Orchid Watch: HEY!!!

Whaddya lookin' at?  Are you looking at me?!?!

Really, checking me out again?  There's nothing to see here yet.  The show hasn't started.  Get a move on!

... Sheesh. Gardeners.

Morning Houseplant Sun

I love how the morning sun lights up the houseplants in my huge (east-facing) dining room window.

Backlighting brings out so many different colors that otherwise remain hidden within the leaves.   Like the yellows between the veins in these fleshy orchid cactus paddles.  ("Leaves" doesn't quite sound right, but "paddles" is my term, not a technical one!)

And the green in the otherwise fuzzy silver kalanchoe.  And the reds and golds in the dark purple setcreasea:

And now, off to take a deep breath and uncover my peach tree so she can bask in the sun.  Hopefully her "tent" kept her flowers safe so that I can enjoy a few peaches later this summer.  Time will tell...

All Tucked In

 I know this looks a little pathetic...

... especially in the fading evening light.  But I want peaches this year, darn it!  So I've covered up the fully-in-flower peach tree, and am keeping my fingers crossed that tonight's cold temps and potential frost don't completely do in my chances for enjoying some sweet, juicy fruit this summer.  Stay tuned...

Spring Emerges--by Leaps and Bounds!

With the warm temperatures this week, spring has not so much been emerging as it has been bursting! Early tulips, daffodils, a sore back, and the lawn-and-leaf bags* lined up on my treelawn are the usual first harbingers of spring in my garden.  But as I worked around the yard today, I noticed quite a few signs of "mid spring" making themselves known.  Here's an assortment:

Blooms on my peach tree

Buds on one of the currants

The pretty, purplish stems of lovage as it first makes its appearance

Cherry buds

Cherry blossoms

Apple buds, with a pretty shadow of the espaliered plant on the fence behind

Lonicera sempervirens showing off its first few flower buds

Newly emerging tree peony leaves

Sedum, cheerfully peeking out from a pocket in a strawberry jar

Most of these photos were taken as I weeded and mulched yesterday.  I also pulled out a great many plants--details on that will be posted later--in an effort to simplify my design.  And I started on my spring plantings of carrots, onions, shallots, lettuces and the like.  

Of course, there is still more to be done.  I plan to put in a little bit of an edging wall in the front yard, to make the garden there look a little more finished.  (The aforementioned neighbors should like that!)  In late May, the tomatoes, beans, peppers, eggplants and other heat-loving crops will need to be put in as well.  But for now, it's enough to appreciate all of the fresh faces of spring.  Happy spring gardening to all!

*Yes, I still compost.  However, I've learned from experience that certain things--some ornamental grasses, all woody plants, and perennial weeds--just do not break down enough in my little compost bins.  (And those pyracantha branches have scratched me up enough the first time around, so I see no reason to let their half-decayed thorns stab my fingers while I spread finished compost.)  The city's compost piles are big enough to heat them all up and turn them into black gold, however, so they end up on the curb in the spring.

The Weirdness Chronicles: Spring Leaf Tear

I've spent a decent amount of time this spring pulling what I think of as "dead leaf collars" off of spring bulb foliage.  You know how the green spears of foliage come up and pierce through leaves, only to get choked and strangled by the wiry veins on those same leaves when they get larger?  That's what I mean.

I assumed that this piercing only happened to the brittle inside parts of dead/decaying leaves.  But then I discovered this:

 

I barely understand why the dead leaves get pierced (I always kind of assumed that they were somehow impaled upon the young foliage via the wind we get so regularly here) but I definitely do not get how a thick, healthy heuchera leaf falls prey to the pointy tip of tulip foliage.  Heuchera leaves are on fairly bendy stems... why wouldn't the tulip foliage just push it off to the side, if anything, as it sprouts and grows?

I confess, I do not get this at all.  What in the world is going on here?  Do any of my more scientific-minded friends have any good answers for me?  The question of "Why," is driving me a little crazy on this beautiful spring day!