Bloom Day April 2013

This year's fitful Spring has I think decided to call it quits and just resign itself to being called Summer.  Temperatures in the upper 80's and lower 60's (at night) makes for wonderful days, but many of the spring bulbs enjoyed a very brief season this year.  Right now, the area is bursting with Azalea blooms.  Last weekend was the area's official Azalea Festival which brought a lot of traffic and tourists to town.  Although I enjoy them (azaleas) they have a pretty brief season. The rest of the year, they are not the most inspiring shrubs. There are quite a few varieties surrounding The Maison de Hiboux, mostly indica and karume hybrids. Most of these were planted by previous owners, so they're pretty big now.  I am hoping to add a few of the native varieties when time permits.

This one is called "Formosa" and it is not a terribly subtle variety.

The invasive but beautiful Wisteria sinensis is also in full bloom in surrounding wetlands and forest edge.  It is the only time of year to appreciate this beautiful vine clambering up through the brush to swallow trees whole.  I have sometimes thought of planting it here along the fence, but realize it would probably require pretty constant trimming to keep it manageable.  Still, the shower of blue or white racemes, the scent plus the fact that it is a quintessential southern plant continues to tempt me.

White flowered variety

Small Pond Edge

Tree with canopy of Wisteria

Blue Flowers

As a former resident of areas with cooler climates, I have missed the masses of spring ephemeral wildflowers that are not common in the Lower Cape Fear area. Way too hot for Claytonia, Erythronium, Trillium, Mertensia and Sanguinaria.  One small spring flower that I have found that does well in the floodplain by a nearby creek is Zephyranthes atamasca, or Rain Lilly and a member of the Amarylis family.  They're in full bloom just now.  Very beautiful, but reportedly very deadly if ingested.

Another common spring flower in bloom right now the Ranunculus bulbosa or Buttercup

Also known a "King's Nobs" or "Cuckoo Buds" (in Somerset, England anyway) Geoffrey Grigson has a lot to say about this one in his excellent The Englishman's Flora (1958); "for their furious biting' qualities, these and other kinds of Ranunculus have had their use in medicine and country medicine, especially for producing blisters.  The blistering substance is anemenonal.  In the 16th. century, bubonic plague cried out for specifics.  One of these was the blistering root of Ranunculus bulbosa, 'which being stamped with salt is good for those that have a plague sore...by means whereof, the poison and malignitie of the disease is drawen from the inward partes...into those partes of lesse account." (Gerard, 1597)

The cultivated garden is coming to life quickly now that warmer weather has arrived.

The Cross Vine (Bignonea capriolata) clipping I took from a wild plant two years ago is doing great and blooming heavily for the first time.

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The Banana Shrub (Michela figo) planted by the front door is also in full bloom and fully perfuming the front porch

We also have a few of the later blooming Camellia still at work:

An old, unknown variety and extremely variable

Not sure I know the name for this one

"Jack's"

"Jack's"

"Mathotiana"

"Black Tie"

"Jury's Yellow"

Finally, on the morning that a lot of these pictures were taken I took Puck the Dog down to the local Rugby pitch ("Flytrap Downs") for a little early morning frisbee exercise.
 

hmmmm...what could this be?

polite introductions

shake?

my well mannered play bows usually work...