Leaf-Outs

Crabapple

Lilac

Chokeberry

Forsythia 

Can't Keep Up!

Things are happening so fast out there that if I had enough time to blog every single day, it still wouldn't be enough.  I'd need to blog every hour to keep up with all the changes.  we're supposed to get some cooler weather starting tomorrow, so maybe that'll put the brakes on.

The bloodroot, which started to flower on Sunday,
can't handle the heat (perhaps) and by today have
dropped their petals!

We're at that point where, if you look across a field at a tree line or forest, the whole thing takes on a lime green glow... a haze of tiny leaf-outs and tree flowers in the springiest of greens just hangs there.  Our catalpa has started leafing out.  Maples are all flowering now, including the green-yellow flowers of sugar and Norway maples.  Serviceberries look green... everything is just popping out green.  Meanwhile, here are some blooming updates... though I apologize for the photos, I couldn't really see the screen too well and didn't realize they weren't coming out!  Plus, I'm at the stripey-world computer.

Our sedges are flowering rather strikingly.

Blurry celandine poppies bloomed this morning!  So lovely...

I realize I have been remiss about writing lately, in a time of year when the world seems to change every day. I can make excuses... I have been plagues by minor injuries and illnesses, as has my car. I have been on school trips. I have been extremely busy, what with this being such an important time of year for gardening, plus all of the above.

But the truth? I just haven't felt that much like writing, or taking pictures. When it becomes a chore...

And the world really is changing. I look out my window and see the first lilacs blooming. Just about everything is leafed out... even the oaks and the ashes have leaves at this point. Crabapples and redbuds are blooming. And it is still really cold. (Last week, we had a few days of pre-summer. In fact, it hit 90 in Chicago and the upper 80s where I was in Wisconsin. But that was just a tease, and then we had a weekend that didn't top 50 for even a single minute, and was wet to boot.) At least it's sunny today.

A Few Quick Updates

I really haven't the energy or inclination to write much. I actually feel like I want to draw, but the plant I want to draw is no where near a place I could sit. And I don't draw from photographs, and I don't want to pick it, and it's getting dark anyhow. And so, a quick update on what's happening, mainly for record-keeping purposes. And there is so much going on, I'm leaving out a ton. Beech leaf outs, maple leaf outs, flowering ornamental shrubs all over the place...

First, early wild strawberry.

First, early golden Alexander.

Bellwort blooming (this is what I want to draw.)

Hepatica still blooming... it was the first of the ephemerals in my yard and it may well be the last... although spring beauties are still going strong...

Bluebells are in full bloom and I'm starting to see their color all over.

I used to have these dwarf irises all over my yard, and several large varieties that bloom later. The person who used to live here must have loved them. I have mostly killed them off by neglect. I liked them all right, but my attitude is this. The first year, I'll give you TLC like crazy. I love my plants and am very good to them. The second year, I'll help you out if I can. After that, you gotta be able to take it on your own. I don't want any perennials that I have to care for. This is why I plant native.

But it's also why I have tulips (full bloom) and daffodils (mostly spent at this point). If you're not evil, and you can compete with the big boys, you can stay.
If you're evil, on the other hand, I'll take care of you. This is creeping Charlie flowering. Creeping Charlie is the bane of my existence this year; I hate it. And I am losing the war against it. In other news of the evil, garlic mustard has started flowering as well. But not in my yard! I did win that battle the first year I lived here and have never had any since. I wish it were so easy with the others. I fight buckthorn every year...

Also noteworthy: I have 13 stalks of sweetgrass flowers. Apparently it's hard to get it to flower, so I feel pretty good about that.

OK. It's 8 pm. Is that too early for bed?

Are You There, God? It's Me, Naomi...

(Any of you people remember that book? I must've read it 10 times. Loved it. Not relevant.)

This is my plea to whatever higher powers are governing my universe: Can we please please have some sunny-and-60 spring days soon? I believe it would be good for humanity in general. I mean, if you're testing our patience, we lose. I think it's pretty clear looking at our instant gratification culture of fast food and fast internet and fast everything that we're not patient. If you're testing our endurance, I'll concede there, too. Heated houses, cars, trains, and buses to carry us around... we're wimpy. I admit it. Now, can we get on with the nice part of spring already? Before people start getting hurt? (I mean, more than they already have in the floods and tornadoes that, thankfully, have not affected this area too terribly.) All this chilly rain, they say it's the result of...

La Nina. The little girl. It sounds so benign, friendly, even. But let me tell you, I am really getting tired of the pesky little brat. La Nina occurs when Pacific Ocean water temperatures are lower than normal in the region surrounding the equator. Though thousands of miles from here, the water temperature there affects the jet stream, which carries our weather, and, in the end... though not as severely as if we lived further west, La Nina is making our spring cooler than average. Also rainier. And honestly? I'm ready for some warm dry days!

On to the less complainy portion of the post. This morning I had the pleasure of watching a coyote trot along the trail next to me for a while, seemingly oblivious to human presence. And I sighted another low flying, single sandhill crane. They must be nesting somewhere nearby. All over I see that faint green haze that appears to hover around newly leafed-out trees in the distance. I haven't really been reporting on leaf0outs this spring, but they are happening... tiny, translucent leaves are emerging on several types of tree and shrub... lilacs and crabapples, birches and willows and aspens. Buckthorns and box elders and honeysuckles. It's slow and it's late, but spring marches on.

Cute Cookie

A student found this painted turtle in his deck and brought it to his class today. I got to go with them to release him into the wild. The kids, who developed quite an attachment in only 4 hours, called it Tiny Tim, but I called it Cookie. Actually, I call all turtles that are about an inch (give or take) in diameter cookie turtles. They just make me think of little cookies, the kind of thing you could pop in your mouth in one bite. I mean, I wouldn't actually do that, even if I weren't a vegetarian, but... they're just as cute as little cookies, even though they have little grumpy-old-man faces.

In other news... nearly everything (or at least some members of every species) has at least tiny leaves now -- locusts and lindens, ashes and oaks... it's a green world out there! And the first lilac flowers opened today, but just like one flower per bunch...

... And Today.

You may recall that last year, I transplanted three jewelweed seedlings from my parents house. Seeds themselves are extremely hard to collect, what with their springing mechanism, so I dug up the plants, which did not like their journey but manages to perk back up and survive. I am thrilled to announce that this baby, pictures to the left, is not alone. There are at least 20 of them growing now in the area of the three original pioneers. My plan is working!

Now, I know these aren't the world's most desired garden plants... they have the word "weed" in their name, although they aren't. In fact, they are native to most of the USA east of the Rockies. Their delicate flowers truly are jewel-like, and they are not only shade-tolerant, but generally tolerant and require no work from me... Thus, I desire them as garden plants even if no one else does. Of course, they spread fast (as I have already witnessed) and they're annuals, so they need an appropriate space...

Maples (sugar, to the left) and their evil kin boxelders (below) are fully flowering, most green, though some species are have red, too. These individuals have leaves emerging as well -- their lobed shapes nearly translucent with newness. Such an exciting time of year.

Now I must attend to my seedlings, which are enjoying their third adventure in the fresh air and sunshine this afternoon.

Last Day of Freedom

Tomorrow we return to school after an all-too-short break. Short as it was, though, we're going back in a world that seems entirely new. Spring flowers blooming, colors bright and subtle dotting the landscape. Most larger trees are still bare-branched, but shrubs and smaller trees, like crab apples and willows, are tinged with the green of small leaves, and when you look across fields, there's a green haze in the hedgerows... hardly a color at all. An aura. A message whispered in the wind... "It won't be long now..."

Here's what's popped up most recently:

Spring beauties, with their pale striped petals.

The daily bloodroot update.

Trout lily leaves.

Anenomes (these ones Canada) are among the plants that look like balls of green low to the ground. Others, not pictured, include Virginia waterleaf, Jacob's ladder, golden Alexander...
And here, marsh marigold buds (in case I forget to check them when they actually bloom).

Oh, What a Difference a Day Makes...

...Especially when it's a day such as the last 24 hours have been, warm, mostly sunny, partly windy, all around beautiful. Yesterday morning's round buds...

are today's hepatica flowers!

Mayapples popped open their still-tiny umbrellas.

Ginger leaves burst through the soil.

And trillium's three-leaves have appeared.

Couldn't resist showing the bloodroot again, now that the flower bud has poked out.

In the non-ephemeral plant world, here's the yellow coneflower, which emerged a while ago but I was struck by how big it's already gotten, about 4 inches tall.

And, my maple-leaf vibernum leafed out... along with some crab apples and other shrubs.

Unfortunately, these leaf-outs are not all good. Throughout the yard, previously nearly-invisible little sticks have sprouted buckthorn leaves... they are everywhere, these little weeds that want to be terribly invasive, soil-poisoning trees. And among them are tiny leafing-out box elders (whose parents are flowering at the moment). I could work for days and days, it seems, and still have these invasive babies around. The honeysuckle, which has become the bane of our gardening existence, has also leafed out. (When I installed my vegetable garden on the south side of the yard, there was a honeysuckle hedge, about 8 feet tall, in the neighbor's yard, that did not interfere with the garden. Six years later, those things are about 20 feet tall and shade out more of the growing space each year. The boughs that hang over our yard get chopped, but the trees are not ours to level. I could make a lovely garden in that area, though, if I were allowed...)

And speaking of the garden... we planted carrots and peas this morning, to go along with the spinach that I didn't mention we planted earlier in the week.

Lilac

So... at what point do I get to call this a leaf instead of a bud? Because I feel like we're close.

Another day...

These  are the flowers on our maple-leaf vibernum, in full bloom in pale yellow clusters.

Leaves continue to grow -- shown here are bur oak and sumac,

 some of the later leaf-outs.  They are still small, but getting bigger every day!  I love the curled, deeply-veined, red-tinged baby leaves, so full of character at this stage.

Now... Please, help me ID this mystery tree.  OK.  I admit.  I havent' looked very hard.  But I have no idea what it is (shown here close-up and from slightly further away).  I also don't know if these leaves are full-sized or still growing.  Ideas appreciated, thank you.  

Spring seems here to stay.

Linden Leafs Out

New, translucent leaves line the linden branches.  Below is a sketch of a linden seedling.  Who would ever imagine that the seed leaves of a linden would look like that!

We have reached the point where it would be easier to list the trees that haven't leafed out than those that have.  Even locusts and sumac have leafed out.  (Well, some sumacs have emerging leaves; others don't yet.)

The first wild geranium blooming.
A cinnamon fern fiddlehead.

Shooting stars bloom.  For years I have had these in my garden; this is the first year they are finally happy enough to flower!

Also flowering: lilacs are beginning to open flowers -- yesterday each cluster had 1-2 open flowers; today they have 5-6.  Redbuds are in peak flowering mode.  Serviceberries are shedding petals. 

A million things to say.

Lilac leaves.

As I sit and write this, I listen to the steady patter of rain through the window, punctuated by an occasional distant thunderclap.  This morning, we got up and worked in the garden, savoring the warm weather that had hung on since yesterday.  We went to the farmer's market, and the car thermometer read 72 degrees (this was 10:30 or so).  As we finished our shopping there, huge, splattering raindrops began to fall -- and soon were mixed with hailstones!  I saw lightning streak across the sky.  By the time we got home from several errands, the temperature was 54 degrees.  But from inside it is actually pleasant, the sound calming.  And the world 

looks green and almost summery.  

This is, in reality, an illusion.  A lot of the green that is starting to pop out is not the leaves emerging, but rather the trees flowering (see photo of maple flowers at right).  These flowers are what gave Crayola the color "spring green," in my opinion.  This shade that hugs the tree branches now won't appear at any other time of the year.

After all the anticipation, my bloodroot is essentially finished flowering,  Spring ephemerals, they call this group of wildflowers.  Ephemeral.  Fleeting, short-lived.  An appropriate name, but even more appropriate for the connotation than the denotation.  To me, the very word has a shimmering quality.  Like a mirage.  You see it, it is beautiful, but if you reach out to touch it, you will find it isn't there at all.  

In other spring ephemeral news, I thought that my Dutchman's Breeches were not coming back.  Turns out, they emerged yesterday or the day before, but they are quite small and definitely

 won't flower this year.  I don't know if they are growing bigger by the year, or smaller by the year, but I am hoping for the former.  My May apples (seen emerging at right) have been spreading like wildfire, apparently.  Where one used to be, I now have a circle of 5 emerging; another one has turned to a circle of 4.  (And 2 others continue to be solo acts.  Perhaps they don't have such prime locations.)  I am not sure if a circle of 5 constitutes a fairy circle yet, but I am on my way in the future!  I quite like the idea of tiny fairies dancing around my spring

 ephemerals, perhaps napping under the colorful glass mushrooms that I put back into the yard yesterday...

I am also happy to report that my silphium is coming back. 

 For days I have been looking and not seen it; today I pulled back the leaves and found that there are as many as 10 tiny, deeply lobed leaves that are already probably 6 inches tall.  This compass plant just may be my favorite thing in my yard... maybe... so I am thrilled and relieved to have it returning.  (See photo at right.)  Other updates to briefly

 mention:

1. the ash tree in my yard has swelling buds, but no leaves to speak of; just three houses down, there are emerging leaves from an ash tree.  Don't ask me...
2. Honey locust buds and redbud buds (the flower ones) are also swelling and ready.  As compound leaves tend to leaf out late, these are notable!
3. Oak buds continue to swell, but no leaves there, either.

Below are a few photos from previous updates:  The first tulip, pasqueflower, some cool mushroom gills, emerging wild ginger,two turtle shells, and Virginia bluebells almost flowering.