Allium, Garden Onions

Alliums are a huge family - it includes table onions, chives and the gorgeous garden "onions".
The latter come in many varieties from the tiny yellow allium molly to the huge football sized allium christophii. I love them all. They are very easy to grow, the majority are bulbs that are planted in the fall just like daffodils and tulips.
Like tulips they are sometimes eaten by little animals - I would have thought the onion taste would deter them but apparently not. The most long lasting I have found is the huge and regal Allium Globemaster. They are expensive but just a few bulbs make a big show.
Coincidentally my John Scheepers bulb catalogue came in the mail today - I am going to try some new alliums for next summer.

Scent of Lilacs

Many people add music to their blogs. During lilac season I wish I could add scent.
There are few scents that compare to the old fashioned lilacs. I love the new hybrids, the blooms are big and voluptuous but to me the scents are not quite as beautiful.
I can't imagine a New England spring without lilacs, they only bloom for a week or two but what a glorious time.
And I love the big old bushes with their gnarled and twisted branches all year, especially in winter.
They need little care, an occasional sprinkle of lime and a little light pruning and they will grow for generations.
Entoxicating, heady, I love to get drunk on the smell of lilacs.

Yin and Yang

I have been impatiently waiting for my tulips since I planted them last autumn; their promise sustained me during this long difficult winter.
And I am not disappointed, they delight all my senses, bright, gorgeous color, heady fragrance, I even love the silky thick feel of their petals.
So I am in photography heaven.

We have difficulty growing tulips here, they are candy to all the little critters who live in the garden. This year I bought little plastic pots that are used for growing vegetables hydroponically, they were very cheap on Ebay. I planted each tulip in a tiny pot. Very successful, I don't think I lost more than a couple, so I will be using this planting method again.

Meanwhile, I have been thinking of my first photography love, black and white photography. I always loved the magic of watching pictures emerge in the darkroom. So I have started work on a new series of images printed in a vintage style in soft sepia. I call these two Rose Shadows.






















But knitting brings me back to the brights, my newest listing in Beaded wire, a bright cherry red scarf.

Yin and yang, sunshine and shadow.

Daffodil Hill

One of my favorite places is Daffodil Hill in Chesterfield, NH. A private garden which is open to the public but barely known, it is spectacular each spring.
Thousands of daffodils are planted here and overhung with star magnolia, creating a magical world.
Star magnolias are not as lush and fragrant as the southern magnolias, the flowers are thinner and more delicate. But they are hardy and very beautiful in shades of white and pink.
We finally had a few days of sunshine this weekend for gardening, a treat this cold, rainy spring. Back to rain this week though, I can even hear a little thunder as I write.

April Showers

This has certainly been a dismal spring weatherwise, rain and clouds almost every day. But of course we are lucky here considering the terrible and deadly storms that have swept across so many parts of the country this month.
We are way behind, only the early daffodils are blooming and the grass is just beginning to turn green. I hope these April showers will bring the promised May flowers.
Meanwhile perhaps some bright orange will add a little cheer to the day.

Daffodil Days

The little crocus have passed but the daffodils are coming into their glory. In my garden the daffodil season lasts through much of April and May - I have very early varieties, many midseason blooms and then the old daffodil poeticus and its hybrids for late in the season. I am particularly fond of the late flat cupped daffodils but love them all, the classic yellows, the split cups, the frilly doubles and all the little miniatures.
And of course I can't resist the jonquillas with their spicy aroma.
Unlike the fussy tulips, these are truly a full proof flower. They are poisonous so the little animals never eat them. Once planted they will come back year after year without any fuss or bother. The only trick to getting flowers every year is to leave the foliage to die off naturally. The foliage is necessary to feed the bulb to make next year's flower so if you cut it off you will get nothing but foliage the next spring. Once it begins to yellow you can cut it off to make the garden neater.
Happy Spring!

Big Skys

Early this week we learned that my friends little granddaughter, who just celebrated her first birthday, is dying of Tay-Sachs disease.
I have been paralyzed with anquish for the family and shocked by the unrelenting cruelty of the universe.
Perhaps it is simply the human condition to react more strongly to the close and personal than to the horror of earthquakes and tsunamis and war, far away and hence less real.
It is hard to find solace, hard to even imagine how the parents of this child can cope and survive the anguish they face.
I have no answers but look to the sky, nature may be cruel but she is also astonishingly beautiful