The yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus, just opened this week.

Peony ‘Dancing Butterfly’

Peony ‘Nymph’

The Goldmoss Stonecrop Sedum blossomed this week.

And the pretty white geraniums did, too.

The lovely peony ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ opened this week, as well. A beautiful dark pink, it’s a bit later in blooming that most of our other peonies.

Peony ‘Raspberry Sundae’ is much prettier than this photo shows. It is blushed a soft pink. Beautiful!

I love the “black” flowers. The iris ‘Dark Passion’ is a pretty one.

Siberian iris ‘Caesar’s Brother’

The daisies in the fenced garden opened this week.

And the false indigo is blooming.

There is a lot more blooming in the garden, but I’ll stop here. I’ve probably run too long already. Next post…hostas. They are looking beautiful this year. I wonder if it’s all that rain??  Check out more spring blossoms at Tootsie Time.

~~Rhonda

My favorite peony is ‘Sorbet.’ We have several of these around the yard. This one is the original and it is in the fenced garden.

For reference…here’s a picture DH took (from the roof of the house) of the fenced garden in 2009. It sits on the east side of the house. Must have been evening, as that is the shadow of the house across the garden. The ‘Sorbet’ is in the lower right hand corner.

‘Little Medicine Man’ is a wonderful single peony. It is vigorous in our garden and flowers profusely. I like the singles because they stand up to rain, unlike the heavier blossoms of doubles and bombs. We need to take a few starts from this one and place it in other parts of the garden.

‘Krinkled White’ is another lovely single.

Another single…do you see a theme here??…Peony ‘Illini Warrior.’ It is actually a darker red than this picture portrays.

Another single, ‘Dancing Butterfly’ is near the back door. I enjoy it every time I go outside.

An old variety, introduced in 1851, ‘Festiva Maxima’ has a large, double, white flower with flecks of red at the base of some center petals. This is one of the three “old-fashioned” peonies everyone seems to be familiar with…the white one (Festiva Maxima’), the red one (‘Karl Rosenfield’ 1908), and the pink one (Peony ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’ 1888). Rest assured, there are many, many more than those three. But they seem to be the ones you find in old gardens, farmsteads, etc.

I’ve gone on and on about the peonies…I’ll save the rest for another post. Here are a few other pics I took while mowing. I’m sure my neighbors wonder why I mow…stop…mow…stop…mow…stop… Takes longer than it should to do the entire yard when one stops every few minutes to admire the garden!

The rhododendron by the veggie garden will bloom in a week or two. It is covered with buds. It was labeled as a white one when we bought it, but it is actually a lovely pale pink.

The hosta ‘Samurai’ is showing a couple of damaged leaves. Must have been the extremely cold weather we had last week. The highs and lows have been chaotic lately. Not to mention the rain, rain, rain.

Two great plants in this photo. I love the color of the meadow sage. And the blossoms last a long time. When they are done, they can be cut back and the plant will bloom again. The old-fashioned yellow iris is a wonderful plant. It begins to bloom with the earliest irises and will still be blooming with the latest. It adds a great splash of color all over the garden.

There’s something so peaceful about the evening light in the backyard. Dreamy.

You can see more beautiful spring blooms at Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday.

~~Rhonda

Under the apple trees, there is a large and spreading colony of wild blue phlox, also called wild Sweet William in these parts.

The bridal wreath spirea is beautiful right now. A week of rain will be the end of it for this season. I often see spireas sheared off, not allowing them to take their natural spray form. A shame for such a beautiful shrub!

The Honesty is blooming all over the yard. Also known as “money plant,” it is easy to get started. It self-sows and will be in the garden for many years. After the plants have bloomed, set seeds, and dried, we pull the plants and throw them into areas of the garden or woods where we’d like to see the pretty purple blooms in the spring. The seeds don’t have to be planted. Just drop them where you want them. Being a biennial, it will take two years to bloom and you have to take care not to pull out the non-flowering plants the first year, but after that, there will be blooms every year.

Honesty and Hosta ‘Emerald Tiara’…isn’t this a pretty combination? I love the way the bright yellow-green compliments the purple.

The Bleeding Heart is pretty with the Honesty, too.

We have columbine in a lot of the garden beds around the yard. It’s just beginning to bloom. This plant is a bit ahead of the others.

Candytuft ‘Snowflake’…I wish we had more of this. It’s a pretty front of the border plant with bright white flowers.

These happy little flowers just pop up where ever…Johnny-Jump-Ups…even their name is happy.

I did spy the garden fox this afternoon. But as soon as he? she? saw me, it flashed back into the den. Just look at that bright little face.

I hope you are finding old friends and new surprises in your own garden.

Enjoy other gardens at Tootsie’s Fertilizer Friday.

~~Rhonda

Meanwhile, back at home, we are watching two baby foxes as they take their first forays into the yard. Cutest ever! The quality of this picture isn’t very good, but I took it from the second story window, through a screen. I am hoping to get better pictures of the fox family this week, providing the weather cooperates. We have rain in the forecast for the next seven days.

My sister saw baby skunks in her barn and my niece said her parents have a buzzard’s nest in their barn. In this part of the country, I am guessing the buzzards are turkey vultures. We had a skunk family in the garden one year. The little ones were very cute and became so used to the mower that I could drive within 15 feet of them without disturbing them. They’d just keep foraging. I am thankful for our large yard with its many trees and plants that make it such a good wildlife habitat. There is always something interesting to see if you take time to look.

~~Rhonda

The columbine looks no worse for the wear after having snow and sleet pelt on it today. It’ll be blooming soon!

Bad weather didn’t bother the ‘Minnow’ daffs, either.

Brave little flower…

Green grass, bide your time. Next week will be better.

I love the way the redbud trees bloom in clusters along even the larger limbs. The cold temps won’t bother them. They’ll wait for warmer days and pop out when the conditions are just right.

Redbud and the Star Magnolia in the front yard…

Pretty pink quince blossoms.

Before too long, spring will be back on track. Can’t wait! ~~Rhonda

DH cleaned up around some of the daffodils and daylilies today. This tiny little daffodil is called ‘Minnow.’

‘Minnow’

The garden is full of daffodils right now, with more coming on. The warm weather the first part of the week really brought them out. Now we’re headed into a few days of colder weather, but the daffs won’t mind.

Quince blossoms

The bloodroot in the woods is blooming. such a beautiful flower!

And the grape hyacinths are coming up. I love these little blue flowers.

Our bleeding hearts are just beginning to unfurl.

You can smell the heavenly scent of the star magnolia across the garden.

This is the magnolia ‘Jane.’ A beautiful shade of rosy pink.

Virginia bluebells nestled against a pin oak in the front yard.

The apricot blossoms began blooming last week. We had a good crop of fruit last summer, so we’re not holding our breath this time around. We shall see, though. They may surprise us.

From the woods, looking toward the house, you can see the massive Southern Oak that sits behind the kitchen. It’s starting to flower. Come summer, it will be hard to see the house from this vantage point because the leaves of the oak will hide it.

Oh, and did I mention? The lettuce is shoosting up in the garden. Can’t wait for it to get big enough to pick!

I have other pictures from the garden, but I’m stopping here for now. More on another day. Meanwhile, head over to Tootsie Time and check out what’s blooming in other gardens.

~~Rhonda

The dark purple crocus are blooming.

Glory-of-the-Snow

Peony shoots are up!

More crocus…

And Spring Beauties…

And dogwood promises…

And snowdrops…

The first ‘Von Sion’ daffodil is almost open…

Tiny Tete-a-Tete daffodils are only a few inches tall.

They all speak to the glory of God.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

Check out the links at Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day to see what’s coming up in other gardens.

~~Rhonda

DH put a bud vase of daffs on my desk. What a nice surprise on Monday morning!

“The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size.” ~Gertrude S. Wister

I so agree, Gertrude. Thanking God for the gift of daffodils. ~~Rhonda

The light purple crocus are up, but the day was too cool for them to open, so they were just peeking out.

The daffodils are leaping sunward.

These are ‘Von Sion’ daffodils. The bulbs came from DH’s family farm.

This particular patch of trumpet daffodils are usually the first to open in our yard. They look like they are ready to pop!

The achillea looks soft and tender here, but what a garden thug! We are still digging it out of the garden beds. It’s a great plant for places where it can spread at will…just not good for a garden bed where it overruns the neighbors.

The star magnolia almost looks like a pussy willow right now. The first few buds have burst their sepals, though, and soon they will open beautiful creamy white blossoms with a heavenly scent.

‘Jane,’ another magnolia, is a later blooming pink flowering shrub. It is usually late enough to miss the last frosts.

Here it is in April of last year.

We spent most of our time outdoors clearing flower bed debris. DH trimmed the butterfly bushes back to about 18″. They will grow back out to 8′ or so by the end of the growing season.

He also cleared a lot of the autumn aster stems. I think we took six wagon loads of these to the compost pile.

It was a beautiful day. Blue skies, sunshine and a greening garden. It won’t be long before the neighbor’s beautiful white oaks are leafed out, but for now, we enjoy their silhouette against the early spring sky.

I hope you are finding signs of spring to enjoy in your own yard or garden. And head over to Glenda’s at Tootsie Time and check the links to see what’s happening in other gardens.

~~Rhonda

Lots of daffodils coming up. The green spikes are so refreshing after months of brown and gray. And white.

Yes!

Lovely, green moss on the bricks in the veggie garden. Come hot summer weather, this will be gone. But for now, its cheerful bright green is a welcome spring color.

And more daffodils.

The maple trees are flowering.

The Southern Oak behind the house isn’t as far along. The oaks are slower to swell in the spring than the maples. Perhaps not as rash in their response to a few days of warm weather as the maples can be.

While we were out, DH did some bird watching for the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Happy followed us around for a little while, keeping an eye on DH, I suppose. She thinks he belongs to her.

The iris and the surprise lilies are popping up. These are along the east side of the fenced garden. The surprise lilies in the fenced garden came from my paternal grandmother’s house.

Here are the same ones…this picture was taken the first week of August in 2008.

And more daffodils.

An early spring? I hope so.

Best of all?? The cheery yellow crocus blossoms. All of a sudden, after looking for them for days, there they were.

~~Rhonda