July | 2020 | 1005klahanie

It was a damp spring on the Island this year. Few warmer days here and there but generally temperatures were below historical average.
Except for night times. Interestingly, nighttime temperatures were above historical average.

This little ditch had a standing water in for a long time. I grow some daylilies there and it seems like they do not mind it. They came out later as usual.

This is also the spring that Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. All the non essential businesses were closed and people forced to stay home. So far it has cost our government almost 350 billion dollars to “support”
everyone it thinks needed support. Luckily cost of borrowing in these days is cheap.

We are very lucky to live in the country with lots of land around so for us staying at home is not a big inconvenience as for people living in appartments and condominiums.

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Very early in the spring there is a lovely smell in the Sun Valley part of our property. I could not figure out where it was coming from but did not really investigate. I usually go down there in early March to see how my fruit trees are coming along.

Other times of the year I did noticed a shrubby, sorry looking plant at the edge of the forest that did not look like anything native and was probably planted there by the original owner of this property. It grows in full shade and I was wondering how it can even survive there. Although it is struggling.

Finally this spring (after living here for 16 years) I investigated and found that the plant is LONICERA fragrantissima and the lovely smell in early spring comes from it!

It is a shrub in Honeysuckle family and native to China. The flowers are really tiny. I never noticed the flowers but I surly noticed the smell.

There are plenty of blooms in this garden in the early spring

Especially noticeable are hellebores:

Double speckled

Hellebore Ericsmithii

Hellebore EricSmithii will pale with time

Hellebore ” Anna’s Red”

Another plant with strong perfume is Daphne Odora .(Winter Daphne ) It is fairly close to the. front door and together with Sarcococca which is right outside the front door fill the air with wonderful smell in February.

Daphne Odora (sweet box) :

Talking about fragrant plants…… I cannot forget Lilly of the valley . (Convallaria majalis)

They are great cut flowers for a vase

I do not grow tulips or fancy spring bulbs , I can only grow plants which are not loved by wildlife. Although I tried ….not very successfully.

Lot of blooming plants come from nowhere .

Snowdrops appear for short period of time.

crocus in blue sometimes blooms and sometimes not

White little crocuses come out here and there.

Various primulas vulgaris and violets self seed randomly in the grass in my “sun valley” and they always come out in bigger and bigger numbers. I welcome that. There is lots of space to spread. The tree in the picture is an almond tree ( Prunus amygdalus) which I planted last year for its early blooms. Of course I do not expect to see any nuts in our colder climate and even if I did our squirrels would beat me to it. We have an enormous hazel nut tree and I always just find a bunch of shells on the ground.

I weed out the grass around them that they could send their seeds in the soil

detail od primula vulgaris colour variation

Blooms of young almond tree are very delicate and lovely. The young tree is protected with wire against deer browsing.

I do not know from year to year what will sprout and where. Surprise!

Crocus Pickwick among winter aconites

Wild Violas

Lots and lots of forget-me-nots (Myosotis scorpioides ) everywhere.

An old chair in forget-me-nots with rhubarb and Baden- Baden rhododendron close by.

Native Red flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) provides early spring nectar for hummingbirds

Native Oso-berry ….also called Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) also blooms very early.in spring

Cheerful Forsythia bushes

Blooms of Oregon grape growing wild in the forest

My favorite flower of trillium appears in several places around our property, unfortunately deer likes it too.

April and May are beautiful in this garden because of many rhododendrons are blooming together with few magnolias and camellias – It’s a amazing picture. I already have post about them.

Love to see the new buds on Rhododendron Taurus in April.
. .

And the flower opens……

R. Taurus in 2020. It grew really tall.

Fruit trees are blooming and everything looks and smells fresh with an anticipation of great spring.

Yakima plum blooms
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Japanese apple-pear, new leaves and blooms

Camellia by the door was full of blossoms this spring after having a rest last year .

Wisteria on the other side of the main entrance showed few lovely blooms this spring

Few California poppies in the frog garden are a favourite with my rabbits.

Many bunnies around

Bunnies love to destroy these plants. I am not sure if they even eat them….just chop them down.

Bergenia flowers look almost artificial

In early February I decided that I will order some flower seeds from internet mail order
I never had success growing anything from seeds and this year was no different. With my flower seeds I also ordered roma tomatoes seeds which came much later than the flowers . Much later. So I sprinkled few seeds in the pots positioned them in between rose bushes because it is the warmest place here. Then came the surprise….They germinated !!!
Now I got about 40 tomato plants which will never produce any decent, ripe tomatoes. It is already July and I have 40 4″ tomato plants. By the way none of the flower seeds germinated as I can see. I guess it was still too cold when I spread them around.

Pictures of my toms on July 15th 2020.