Recently in Garden Category

The kousa dogwood's flowers look especially creamy and parchment-like this year.



Ice plant and artemisia:


Helianthemum:


Honeywort (bluish green) looks great with this yellow-green euphorbia (but looked more vibrant last week):


Oxalis (clover):

I spotted an unusual and beautiful bird in the yard the other day and watched while it explored the fountain rim, the flowerbed, the patio, the wheelbarrow, and another flowerbed, then flew up into a big shrub. When I found it in the bird book, it turned out I'd seen it before. I'd made notations in the book of seeing it six and seven years ago almost to the day. It's a mid-to-late-April yardbird. The yellow-rumped (Audubon's) warbler. (Cornell Ornithology Lab photo) Today I was weeding and heard a woodpecker's drilling sound. I often see flickers but they seem to go tap-tap-tap instead of really drilling like other woodpeckers. I followed the sound and saw a downy woodpecker going at the top of the utility pole next door. I think it was a female because I didn't see the red patch on the head. (Wikipedia photo)

Two of my favorite spring blooms are here. If only they lasted all summer!

I've read that after a grove of bamboo flowers, it dies. I discovered today that our "grove" (small clump) of Blue Fountain bamboo is flowering. And it does look like it's dying. The green leaves in the picture are on a different bamboo right next to it, arrow bamboo.


The Indianapolis Zoo has a short article about their blue fountain bamboo:

"In the space of just a few years, every specimen of blue fountain bamboo will flower and most likely die. This is the first time this species has flowered since seed was brought from China to Europe in about 1886.

"Bamboo is known to exhibit gregarious flowering. All individuals of a species flower at about the same time. Reports of flowering of blue fountain bamboo began several years ago and are likely to continue for several more years. Individual plants flower for several months, perhaps even for a second year.

"Based on the history of this plant - seed was sent to Europe about 1886, flowering began in the 1990s - we can expect blue fountain bamboo to flower next in about 2100."

We've seen the green-backed Anna's hummingbird at our feeder all last summer and all this winter, but this morning I was out there and saw a rufous for the first time. The linked article says their wings make a buzzy sound, which I heard. It was intermittent like a cricket, but it stopped when he sat in the tree above the feeder. The article also says they're territorial and very aggressive, so maybe there's a battle in the offing. This Wikipedia article has some really good pictures.

I completed the "first draft" of my fountain a couple of weeks ago.


I rescued (transplanted) a tall, gangly viburnum 'Dawn' from the top of the back slope where it was hidden by a ceanothus (Calif. lilac) that had grown much faster. I put the viburnum in the other end of this little flowerbed where the fountain is. I need to get a picture of it. It's about eight feet tall and was quite a wrestling match to dig up and carry down to its new spot, but it looks happy there already. It needed staking because it's so tall.

I have tried two trees in this same bed. The first one, a redbud, turned yellow and died. The second one, a Japanese stewartia, struggled (possibly too much sun and not enough water) and now I've moved it to a new spot to see if it can recover with less direct beating sun--or whether it's dead. The viburnum 'Dawn,' though, I've had great luck with. I have four in various good and bad locations, and the only difference water and sun seem to make is in how fast they grow. This is my favorite plant of all time.