A Year in Flowers: White Irises, Week 20
A Year in Flowers: Gwynne Vaughn Park, Week 19
Although many rhododendrons in the park are blooming, my favourite blossoms are the dogwood and the wisteria and these were my subjects during early morning and evening garden walks this past week:
“There is much to be said for cherry blossoms, but they seem so flighty. They are quick to run off and leave you. And then just when your regrets are the strongest the wisteria comes into bloom, and it blooms on into the summer. There is nothing quite like it. Even the color is somehow companionable and inviting.”
~ Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
A May Bouquet for a Birthday
“We turn not older with years but newer every day.” ~ Emily Dickinson
A Year in Flowers: Neighbourhood Gardens, Week 18
The dogwoods and lilacs are blossoming:
Sakura in Mid-Spring: ‘Shirofugen’
A flowering cherry of great beauty, award-winning Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ is a small deciduous tree of vase-shaped habit with a flattened crown and gorgeous blossoms. Pink in buds, large fragrant double flowers, 2 inches across (5 cm), counting up to 25-30 petals, open white with a tinge of pink on the reverse of the outer petals and then change again to deep pink before the shedding of the petals. Blooming in late spring, the blossoms are held gracefully in pendulous long-stalked clusters of 3-7 flowers, closely packed along the branches. Emerging coppery-red, the leaves turn bronze green and warm up to orange in fall. A healthy, vigorous ornamental cherry that has been prized by Western gardeners for over a century and 5 times that in Japan.
‘Shirofugen’ means ‘White Fugen’ in Japanese, in reference to Saint Fugen.
Source: Gardenia
Sakura in Mid-Spring: ‘Kanzan’
Prunus ‘Kanzan’ blooming in a park at my workplace during the Easter weekend:
“Regarded one of the most ornamental of the flowering cherries, Prunus ‘Kanzan’ is a striking deciduous tree with several seasons of interest. In spring, it produces an amazing profusion of rich pink, double flowers, 2.5 inches wide (6 cm), held in pendent clusters. They appear before the leaves unfold. Each blossom is packed with 20-30 petals. Since ‘Kanzan’ is sterile, they will not be followed by fruit. Reddish-copper as they emerge, the serrate, ovate leaves mature to dark green in summer, forming a dense canopy casting shade below. In fall, they warm up to various shades of orange and bronze before dropping. A graceful ornamental tree with an upright, vase-shaped habit, which can be planted in containers, along walks and streets and also be used as a bonsai specimen.”
Source: Gardenia
A Year in Flowers: The Balcony Garden, Weeks 16-17
One pot of five gorgeous tulips
“Bulbs need so little and give back so much. They start off homely, even ugly, and return transformed.”
– Lauren Springer Ogden, American garden writer and designer
A Year in Flowers: The Balcony Garden, Weeks 14-15
White ranunculus in the balcony garden, early April 2019.
Tulipa ‘China Town’ (Viridiflora Tulip)
Sometimes just one has more impact than many. During a long walk with Piper on Good Friday afternoon, I stumbled upon this beauty growing in a sidewalk garden bed:
