Springtime Blossoms

Every Spring the world around our home blossoms.  I've shown photos of our garden for the five years I've been blogging.  If you don't mind I'll share what it's looking like around here now.  I can't help it, I love gardening and Spring!

The dogwoods have been lovely this year, but such a short time in the sun!  It's been so warm they are now waning.

"The Spring came suddenly,
bursting upon the world
as a child bursts into a room,
with a laugh and a shout
and hands full of flowers." 
Longfellow

The daffodils are over their blooms and then the narcissus and grape hyacinths were blooming.

The bleeding heart comes back to our delight every Spring, usually around Easter.  

The wood violets that I planted last year are blooming so pretty this year.  I know some consider them a weed, but to me they are lovely.

Not everything is all flowers and blooms around our home.  Last week on Monday morning during the wee hours we experienced a very ferocious storm.  The above photo is taken from our compost area showing the hickory tree that fell during the storm.  We were so lucky that we only lost our tree!  Our children's old swing frame saved our fence.  The tree is gone now and I'm sure we will miss it.  It's always sad to lose a tree! 

The perennial bed is alive with color.  Veronica speedwell is filling in nicely.  It's a joy to watch old faithfuls return. 

The nodding columbine is beginning to blossom.  Their sweet shy heads are purple and red in my garden.  The red are having a slower start.

The pulmonaria continues to reseed itself all over the garden.

The pink azaleas out front are full of blooms. 

The white ones out back have a larger bloom and are quite lovely.

The pirate bluejays are frequent visitors the last few days!  Grayden's family owned a darling set of books, Book Trails for Baby Feet, that has a sweet story about the pirate bluejay.  Very appropriate for these characters!  Our daughter now has that set in her home as she loved these books.

It's a wonderful time of year watching the earth come alive again! 

Daffodils and Spring Flowers

Did you know that daffodils originally came from the countries around the Mediterranean?  These little jewels of spring were first mentioned two or three hundred years before Christ. Even though they were grown by the Greeks and Romans they were basically forgotten until the 1629 when a group of Englishmen took the flower out of the weed category and put them in the garden!  Thanks to them the daffodil is now our hope of Spring.  Do you plant these little jewels in your garden?  I hope you do as they are easy and are not bothered by most garden pests.  Even voles don't like them!  As well as squirrels that seem to love to dig up everything else, leave them alone.  I started growing my daffodils when our children were young in elementary school.  For annual fund raising, they always sold these little bulbs to raise money for their school.  These little bulbs have multiplied and given us much pleasure.  

As I began to garden more, I planted other varieties of daffodils.

No matter the variety of daffodil, they always say Spring to me! 

The garden is waking up now, even with the crazy twists and turns of the fickle Spring.  

Veronica Speedwell is trailing across the garden bed.

Bleeding Heart is beginning to bloom it's tiny hearts.

Grape hyacinths (Muscari) are popping up.

Hosta are growing by the inch on warm days.

The pansies are still happy that we have cooler temperatures.

My Grandmother's lilacs are blooming!  This makes me so happy to see them blooming in my garden.  Do you have any plants that belonged to your family or special friend?  I have many and always remember them when I'm in my garden.

"Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." 

Hans Christian Andersen

Yes, Spring is finally here in Virginia in our little corner that we call home.  I hope she visits you soon, my friends! ♥