Coming Attractions
One of the things I love about gardens is that they’re always changing. You might notice the difference from one day to the next, but over the course of a few days or weeks growth can be dramatic. Three years ago we planted this front yard native shrub and wildflower garden. It’s not 100% native, as you can see from the Grape Hyacinths and Geranium foliage at the bottom of the photo, but going native is our intent here.
This garden bed looks open and not all that exciting right now. However, there are going to be a lot of flowers soon.
Western Serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia, buds are swelling at the ends of the stems. Look closely and you can find the beginning of flower buds along with the emerging leaves. They’re all wrapped up in masses of fuzzy white hairs.
Black Hawthorn, Crataegus douglasii, also has flower buds just beginning to be visible among the new leaves. But here you’ll see that there’s no mass of hairs.
Pacific Ninebark, Physocarpus capitatus, will soon have many clusters of small white blossoms. Right now, they’re just small buds almost hidden among the leaves.
All three of these shrubs are members of the Rose family, Rosaceae.
This row of Great Camas, Camassia leichtlinii, doesn’t look very exciting right now. But hiding deep among those strappy leaves are clusters of flower buds. If last year is any guide, they’ll be in full bloom in another couple of weeks, along with the three shrubs.
Spring is coming along fast. I shared photos of this same garden bed in my post on March 20, just three weeks ago. At that time we hadn’t cut down last year’s Penstemon stems or weeded the bed (a task that still isn’t finished).