Serendib

The little wild violets have started showing up. Go, go, little violets. Go colonize my lawn…

Someone asked in the garden club FB group for a list of bulbs to plant in fall — I’m not a garden designer, but here’s what I plant, in case it’s helpful, coming up in roughly this order: Early spring: – hellebores (not bulbs, but first perennials) (white, pinks, purples, greens) – snowdrops (white) –

Is it wacky of me to try planting a blueberry in my porch box (the tall plant in the photo)? I’ve amended the soil in that spot, so it should be sufficiently tasty, and there are other blueberries nearby for pollination. I just don’t have that much sunlight once the trees leaf out, and mama

Pulmonaria, aka lungwort. So named because it was once used medicinally for lung ailments, but thankfully, we have better options available today. Don’t go eating it. Just enjoy the pretty spotted leaves and blue-purple flowers. I suppose if pulmonologists had a flower emblem, this would be it. Now I want to go sketch it and

This is another love from childhood — the woods near my parents’ house were carpeted in periwinkle.

Okay, here’s some drama — fritillaria persica. Wowza. New in my garden this year, and everyone keeps asking me what it is. It’s fritillaria persica. Now you know.  Plant as a bulb in the fall.

Checkered fritillaries. I was on the porch earlier today, and I saw a couple walking past, and the woman stopped still and made the man with her come and look at these, blooming in the parkway strip. Made me smile. 

Rhododendron buds, with allium leaves behind. It’s funny — I’m not sure my parents still have the rhododendron shrubs they had when I was a kid, but it doesn’t matter — I imprinted on those flowers, so it just makes me happy to have them in my garden. My own kids don’t really seem to