OT: Is the season starting yet?

[ctfjr]

I couldn't handle any more worrying about which big we're going to get, who is going to xfer etc so I snagged my camera and shot a bleeding heart plant my daughter gave me a few years ago. It has grown/expanded to take over a good part of the bed its in. Made a good place to shoot while the dog wandered around.

 

[Jmsdawg]

I couldn't handle any more worrying about which big we're going to get, who is going to xfer etc so I snagged my camera and shot a bleeding heart plant my daughter gave me a few years ago. It has grown/expanded to take over a good part of the bed its in. Made a good place to shoot while the dog wandered around.
View attachment 43373

Beautiful, my wife loves flowers and we have lilies in the front yard.

 

[Bigboote]

Our place was a mess when my wife and I bought it 20 years ago. It literally had bad mojo/karma, and I think that translated to the plants. The woman we bought it from hadn't had the leaves raked in years, and this was with 31 large trees on a half-acre lot. She'd covered the back yard with invasive ground covers. So we've been trying to chip away at that, including planting native species (including native bleedingheart, which hasn't done so well).

I love pawpaws. They're a fruit native to the mid-Atlantic and much of the midwest. So probably ten years ago, we planted four pawpaw trees. It took about five years for any to bloom. They're pollenated primarily by carrion beetles, so I hand pollenated them. We got about three fruit, four years ago, maybe double that three years ago, and a couple of dozen two years ago. I figured I didn't need to pollenate them by hand any more, but the none last year. So I pollenated by hand, and have upwards of two hundred fruit. Here's a pic from a couple of weeks ago showing the babies. These clumps will turn into about ten individual fruit, although there's a lot of attrition during the summer. We may need to protect them from birds and deer.

 

[nwhoopfan]

That's a pretty flower. What I know as bleeding heart out here in the NW looks quite a bit different. Dark purple, smaller flower, less showy. I see it frequently on lower slopes of mountains/hills, also occurs in wooded areas in the suburbs. It likes damp areas.

 

[bantamlaker]

I couldn't handle any more worrying about which big we're going to get, who is going to xfer etc so I snagged my camera and shot a bleeding heart plant my daughter gave me a few years ago. It has grown/expanded to take over View attachment 43373a good part of the bed its in. Made a good place to shoot while the dog wandered around.

Very nice @ctfjr. The cool rainy weather in CT has kept the early spring flowers in bloom a long time and others are just coming into bloom. Sometimes in winter you forget how pretty spring in New England can be. Today in the garden I decided to take some close ups. This is a rhododendron known as “Jane Grant.” Was just a small shrub when planted years ago but now would qualify as a “ big.”

 

[Sifaka]

It's that time of year. The Japanese quince is starting to bloom, which brings the hummingbirds. Two wonders. The third comes around Thanksgiving when we harvest the rock hard fruits, turn them into an extremely tart jam that is closer to a chutney than something to spread on bread.

To see the hummingbird, scroll down. This dude is about 3' long. The babies are
the size of a jumbo olive.

 

[Sifaka]

Sadly, this critter is more toward Dangerfield than BIG.

 

[bantamlaker]

I also got this shot of a scarlet tanager in the dogwood so I consider it a good day. Now if Geno would only get a big...

 

[nwhoopfan]

Birds and flowers, winning combo!

 

[Jmsdawg]

View attachment 43384


It's that time of year. The Japanese quince is starting to bloom, which brings the hummingbirds. Two wonders. The third comes around Thanksgiving when we harvest the rock hard fruits, turn them into an extremely tart jam that is clser to a chutney than something to spread on bread.

To see the hummingbird, scroll down. This dude is about 3' long. The babies are
the size of a jumbo olive.

Love it, so pretty!

 

[Bama fan]

No Grecian urns, but I bet Keats would love all the photos. Thanks to all for the uplifting morning!