Spring blossoms

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Tulips are here! Daylily fans are sprouting too.

Hélène :

I devised this simple article to take a "snapshot"of all this spring awakening that is happening right now in my garden. On such a lovely day, taking pictures is a good way to portrait the April-May garden. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let's get right on it!

Hyacinths have poked out a couple of days ago.

 Hyacinths are extremely perfumed flowers. Personnally I take no more then 3 stalks to perfume the kitchen; else it's simply too much.

Lilacs are almost ready! Soon they will be all white
and will smell divine! They are right next to my
door steps, any spring visitor will have the pleasure
of their perfume!



The rhubarb grows quickly! I should have taken more pictures ; a couple of days ago only, there were no green leaves, it was just fat pink stalks poking out of the ground!

Up-Left : Black cherry, is that future flowers I see?
Up-Right : Juneberry sweetness, the flower buttons are visible!
Bottom-Left : Sea buckthorn proudly displays its stunning silver foliage.
Bottom-Right : Peach tree is producing soft flower buttons! Soon it will be in full bloom!



The comphrey under the black cherry tree multiplied
this year. It's a wonderful medicinal plant
and a perfect living mulch.
Watch out however, it's an invading plant!

Small sidenote for the inhabitants of Québec. The Québec government, specifically the Ministère des ressources naturelles et de la faune, offers a tree for every child born or adopted. You have a year after the birth (or adoption) of the child to subscribe to the program and the trees are delivered in May.

My son is the proud owner of the black cherry, on the picture above. This fruiting tree is about 4-5 years old and it is the first time I spot potential flowers on it. I'm anxious to see the rest!

The shiny green of raspberries is always a pleasure to witness in spring... 
Apparently this year, it's invading the lawn, as shown in the right picture.



This bed may look chaotic, but there is order nonetheless.
Strawberries look perk again and in-between, forget-me-nots will soon be covered with tiny blue flowers in a couple of weeks, lovage (if you are good at spotting plants, it's on the right - the stalks are vivid green and bear deeply chiseled leaves) and that beautiful red and green plant is none other then bloody dock (rumex sanguineus), which is milder then traditionnal dock. There's also lemon balm, just getting out of the dirt and later on, bee balm will grow at the same spot where you can presently see broken yellow stalks.



2 year old asparagus!
A writer I particularly like has this to say for asparagus harvest : "Year one, take none - year two, cut a few - year three, lots for me!" So I'll be able to taste my first this year!

 

Spearmint is propagating.



Lupine is making a comeback for its second year.

What is more marvelous than the soft spring rays shining on delicate spirea leaves?

UPDATE ON 1st MAY OF 2013 :

The picture of the tulips at the beginning of this article was most likely (althought I forgot exactly what I bought) the tulip Red Riding Hood, a variety that multiply. Wait, multiply? Oh yes! And here's the proof, one year later.