Daffodils ~ Happy Earth Day!

My studio sale is over for another year, and my attention turns to my garden.

My daffodils are blooming like crazy, just in time for Earth Day – Spring is my favorite time of year!

I feel revitalized, energized and I fly out of bed each morning to see what’s new.

Right now a new daffodil opens each morning!  Beautiful colorful sunny daffodils.

I love variety – color, size, plain and fancy; and a variety of bloom times.

Daffodils emerge from a bulb, and are also called narcissus and jonquils.

As you can see I have a lovely collection.  These are just my early varieties.

Other spring bulbs are also blooming – fritillarias, hyacinths, and more.  A few of my early tulips are showing color but not open yet.

Today I’ll just show you daffodils.  When my daffodil clumps are large enough I divide them and plant them in empty spaces throughout my garden.

I don’t always wait until they die off.  I’ve moved them while blooming so I know what variety I’m planting and can see where they belong!

Large and small, tall and short.  Multi-stemmed and regal tall singles.

I love them all and when I see them smiling like this, I smile back!

Happy Earth Day everyone!!

 

Hello Spring, I Love You

I’m breathing a sigh of relief after our cold, long and dreary Northwest winter.

Spring has finally arrived in my top of the world, higher elevation garden.

Work still has me scrambling, which is a good thing for an artist.  More people are realizing that owning original art is more fulfilling, fun and rewarding than having the same thing all your neighbors have that was purchased at a big box store.

If you’re in the Portland Oregon area, please come to the Glass Gallery at the Portland Convention Center April 29 – May 1st to see what I do!

Yesterday when the sun came out I was compelled to take a break….

….to make sure my garden was still growing.  And to see what the deer left me.

Yes, they’ve been grazing through my garden all winter and spring.

I haven’t had time to spray Liquid Fence, which has worked beautifully for me.

I’ll be showing glass garden art at the Master Gardener’s Plant Sale at the Extension Office in Hood River on May 7th in the morning.  Their sale closes at 1pm, so come early!

May 14 and 15 you can come tour my studio along with 40 other artists in the Gorge Artists Open Studio Tour.

June 3 – 26 you’ll find my work at Columbia Arts gallery show ‘Get Centered’.

As you can see, I will only have limited forays into my garden as time allows.

Hopefully I can work fast in the mornings, then spend a few hours in my garden.

I have so many plans for this year.  Plants that need to be moved, a terraced slope that needs to be redone.  Not to mention expansion.  I still have several areas that can be converted to garden space on my little two acres.

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time…..

Spring Blooms, May Flowers

This has been my busiest spring ever, work-wise!  It’s been wonderful with fantastic projects and great classes.  You can see what I’ve been up to over at my Studio blog if you’d like.

I’ve managed to document the spring growth of my garden, just haven’t had the time to process and post photos.  Looks like my summer might be busier than normal also.

Spring clean up (most gardeners manage to get these tasks done in the fall) has been sporadic at best, so please forgive any unsightly messes you may witness here!

Two weeks ago my bleeding hearts were barely budded out.

They’ve now completely unfurled.

Same with this Clematis…

The little goldfinches started showing up before all the other migratory birds!

I noticed buds on a couple peonies and two weeks later they’re still buds!

One of my tree peonies has her first bud!  Paeonia suffruticosa ‘Kamata-Nishiki’ has resided here for three…four….maybe even five years now.  I can hardly wait to see the purplish pink flower.

If I blink, I might miss my species tulips, they bloom and fade so fast….

…but the Leopard’s bane (Doronicum) blooms on and on and on…

Invaded by Evening Grosbeaks, it’s a struggle to keep the feeders filled once they show up.

But I love their bright color and raucous attitudes.  The daffodils are still blooming…

This is the last of my new pinks to bloom…some of them are very similar with maybe a little more ‘ruffle’ being the only difference.

I have lots of ‘little treasures’ that quickly burst out and shine for only a moment….

…and some that arrive to spend the entire season with me.

My collection of treasured miniature iris are just beginning their bloom season.

Adverse to most groundcover, I’ve found Aubrieta fairly tame, not overly aggressive and easy to pull out should they overrun their bounds.

Drought tolerant Veronica, I’m waiting for her to spread out more.

Artemisia…

The Black-headed Grosbeaks are also non-aggressive and can’t get a word in or a sunflower seed out, next to the Evening Grosbeaks!  This little guy waited ten minutes for his chance at the feeders.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hopefully my ‘next time’ post won’t be so far away…..

Think Pink Daffodils…

As promised, here are the pinks beginning to bloom!

Do these look pink to you?  I think we’re getting closer!

I know you’ll want to know:  I ordered these from Mitsch Daffodils in Oregon.  Tell them I sent you!

And the doubles are starting to emerge….I love doubles!

Because of my higher elevation, spring is later for me.  The following might have already bloomed for you:

There are still more to bloom, including pinks.  I’ll let you know if any are truly pink.

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time…….

Sunny Yellow Daffodils

A frantic month of work has kept me out of the garden and in the studio, culminating in the Glass Craft & Bead Expo, a major glass conference and trade show, where I taught new groups of students the fine art of working with glass powders.  Returning to my garden is a joy beyond imagination where I can reflect and regenerate.

I knew my daffodils would be blooming, but was surprised and delighted this morning to find a butterfly!

I love the ‘Butterfly’ Daffodils….

This is Palmares, said to be pink, but it’s really not my idea of pink at all.

I am always searching for and ordering the elusive pink daffodil, and they usually fall short.

I end up with a lot of salmon that someone is calling pink.

Sometimes, it’s downright orange! Would you call this pink???

I admit to loving them anyway.  Who doesn’t love the cheery yellow harbinger of spring?

Especially since the deer don’t eat them!

I have other yellow flowering plants & bulbs growing that my neighborhood deer don’t graze.  I have a collection of Frittilaria…this is Raddeana.

Common forsythia…

My beds runneth over with dandelions!  My herbalist friends tell me to eat them, so I sometimes do.  Especially in a salad with other colorful flowers.

The tips of this Euphorbia can appear yellow at times, next to the gray leaves.

Back to my lovely daffodils.  They’re just beginning and I DO have some new PINK daffodils that haven’t emerged yet.  I’ll let you know if they’re really pink this time!

I also like collecting the unusuals like Rip Van Winkle.  I love having distinctive flowers that are different from my neighbors.

As more of my plants emerge, I’ll keep you updated.  Thanks for stopping by after my long absence!  Until next time…….

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