petals as it blows spring flowers from the greening trees. We expect temperatures back into the 30s tonight, and a much cooler day tomorrow.
We find ourselves ‘dancing’ back and forth, too, as we move pots and baskets in and out of the garage with the fluctuating weather. We keep telling ourselves it’s good exercise, but I will be quite happy when we can finally leave everything out in its summer spot.
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Aralia spinosa, a native volunteer in our garden, looks rather tropical as its first leaves emerge this week.
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But even if we weren’t carrying our pots back and forth, we would still find excuses to head back out into the garden. We eavesdrop on avian conversations as they happily build their nests and find their mates. They are as energized as we feel with the warmth of spring and the fresh opportunities it brings.
We watched lizards skitter across our back porch for the first time on Wednesday, a sure sign of the garden’s awakening. Butterflies dance with one another in mid-air before floating off for another sip of nectar. It is good to live in Virginia in the springtime, when it seems the whole world is in bloom.
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Woodland Gnome 2017
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I’ve set an intention to find some wonderful, beautiful, and happiness inducing thing to photograph each Friday. If you’re moved to find something Fabulous to share on Fridays as well, please tag your post “Fabulous Friday” and link your post back to mine.
Happiness is contagious! Let’s infect one another!
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Dogwood, our state flower
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Forest Garden 