Nancy's Trumpet Honeysuckle has started blooming.  You can see it from the road, just across from her little garden shed.  It has been growing there for more than ten years, and has gotten big and really pretty.  I just took a close up picture for you to see its beautiful details, but this plant is eight feet tall and has hundreds of blossoms.  Gorgeous.  

 

This honeysuckle is an evergreen vine, and it blooms from April-August.  The hummingbirds love the bright red trumpet flowers.  My Field Guide to Wildflowers says that its natural habitat is woods and thickets.  Not sure if I've ever seen this in the wild;  I'd probably faint if I ran across it growing in the woods, but maybe...

 

I'LL KEEP LOOKING!!!

 

The blackberries are blooming, and you know what that could mean:  Blackberry Winter.  Let's hope NOT!!!  Often this time of year, when the Dogwoods and Blackberries bloom, we get one last frost.  Unfortunately, we have all planted stuff in our gardens.  

 

It is so hard to wait until May 15; (that is our frost date) but we really should.  It's fun planting once, but twice?  Not so much!!!

 

FINGERS CROSSED!!!!  

 

Look!  I found a 4-leaf clover.  

 

Trifolium repens, or White Clover is in the Pea family, and I've read that it is native to Europe and central China, and has been widely introduced to be used as forage crops.  I think clover may be one of those plants that people hate, especially in their lawns.  Oh well, it's still one of my favorites.  

 

My friend, Mr. Bridges could be walking along at a normal pace and bend down and pick a four-leaf clover, just like that.  I have to go a little slower, but I love to look for them, and usually find some.

 

I did not pick this one; I left it for somebody else to find.  I'll check next week, and see if anybody did.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look at all that pollen!!!  We have a yellow car, so we don't see much on its surface, but all the horizontal surfaces in my house have a thin coat of yellow.  AAK!!!  We are so fortunate that we're not allergic to pollen.  I hope you are breathing well, and only inconvenienced by the extra chore of dusting.

I love this picture of the pine tree:  you can see where some of the pollen is produced, and you can see this year's new growth.  Look around and you will see that lots of the trees are blooming now, not just pretty flowers, but tons of catkins, and other pollen producers.  

 

HAPPY SPRING!!!

 

 

Get a load of the haybale.  It's growing weeds.  Somebody is going to have to mow it soon.  

 

Not me, I just decorate the front.  Can't wait til Patty and Bill come back.  We will transform it for late Spring.  Stayed tuned.  ;}

 

I promise, you'll love it!

 

HAPPY  GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

This is the Russian Red Kale blooming.  See what I mean about the little broccoli florets?  I just pinch them off and sauté them in butter, and voila, fresh vegetables for supper.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This is curly kale in the garden.  Pretty spectacular, isn't it?

 

I planted it last fall.  It needs two years to go to seed, so it has to survive the winter.  

 

Well, it did, and now it is blooming, then it will go to seed.  The leaves are still good to eat, and now the little blossom buds are like broccoli, so we eat them too.  Even the flowers are edible and tasty.  

 

I have already replanted kale for this year, but I'm not ready to take out last year's crop.  We can still get seeds.  

 

Four seasons of food for free.  Well, there is the work part, but.....

 

I LOVE MY GARDEN!!!  

 

The Dogwoods are blooming all over the woods.  You can see them all along the highways and in the neighborhood.  Some have been planted by people, some have planted themselves naturally.  All are beautiful!!!

 

Did you know that Dogwood, Cornus florida is the state flower of North Carolina and Virginia?  Yep.  We all love the Dogwoods.

 

Of course you also know how you can identify a dogwood, right?    By its bark.     Horticultural humor  ;P

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETSY!!!

 

More flowers for my birthday:  the Flame Azaleas are blooming!!!  So bright and pretty.

 

Flame Azaleas, or Rhododendron calendulaceum, are deciduous, native azaleas, and are blooming all around our neighborhood, and beyond.  You can see them on the Creekside trail, up on the hillsides, and all around.  They are easy to spot, even at 45 mph, because of their color:  from pale yellow to brilliant red-orange.  

 

Apparently they are available in nurseries, because I've read that they are extensively planted as ornamentals in the southern Appalachian mountains.

 

Or do like we do, and just enjoy them in their native habitat.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Today is my birthday, and I'm giving myself flowers.  Being a spring baby, I've always had flowers on my birthday.  When I was four, Momma wrote in my baby book:  Gerry said the apple tree boomed for her birthday.  Well, the apple trees are finished booming, but there are lots of other beautiful blooms around.  

 

This is our Wisteria from last year.  Isn't it gorgeous?

 

This year we didn't get any blooms.  It set flower buds in late March, but then we had that 20 degree morning, and POOF!!  Just like that, they all went away.  Anyway, the Wisteria is still growing leaves and climbing the trees;  just no flowers this year. 

 

NO problem, I went back into my pictures from last year, and found this pretty picture.  

 

My gift to me.  Thanks for sharing my birthday memories.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!