Bluebells & Baby Moon

Baby Moon a jonquil type miniature daffodil blooms at the edge of the driveway by the rain garden. Morning sun & afternoon shade seem to give it a long bloom period. It has increased delightfully.

So sweet & fragrant!


Hyacinthoides hispanica Spanish Bluebells are happy here too. They like the extra moisture at the edge of the driveway & rain garden. They do bloom in other parts of the garden that are shady but not quite so extravagantly. Hummingbirds like these perfectly shaped blooms that are open ahead of the many summer blooming tubular blossoms. We saw a hummer sipping from a bluebell this week.

Horsesugar

Simplocos tinctoria Horsesugar or Sweetleaf a native evergreen-ish understory tree/shrub is covered with it's showy flowers in the little wood. It has become a small tree in many places & suckers all around.

This native has many attributes.The common names refer to the sweet taste of it's foliage attracting all sorts of browsing animals.
The many stamened flowers are attractive to nectar sippers & it is larval host to the King's hairstreak butterfly
Tinctoria in it's Latin name refers to the yellow dye that can be produced from it's bark & leaves

Last of the Daffodils

Two Narcissus triandrus (several nodding flowers per stem)

The pure white  & oh so fragrant Victorian era 'Thalia'. A journalist for 'The Guardian' newspaper suggests  'Thalia' hails from the breeding days when blithe and demure won over bold and brassy. It's a pure white daffodil with two or three heads, each with slightly recurved outer petals. Like Sally Field in The Flying Nun, it is full of spring cheer. 

& in pale yellow  Narcissus 'Hawera' a New Zealander

Below, new this year, 'Jack Snipe' a cyclamineus daffodil (usually with a long trumpet) & vaguely like the flowers of cyclamen. I try to plant daffodils so that they come up in bunches.

It think it gives a much better look than single bulbs all over the place