Patience....

 "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience..."
                                                                            -Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Patience. The greenhouse is full of flats.Patiently waiting to be planted.

 Clematis pods  exploding. Waiting for the blooms.

  Peace flower  unfolds, day after day. 

 Bleeding heart droops in the air.

 Patience. Spencer-the neighbour's-cat, sits on the fence . Tail twitching.

 A tray of broken marigolds. At half price. Seem to miraculously mend themselves in their flat. Patiently hoping they won't get squashed again.

While the Smoke Bush puffs away on pollen.

 "Wait. Be patient. The storms will pass. Spring will come..."
                                                                   -Robert Schuller

 Cordelia-from-the-hill shows like a frothy ghost against the plum tree.

 Blossoms  fall. Consistently.

 Light changes. Sun moves from here to there and back again.

 Centaurea. Waits to bloom. Pops out of the compost. Like some sort of horror flick. Only there's no horror. 

 "Patience is not simply the ability to wait, it's how we behave while we're waiting..." -Joyce Meyer

 Cobra ferns twist and turn. Waiting for the weather to change. For rains to come.

 And so  skies change. And everything waits . Waits for the next day. And the next.

 And Spencer.Who has a great deal of patience.... snoozes on the porch. In the Dusk. 

                "Have patience with all things......" -St. Francis de Sales

              (Smokey (Spencer's brother)  from 2017. Sleeping in what was his favourite spot)
Photos 2018

A few More Native Plant Ideas....

                   "Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do."   (Michel E. de Montaigne 1533-1592 philosopher)

(Rhodochiton)

 I've been pottering about in the greenhouse. My favourite place  this time of year.  Even planted an Heriloom tomatoe or two.  I tend to  fill the greenhouse with flowers, tomatoes, plants, ready to  pop into pots. Kind of their holding pen, till the weather gets warmer... I  watch the Rhodochiton, newly planted in its  hanging basket. And try to include  some  native plants here and there.
                     

 This year I'm hoping to have some of the native plants to fill up spaces.  So many gardens have new and improved varieties of flowers. And we tend to forget  the native ones.

(Sun loving imptiens)

 Some of the native plants you might include would  be  Broad leaved Stonecrop. A ground cover for hot and sunny rock gardens. Bees and  hummingbirds love them.

 SWORD FERN is very hardy and loves partial shade.  You could also plant it with Deer Fern and Licorice Fern. I think have all three in the top terrace. They come back every year. Huge.  Beautiful. Great backdrops for everything else.

 The Pasque Flower is actually a native prairie flower. There is a legend surrounding the Pasque Anenome. It's about peace and wisdom . You can read about  it in the story "Old Man's Garden" by Annora Brown. It's absolutely lovely. Suffice it to say, the crocus was granted three wishes, to be purple like the mountains, yellow like the sun, and a warm coat. No wonder it is so beautiful...

(Pasque Flower)

 Along with the Pasque flower  it would be good to plant Red Flowering Currant. Hummingbirds go crazy for the blooms and other birds steal the berries in the fall. I have it growing wild over the fence, mingled with the grape vines.

 False Lily of the Valley is a ground cover with small perfumy flowerets. Berries go green in winter.  Great planted with ferns and bleeding heart in the shade, and Lungwort alongside.

 On an aside: My lone Turtle dove, is actually not alone I have discovered. The pair are taking turns, since they're nesting. I thought the mate had disappeared, but actually saw them together, yesterday. One is always trying to plop into the seed pan. Shy things.

 Tall Oregon Grape is drought tolerant, and a great perennial, good as a short hedge. The berries are blue and the birds love them as well.

 Nodding Onion is one I haven't  had in this garden before. But  it is very tough, likes poor soils, wind, drought, sandy exposures. Again it lures the bees and butterflies all summer long.

(Centaurea montana left)

 Another one I would include, that I have been allowing to seed  in profusion, is
Centaurea montana...or Bachelor's button, is it's common name. An incredible  blue-thistle like flower. I have them growing all along the left side of the hill fence. They last a very long time and the bees can't keep away.

 The Centaurea isn't in bloom, just quite yet, but the  green bushy leaves are thick and full already.

(Alchemilla)

 Another good ground cover, a native plant in Europe is the Alchemilla or Lady's Mantle. I include it because tough and  tolerant of most anything. The flowering stems come out frothy and make for great bouquet additions.  It grows almost anywhere. In fact, it IS already everywhere.  Drives the butterflies crazy.

 Wooly Sunflower pulls in the bees and butterflies like all the others. Bright yellow , really intense yellow, that  lasts all summer.  Likes light soils, and is great in rock gardens and borders.

 Another aside: Ahhhh, the turtledove is having a nap. .....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

(Pasque flower in all its glory)

 Another early blooming native plant is the Kinnikinnick, an evergreen cover that trails here and there. with red berries for birds. I have this  covering the rock wall all thru the terraces.  Also makes for good cuttings for christmas wreathes , or arrangements ( but outdoors only). The berries are only for bird consumption.

(Golden Plum blossoms)

                        "And all the loveliest things there be come simply, so it seems to me. "   (Edna St. Millay, died 1950)
     
 Another perennial I want to include, native to Europe and western Asia, is the Lungwort, (Pulmonaria) A really little , spotty leaved thing that loves to grow  in dark shade, or partial shade, it doesn't seem too particular.Happy happy. It grows amongst the roses as well.

 Blooms earliest, along with the Pasque flower and bleeding hearts. The first harbingers of spring, when everything seems to stand up and  ask to be noticed.
                "To fill the hour....that is happiness."
                                                       (Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882)

SPRING FIRSTS.....

 "Why, who makes much of a miracle?As to me I know of nothing else but miracles...."    ( Walt Whitman 1819-1892).
      Mourning Doves. They've  been here all year. Now it seems like there is only one. But I think the mated pair are switching back and forth on their next, since they continually incubate their eggs.  One of them comes every day to sit and feed in the seed pan. The wings make a strange whistle- whistle sound as it takes off, and can fly up to 88km per hour.

( Brunnera macrophylla)  Siberian Bugloss shows new in mid to late spring. Once the flowerets disappear the silver streaked leaves remain. Most of the summer. They look beautiful with cut flowers in a vase.

 In 2012, the Bugloss was selected as  the perennial of the year by the Perennial Plant Association.

 Easy to grow. Never seems to have any blights or problems.  Likes partial sun, or full shade. Seems to do great no matter what.

 "Joy in the touch of the wind and the sunlight. Joy! With the vigorous earth I am one." ( Amy Lowell 1874-1925)

 And my favourite of all first spring perennials. The one that  just makes me feel spring:
  Pasque flower. Also  known as Wind flower, Prairie Crocus, or Easter Flower...

 It shows in early spring, which is why it got its name "Pasque" since it refers to the Easter Passover.   The Wind flower is the provincial flower of Manitoba, Canada, and the state flower of South Dakota.

 Pasque flower is highly toxic to humans, though the Native Americans have used it as a medicine for centuries. Not good as a cut flower. Best to leave it to grow wild in partial shade.

 "Every child should know a hill, and the clean joy of running down its long slope."    (Edna Casler Joll, poem from 1948)

 "Time has no flight, tis we who sped along. The days and nights are but the same as when the earth awoke with the first rush of song, and felt the swiftly passing feet of men. " 
                                 (Thomas S. Collier 1842-1893)

 "Give me beauty in the inward soul..." (Socrates  399 B.C.)

 "Life has loveliness to sell, all beautiful and splendid things...."                    (Sara Teasdale  1884-1933)

  Camellias bloomed for only the second time  since we've been living here. They're salmon  infused  petal poofs. Orginally from the Himalayas,there are  up to 300 types of Camellias.

 It's said that some cultures make tea out of the leaves.  Not sure if that is something I would want to try. Famous through Asia and  known as the "tea flower".   I'm just happy that half the bush bloomed. Maybe next year the other half will bloom.

 "We are living in a world of beauty but how few of us open our eyes to see it!" (Lorado Taft  1860-1936, sculptor)

 Bleeding Hearts in the garden, like faithful friends, they show up  every year. The pink cousin, to the white Dicentra, is pretty sturdy. 

 The white bleeding heart seems a little forlorn every year, but it shows up early alongside the Siberian bugloss. They seem to bolster each other.  Though I'm thinking I will have to get another white bleeding heart next year. Good in shade. Their heart shaped blossoms make really wonderful  pressed flowers.

 "My heart is a like a singing bird whose nest is in a watered shoot; My heart is like an apple tree whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit..." (C. G Rossetti 1830-1894)

 Hyacinth. Named by Homer. Bulbs of the Hyacinth are highly toxic, and if you handle them you should use gloves. To be honest one of my least favourite flowers , but it is pretty hardy .

 (Pulmonaria)  Lungwort...beautiful little flowering plant native to Europe and Asia. In times gone by,  witch doctors used the leaves to treat lung conditions, because they thought the leaves resembled diseased lungs. Hence the name lungwort. In Russian it is known as Medunitza, and in german Lungenkraut. Loves shade. The leaves are rather speckled and stay nice a long time.

 "In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are HIS gift to all alike."                                       (Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896)