Category Archives: Garden

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz,

I wonder where them flowers is?

My father quoted this every year in spring, usually when the snow was still in the process of melting on the ground, no flowers in sight. However, wonder no more. Here are some flowers from around my garden. Can you name them? (the answers are at the end of the post).

The first one is  of daffodils, of course. I thought I’d start you off easy. 🙂 Next is heather. This plant likes less water than most of my garden so it grows on the side of the stairs going up to the driveway, where the irrigation doesn’t reach it. The third one is mahonia, or oregon grape, an extremely prickly bush that grows wild in the pacific northwest. The berries have a strong, slightly unpleasant flavour, but if you mix them with blackberry and a bit of apple, they make the best jelly. Next is hellebores. I have about six such plants in my garden, each a different shade of rose to wine tones–one of the earliest plants in my garden. After that is the trillium, you knew that. I don’t know the name of the following plant, but love the look of the little green buds in the spring. Perhaps you can tell me what it is. The last plant is a cranberry bush. I had one planted when the garden was first developed, but it died last year. I was devastated. the blooms are beautiful, have a lovely scent, and  it is the first bush to flower in the spring, usually in late February. I searched everywhere, no one knew what it was, let alone had one to replace it. Then a tiny bush bloomed last spring, and i realized the dead bush had populated a new branch below it in the garden. It is still small, but I will put some good earth around its roots to encourage it to grow tall like it’s daddy did.