Rebirth of Spring

Daffodils and Thalia narcissi in front.

Creeping Phlox and Thalias.

Our front yard

 

Ahh, spring! Thus far it's been a changeable one, with the usual ups and downs in temperature: one beautiful mild sunny day here and there, interspersed with drizzly or wind-blasted ones, and bloom-burning frosts. Every year I find the seasonal progression of plants and flowers as they come into bloom in my garden ever more marvelous.

Prince Alfred daffodils with Forsythia in the back yard.

A week later the daffodils in the back bed are in bloom.

Blue grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniaca) among Mt. Hood daffodils.

Same bed a few days later.

 Every day is full of surprises as I discover plants I thought had perished are sprouting, while others that were doing so well have disappeared, eaten by the usual garden pests. The daffodils and narcissi predominate at this time, along with the grape hyacinths. Sadly, my yellow magnolia 'Butterflies' was frost-burned this year--no flowers to enjoy except for the branch I cut to paint indoors.

The buds of the Kwanzan cherry in front are still a week to ten days away from opening, yet other plants are starting to show signs of life. I'd all but forgotten about the Grecian anemones I planted two autumns ago, what a charming surprise to see a few of them popping up!

Tiny purple anemones

"Pink Charm" daffodils in the back bed.

The back bed a week later.

 

Spring truly is the season of rebirth! So many more flowers to come in the next months, I can hardly wait to see what surprises my garden will bring this year!

Thalias by the driveway.

My neighbor's weeping flowering apricot tree.

Muscari at the base of  the Zelkova tree.

Yellow Magnolia 'Butterflies' Studies

Buds on a branch from by botanical sketchbook.

 

A heavy frost was predicted in my area for Monday morning, so on Sunday afternoon I cut a small branch with some buds from my yellow hybrid Magnolia 'Butterflies' to study and paint. I rarely get to paint this lovely flower from life, since most of the time the flowers get blighted by frosts before I have a chance to paint them.

The first sketch above was done in my botanical journal (the second notebook in this series) with Copic pens and colored with watercolor pencils just after the bud had shed its scales, which is the technical term for the furry outer covering on the buds.

 

The flower in three stages, three media.

 

The following day the first bud began to open, and I captured its progress in a larger sketchbook, showing the petals starting to unfurl. For the sketch on the upper left I used only colored pencils. 

On the third day, the petals (technically tepals) were completely unfurled, and center of the flower was visible, with its pinkish stamens still tightly closed, while the greenish pistils in the center are extended. In nature, an insect would visit the flower and deposit pollen from another flower on the pistils at this point, while they are receptive. The flower would close up for the night, perhaps trapping the insect inside. Indoors, of course, there weren't any insects available for pollination, but the flower's exquisite lemony perfume advertised its receptivity. An added bonus to painting these magnolias!

For the rendition on the middle right, I used only conventional watercolors. Another bud lower on the branch was starting to unfurl, and I drew it lightly in pencil on the lower part of my paper.

On the fourth day, the petals of the first flower had begun to fade to a pale cream, but now the stamens in the center were unfurled all around.  At this stage, in nature, the pollinating insect would be covered with the pollen and when the flower re-opened in the morning, the insect would be released to visit and pollinate another flower. 

This is the strategy the flower uses to avoid self-pollination. The version on the lower left was done with watercolor pencils only, connecting the opening bud that I'd drawn the day before to the upper flower.

By the fifth day, the flower was completely spent: the tepals had turned brown and were falling off. Such is the short-lived glory of a magnolia flower!

I read that this hybrid variety of magnolia was bred as a cross between Magnolia acuminata and Magnolia Denudata. M. acuminata is our native Cucumber magnolia from the Appalachian area, one of the largest trees of the American species. M. denudata is an Asian tree known as the Yulan magnolia. My tree has grown to about seven feet or eight in height and canopy, in time it should eventually reach 12 to 15 feet in size, perhaps a bit more. It's a lovely tree even if the flowers often get frost-bitten!

My Early Spring Garden

Hyacinth 'Delft Blue'

 

With the Spring Equinox past, early spring manifests itself in my garden. 'Delft Blue' hyacinths bloom along the front walk, as the carpet of several varieties of sedum begins to revive from its winter slumber. 

 

Blue Siberian squill, Pieris, and young rosettes of great blue lobelia.

"Queen Charlotte' violet (Viola odorata)

Along the east side of the house, the tiny blue flowers of Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) carpet the ground near a Pieris in bloom, among the sprouting young rosettes of the Great Blue Lobelia that is spreading here. My 'Queen Charlotte' violet is reviving and spreading nicely, but so far I detect no scent--perhaps it's still too chilly for the violet to emit its lovely perfume?

Hellebore Wedding Party 'True Love'

Hellebore 'True Love'

Close-up of 'True Love'

At the foot of the 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple, the hellebore Wedding Party 'True Love' is flourishing now that it's protected from the browsing deer. As soon as the critters have enough to eat in the woods, I'll remove the barrier so I can admire it without obstructions. I'd love to grow another hellebore near this one, perhaps one with white flowers with a touch of pink on the edges. There are so many beautiful varieties to choose from in my gardening catalogs, but all are so expensive, I may have to wait until I find some on sale.

Blue grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) with 'Mount Hood' daffodils

In the back yard some grape hyacinths that haven't been browsed too much by the deer are emerging among the 'Mount Hood' daffodils, while the Forsythia's yellow announces the official start of spring. A few of the 'February Gold' daffodils in the back bed are in bloom, but most of the others won't open until a week or two later.

The back yard this week.

The Little Indians bed.

Lots of new shoots are coming up in all my flower beds--above are 'Autumn Joy' sedum with muscari and daffodil bulbs, and daylilies. I'd forgotten about the anemones I planted last year, and was surprised to find this tiny one coming up near my roses. Such a delicate little thing!

Anemones.

Bergenia buds

Front yard this week

In the front yard, the seasonal progression continues: the February Gold daffodils are finished, now the Thalia and Tazetta narcissus are just about to pop open. And, I have great hopes of seeing a few camellia blossoms for the first time--the buds are just beginning to unfold.

 

Camellia 'Kumasaka'

Ides of March

 

Blandy's Dogwood Lane, plein air watercolor, 14" h x 11"w.

Julius Caesar was warned, "Beware the Ides of March," in Shakespeare's play... at this time of the year the weather can be treacherous here--one day it snows, the next day it's a sunny sixty degrees! 

 

March 12 snow

 

Just last Saturday it snowed again, only a few inches, but the temperature stayed well below freezing the next day, and the snow stayed on the ground. The following day, the thermometer rose to sixty degrees, and the snow melted quickly.

Just a few days later, on the 16th, the Outdoor Painters of the Shenandoah group had scheduled the first paint-out of the year at Blandy Farm, and I was skeptical about joining them, but the morning dawned bright, sunny, and mild. So I headed out there, and was I glad! The day turned out to be gorgeous, so warm that I shed my three-season jacket halfway through the session. The day was inspiring, and my watercolor worked out so nicely!

The Exploding Sketchbook Challenge

 

Sketches from my exploding sketchbook.

 

One of the artist groups I joined recently, the Chickahominy Colored Pencil Artists, usually inspires us by presenting a challenge to work on each month. Last month's challenge was to create an exploding sketchbook or scrapbook, with links to instructions on how to make one on a couple of different websites.  One of the websites had a video showing the process, thank heaven--it would have been much harder to figure out how to fold and assemble this from only a verbal description. 

The concept was interesting, and the choice of paper as well as the size were up to each artist. I've recently become involved in keeping nature journals in the form of sketchbooks, so I thought it would be fun to create this unusual sketchbook as a challenge.

 

Fully extended sketchbook

 

I cut some old Waterford & Saunders watercolor paper that had been stashed in my studio for ages into three 15" squares, folded and glued them together per the instructions. The covers took longer to finish because I needed to find some decorative papers for the cardboard that would be large enough to cover the two 8" squares. The only decorative papers I could find large enough to allow me to have an extra 3/4" all around to fold over the edges were made in India--I ordered them from Dick Blick.

 

Front Cover of sketchbook.

Back cover of sketchbook.

The assortment of decorative papers had only one sheet of each pattern, so the front and back covers are different, but I think the whole thing looks elegant enough. Putting the ribbons and gluing the covers to the sketchbook was the last step. My sketchbook is now finished but not complete--it needs to be filled with sketches!

I've started filling the book with small watercolors and drawings. In the first section on the left, I've painted some Hellebores, crocuses and early spring flowers from my garden, and one of my orchids in bloom. I'll continue filling those pages as the season progresses. The center section will be devoted to summer flowers, and the last section on the right will have fall-blooming plants. Hopefully, once I've completed my sketches the exploding sketch book will constitute a unique work of art in and of itself, a record of flowers from my garden.

Spring Is Marching In

 

Crocus thomasinianus.

 

Spring is marching in early this year (pardon the pun!) with lots of crocuses blooming in my front yard under the cherry tree. The Crocus thomasinianus continues to spread; this species seems to be the only one that is impervious to squirrels in my yard. I've transplanted a few to other beds where they can continue to spread, and next fall, I'll transplant a few more to the backyard beds. My yard could use some snowdrops too, next fall.

Clumps of Crocus thomasinianus.

Species crocus with feathered veins.

The 'February Gold' daffodils in front are also bursting into bloom. The clump on the other side of our driveway, in a less sheltered spot, is about a week behind this one. The buds of white hyacinths along the front walk are coming up too.

'February Gold' daffodils.

'February Gold'

White hyacinth buds.

 

My hybrid witch hazel 'Diane' is blooming profusely now, along with the native one planted several years earlier.

Witch hazel 'Diane'

Shoots of 'Mount Hood' daffodils.

The new shoots of my "Mount Hood' daffodils are coming up too. Soon, my garden will be filled the flowers of spring bulbs!

My front yard on March 2.

Florida Sketches

 

Staghorn Fern (Platycerium superbum), watercolor, 10"h x 8"w.

I spent a week in Homosassa Springs recently, and managed to do a few paintings and sketches on location. I was fascinated by these huge staghorn ferns hanging from the porch of the owner's house next door to our rental cottage. I learned on-line that the staghorn ferns (Platycerium superbum) have two kinds of fronds: the sterile fronts are those plate-like flat leaves from which the horn-like fertile fronds emerge. The spores develop on the underside of the fertile leaves as brown patches at the tips.

 

Bald Cypress in Homosassa, watercolor sketch 8"h x 5"w.

 

Our rental cottage was right on the water, and had a wonderful view of the Homosassa River, with two lovely bald cypresses covered with Spanish moss and bromeliads shading the small yard. The views were fabulous!

 

The Homosassa River from our rental cottage.

Cloudy Morning in Homosassa, watercolor, 5"h x 8"w.

Dragon Boat on the Homosassa.

 

The owner of our rental cottage was kind enough to loan us two kayaks so we could paddle up to the main spring, which we did. It was a breezy day, and the distance turned out to be a bit more than we'd anticipated--the paddle upstream was a good workout. There were many manatees at the main spring, and lots of boaters, kayakers, snorkelers and divers there on this beautiful day. Unfortunately, the kayaks were open and I was afraid to get either my phone or camera wet, so I left them behind and didn't get any photos of the gorgeous scenery.

 

Blue heron in mating plumage.

 

A blue heron visited our yard one evening--this seemed to be his habitual turf, and he had no fear of us getting close. Lots of ibises, wood ducks, and other birds congregated on the opposite shore in the morning and evenings.

 

Ibises on the river.

Crystal River Archeological Park, watercolor, 14" x 10"

We spent an afternoon at Crystal River's Archeological Park, where I painted this watercolor of the view from the top of the largest of the Indian mounds found there. Another afternoon we drove out to the Chassahowitzka River, and it was packed like Grand Central Station there! Such a ruckus from the many radios/MP players from the boats on the water, nary a manatee dared to show. I didn't finish my watercolor of the view, though I made a promising start.

 

Pages 1-2 from my new Travel Journal.

Pages 3-4 of Travel Journal.

 

I filled in several pages of my new custom-made Travel Journal with sketches of an aloe on the porch next door, bromeliads that blew down from the bald cypresses, and a bald cypress seed from one of the opening cones--those little devils were resin-y and had very sharp points! On another page I drew a terminal branch from a loquat tree and a small branch from a live oak tree that was starting to put forth its blossoms.

 

Florida coontie (Zamia integrifolia).

Page 5 of Travel Journal.

At the Archeological Park in Crystal River I came across some coonties, a native Florida cycad (Zamia integrifolia). This cycad is dioecious--that is, there are male and female plants, and both have cone-like structures that develop at the base of the fronds. Only the female cones have seeds, of course--I managed to collect these two, which I'm going to try to sprout and grow at home. Attractive as they seem, these seeds are very poisonous, as is the rest of the plant. The Calusa Indians dug up the roots and leached the poisonous chemicals out of them to make a kind of flour.