This past winter, it was a cold. Very cold. I don’t remember a winter that cold since I was a kid and the snow was over my head. It was the middle of this winter when I first decided to write a blog. Once I started researching blogs, though, I realized I didn’t really know what a blog was. Sure, I had heard of them, and I had a general idea of what they were, but until I started researching it, I had no idea.
After the long cold winter came the wet, wet spring. A great spring for growing lawn, for others things, not so good. The Mississippi River rose over its banks at record levels. Towns flooded from Minnesota to Louisiana. The Army Corp of Engineers sacrificed some homes to save others. Then came the tornados. Tornado’s that took away whole towns. And after all this destruction, remarkably, there are still those who question Climate Change. I’ve heard people say “the Earth will be fine, it can compensate for any destructive activity of humans. Maybe it will be fine, but it’s not the Earth I’m worried about. It’s humans I’m concerned about. . . well yeah and also the Earth.
Anyway, it is now late spring and I’m finally getting around to my first post. I’m a little nervous, but a little excited. Yes, it took some time, but the technology is moving so fast, I’m just trying to hang on. What’s next ? Twitter?
Philadelphus virginicus and clothes line
Many of the plantings in my yard have finished blooming by now. There were the irises, the dogwoods, both Cornus florida – white and Cornus rubra – pink, the common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, and the two fragrant varieties, the Dwarf Korean and Miss Kim). Depending on the weather, some springs are better than others. This was a spectacular spring. But in the last week, four of my favorite plants are in full bloom. The Spirea bumalda ‘Goldmound’ next to the fish pond is full with its pink blossums. This spirea has so many great features. In the early spring the leaves come out a deep reddish color and turn a bright gold when fully leaved-out. It later fades to a softer hue when the flowers arrive. A fuzzy deutzia, Deutzia scabra , grows on one side of my distressed brick driveway (Distressed because I collected them from old abandoned patios, not manufactured “Distress”). The white flowers of the Deutzias fall along its arching branches like a fountain, or a fireworks display. the Viburnum ‘Juddii’, on the other side of the drive has been flowering sporatically since early spring but is peaking now. It will eventually loose it’s flowers but re-flower again in the late summer. Wow! what a gifted child.
But the plant that gets the award for “Best in Yard” this past week is the Mock Orange, Philadelphus virginicus. It grows along the back side of the house, next to the livingroom window above the uncomfortable green couch I’m laying on reading yesterdays Sunday Times. I open the window. It is a beautiful day. The arching branches of the Philadelphus are in full bloom with the intense fragrance of of orange necter. It reminds me of driving through the Florida orange orchards on spring break to visit my aunt Maggy in Fort Lauderdale in the early Seventies. That was before it smelled like subdivisions and adult communities. I take deep breath of the intoxicating, sweet smell. I read about politics, the economy, and the environment . . . Arghh! I close the paper . . . close my eyes . . . breath in . . . Ahhhh!