Summer in Spring

We discovered a possible tragedy in the garden yesterday. I mentioned that many perennials that had emerged too early had been damaged by last weeks frosts.
We have a beautiful red Japanese maple right behind the house in front of the garden. It is a lovely litle tree that my husband has lightly pruned to a bonsai shape, though much larger.
But all of the foliage is dead, another victim of the early warm spring and later frosts. The tree is alive and we are crossing our fingers that it will recover. The loss of this tree would be devasting.
Meanwhile the peonies, iris and poppies are beginning to bloom, again at least a week early. The bloom will be brief if we get the record heat predicted for mid week. I'm planning to cut them quickly for big bouquets to photograph.

Spring Hazards

I think all gardeners enjoy complaining about the weather but this spring has been particularly difficult. Here in Northern New England we generally have a spring that lasts from five minutes to a few days between the long winter and summer. But this year the spring came very early and it has lasted for months. This should be a joy but there is always a price. The warm weather brought early and lush growth. Then last week we had night after night of killing frost and many of my perennials were hit hard. Hostas, Japanese anemones, some of the heucheras normally don't emerge til late in the season and grow slowly in our cool springs. But this year they came up weeks early and grew fast.
My anemones, a favorite and very special Autumn treat were killed to the ground though there are a few new shoots which should save the plants. I am not going to have much of a show this fall however. The hostas are a mess, big soggy piles of dying flesh. I will cut then back when all danger of frost has passed.
Now we are back to hot weather with even hotter predicted for later in the week. Global warming or merely New England weather?

Meanwhile I am scanning flowers as they open. Here is the iris cristata again. I love the way it looks like it has been x-rayed. And a double tulip scanned front and back.

I call this mohair scarf Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. It is like wispy gossamer lace, soft shades of grey and gold. I am offering it for sale on Beadedwire though it will be hard to part with it.

Spring flowers

Iris cristata is a favorite spring flower. It is a tiny iris, only a few inches tall with a fleeting bloom but it spreads prolifically even in shade. And the flowers are so beautiful. It is also a trouble free ground cover.
In the evening I have been beading rings. I use Delica beads in a simple peyote stitch and then embellish with larger seed beads, triangle beads and crystals.