I saw this picture on the internet:  Monarch butterflies in Mexico.  I love the picture, but what really caught my attention was the note beside it.  I can't document this, but it is a lovely thought:  

 

The collective noun for a group of butterflies is "a kaleidoscope."  I hope it's true, cause that just makes me smile.

 

I hope it made you smile too.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Usually when I report on Clematis blooming, I show you Roxanne's fairyland garden.  Well, this time I'm showing you our Clematis.  
 

I didn't save the nursery tag, so I don't know its species name, but the genus name is Clematis.  This species is a deciduous vine.  It requires support, so that it doesn't take over the front yard.  Although, that  would be kinda pretty.  We planted it about 15 years ago, and got lucky.  It blooms every year like this!!!

 

I heard a long time ago that Clematis likes its head in the sun and its feet in the shade.  Sounds difficult to do, but we planted it under the deck, and trained it up the post.  It faces south, so it is happy.  
 

I am too!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!
 

 

Wild roses are blooming just as you turn onto Beaconhill Drive.  There are others in the neighborhood too:  way down on Stonebriar and on FiveForks Drive.  We usually smell them before we get to them and can see them.  
 

Wild roses and blackberries look very much alike.  Blackberries have long, arching branches, and the flowers are not so tightly packed.  The roses are denser, both their flowers and leaves.  
 

Be sure to look for them when you're out for a walk or drive.  Remember to notice their smell too, they're lovely.  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

We got a bit excited with all this warm weather, and planted our peppers and eggplants last week.  We know better.  But we did it anyway.

 

Our cold hardiness zone is between 6 and 7 and our last frost date is actually May 15th.  When we heard the forecast for this week, we had to do something to protect those tender plants from cold damage.  The kale, spinach, and lettuces don't mind 40 degrees, but tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants want to be warm.
 

Fortunately we haven't planted our tomatoes yet, so we still have all the 2 liter bottles that we use to deep-water the tomatoes.  We put bamboo stakes beside each plant and dropped the big bottles down over each one letting the stake come through the small hole at the top.  
 

IT WORKED!!!!  All our plants did fine!  We take them off during the day when it's warm, and put them back on at night to protect them from the cold.

The last cold snap before planting season is called "blackberry winter" around here.  Look around and you can see that the wild blackberries everywhere are blooming, hence the name.  

Maybe, next year I will be patient and wait until after blackberry winter to plant the warm season crops.  I don't mind planting them once, but I really don't want to have to plant them twice.  Maybe I'll wait til May 15th.  Then again, since we now have a garden hack, maybe we'll risk it.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

This is a White Fringe Tree, Chionanthus virginicus.  We saw it last week in Meeks Park.  It was still blooming this week.  
 

It is a shrub or small tree, growing 8 to 18 feet, and kinda spindly.  The white flowers hang in drooping clusters, May-June, and the petals are very slender;  "thready" is a good word to describe the flowers.  We've seen these small trees used in highway plantings, in mall parking lots, and I think there's one at the Methodist Church in Blairsville.  I really love seeing them in the wild, though.  It makes me think they are native trees.  I better look that up, not sure.

 

Wow, when I started looking around in my other books, I found this:  Chionanthus is native to the Southeastern US, but is so pretty that it is cultivated to grow outside its natural range.  I also found that it can grow to 35 feet!  
 

And one other thing I forgot to mention:  the flowers are FRAGRANT.  Such a lovely tree.  Be on the lookout in your travels, or go take a walk in Meeks park.  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I am so glad our neighbors on Five Forks Drive planted Korean dogwood in their yard.  It is blooming now, and is magnificent!

 

As you are driving into the neighborhood, once you pass the first village of houses, you make the big curve to the left.  First house on the left has several Korean dogwoods planted there.  They are mature and blooming right now.  

Korean dogwood, Cornus kousa, looks quite different from the Flowering dogwood, Cornus florida.   Kousa's bracts are pointed, and florida's bracts are rounded.  Another striking difference is the kousa blooms after the leaves emerge in spring, florida blooms before the leaves are out.  I love them both.  

 

 

Have you noticed that lovely scent in the air as you drive up Five Forks Drive?  It is the Black Locust trees blooming.  

Look up and you can see clusters of white pea-like flowers.  

 

Robinia pseudo-acacia, another botanical name I remember from Horticulture school. Black Locust, commonly.

 

Some people see the trees as great big weeds, because new trees grow up right from the roots, creating forests

of thorny, tough wood trees.  But they have big value.  They are so tough they are used for fence posts, because the wood

is strong, and holds up in the soil.  And they perfume the air this time of year.  
 

Thought you'd like to know what to call that beautiful smell:  Black Locust in bloom.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!
 

 

 

 

 

If you haven't been on the trail lately, you are missing the Flame azaleas in bloom.  They are bright orange and beautiful!  You can also see them along the roads and highways.  They are the only ones blooming orange right now.  Actually the flowers range in color from yellow through red, but mostly orange.

 

Azaleas are in the genus Rhododendron.  Most garden azaleas are evergreen, but Flame azaleas are deciduous shrubs that bloom May - June.  They bloom just as the leaves are coming out in early spring.  So look around, you're bound to see them.  Especially now.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Well, since this all started, I've made over 100 masks.  When I ran out of elastic, I used sturdy yarn for the ear parts, then ties made of fabric.  
 

Most of them went to Union General Hospital.  Our friend Dan Simpson works in one of the labs there, and delivered the masks to his coworkers.  I've sent them to my sisters and friends in Virginia, to friends in Florida and Raleigh, NC.  And we wear ours every time we go shopping.  
 

Lately I've heard that we can increase the effectiveness by covering our masks with nylon stockings.  Just cut an 8 inch section of queen size panty hose, slide the tube over your head down to your neck, then pull it up over the mask.  They said it makes a very big difference in how tight the mask fits to your face keeping out the particles of germs that are making people sick;  plus, the nylon adds an extra layer of filtration.
 

I must say it gets easier each time, but I still feel like a bandit.  Oh well, we all do what we have to, to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy.  Let me know if you need a mask.  I'm happy to help if I can.  
 

 STAY SAFE!!!

 

My girlfriend in Virginia sent me this gorgeous picture of her gorgeous Mountain Laurels blooming.  As you can see, they are in their element:  under tall trees, part sun/part shade.  And apparently the deer don't eat them.  They have as many deer as we do.  
 

OK. Mountain Laurel, Kalmia latifolia.  Don't laugh, but I remember that name from Horticulture school, c.1973.  Hahaha!  According to one of my field guides, they grow 3 - 15 feet high, and bloom mid-May into July.   But I'm guessing these are close to 20 feet tall and are blooming NOW!  
 

FYI. This is just one glimpse into her backyard.  It is FULL of Mountain Laurel.  Thanks, Linda, for sharing with all of us.  These are beautiful.  Ours will be blooming soon.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!