Plants

Hurricane Sandy

| edwinridout

Sandy and I survived Sandy. Lost power from about 9pm to 6am, slept in the basement for fear of the house being blown away (or bashed by the nearest oak tree). Outside things are quite wet and a little battered . . .

. . . but doggone, I need to get out with the chain saw to fix the back fence before the next time the dogs need to go out.

Hurricane Sandy weather statistics from near Heflin Road, a couple of miles from our house:

Our fringe tree is in bloom

| edwinridout


This is Chionanthus virginicus, our only one, wild, in the woods, and at the back of Sandy’s woodland garden. I last commented on it back in 2008, and wasn’t able then to do any better showing the whole tree.

See the Wikipedia reference, where I’m delighted to see it’s also known as Old Man’s Beard. Ours blooms every spring, but we’ve never noticed the autumn fruit shown on Wikipedia.

 

Mayapple

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The Mayapple plants suddenly popped up about a week ago, in patches, here and there in the woods. This is the patch near the woodpile. Will keep an eye open for any flowers.

Bluets?

| edwinridout


Didn’t Wena call them bluets? We’ll have blankets of these soon, mostly in shady places on the lawn, but this is the first patch so far. Sometimes in the past I’ve been moved to mow around them. These are under the swing, where there’s not much grass left to mow anyway. Who knows what their real name is?

Eastern Redbud

| edwinridout

Beyond the forsythia, in the woods, see a patch or two of purple?

There’s redbud in bloom throughout the woods near us now, and along many roadsides. It’s a favorite sign of spring, but it doesn’t last long, and I’ve been finding it camera-shy.
Wikipedia reference: Cercis canadensis

Magnolias finished

| edwinridout

We still have one or two left . . .
 

 
. . . but after their glorious peak, it’s only a few days until most of the petals look like this:
 

 
Still, we shouldn’t shed a tear. With a little luck, there’ll be even more next year.