blooms from York to Scotchfort

My bike just had a tune-up, and I decided to test it out.  So I rode the 2 km to the Confederation Trail, and cycled on and on through fields and woods.  I saw robins, red-winged blackbirds, gold finches, and I heard many more.  And the wild flowers are in full force.

Within 6 weeks, these white blackberry flowers will morph into lucious fruit on prickly stems 

that will make me work hard to pick every berry.

Bunchberry flowers will produce fiery orange berries that are not edible to us humans.

These big balls of fluff look like giant dandelions.

The forest opens to reveal a bog of blueberries and other plants.

In the bog is another type of fuzzy seed head held high above grassy leaves.

 A fragrant wild rose along the path.

Blue flag iris in the bog.

A huge variety of ferns grow in the shade of trees along the trail.  

This is cinnamon fern (note brown fronds),

This fern seems to like more sun.

Delicate feathery ferns lead to a resting spot along the trail.  

Now if only the mosquitoes would lay off when I get off my bike!

This looks like a type of wild azalea. 

Grayish-white lichen carpets a small section along the trail.  

I've never seen this plant anywhere else.

2 km from my house is where I get to the trail, where I start at km 183.  This is near km 200, a beautiful way to end the trip, with a view of the Hillsborough River.  Now all I have to do is cycle back 20 km.  Oh - my poor legs, and my poorer seat!  This is going to hurt for a while.

 On the exhausting way back, I stopped to pick a few wild strawberries, and a tiny bright butterfly landed on my thumb.  As I looked at it closely, it seemed to be sucking up the salty sweat on my finger.  It stayed on my finger for a long time, and I struggled to take pictures of it with one hand. When the mosquitoes became impossible to bear, I finally gently shook it off, and it flew right back and landed on my thumb again.

I finally convinced my friend to check out the wild strawberries.

During my 4 hours on a sunny perfect day, I met only one other person using this trail.

We Islanders don't know how lucky we are here on PEI to enjoythis beautiful, free way to enjoy nature.  I hope more people get out and discover the beauty all around us.

peony power

Peonies bloom for such a short time - three weeks max. And they attract ants.  and the double ones need to be staked or they will droop to the ground with the first rain weighing down the big heavy blooms.  But they sure are beautiful.  And they smell wonderful.

I discovered the perfect peony for me - single flowers.  They are very hard to find - almost no one sells these.  But the flowers have just one layer of petals, are light as a feather, and don't need to be staked.  So I think they are great.

Thesse beauties have delicate petals, are full of bees, so they are great addition to the natural landscape.  Just one thing - they have no fragrance, which is a bit disappointing.

Here is a lovely pink single called "Dancing Butterflies"

A gardening friend started 72 peonies from seed.  Seven years later, she has a long row of single-flowering peonies, and has now decided she doesn't like them as well as the doubles.  So she offered me as many as I could carry away.  This is not the ideal time to transplant peonies (the rule is to transplant before or after blooming, not during) but she wanted rid of them, so I just appreciated the gift. I stacked the big plants in the passenger seat, the trunk and the back seat of the car.  It looked like I was taking the flowers for a ride!  After finding a home for each in my flower beds, I cut off all the flowers.  It's hard enough for a plant to become established after being moved without supporting flowers as well.  Most definitely the plants will suffer a set-back, and probably won't bloom for the next few years, but it will be a lovely surprize when they finally do.

June blooms

I moved the Jack in the Pulpit last fall, because it was crowded under a fast-growing shrub, and I marked the spot with a stake.  I've been watching and waiting for it to appear, and I thought I had killed it in the move. But here it is in all it's fabulous glory, with lots of space around it.

On paper, tan and maroon and orange sounds like a very tacky colour combination.  But this iris is amazing.

A lovely blue iris

This iris is an old favourite

The yellow iris did not bloom last year.
Look what I was missing!

The highbush blueberry blossoms are promising yummy things for August.

Turtlehead (Chleone) is a lovely plant for the shade.
Now I just need to rip out the dandelion and violets that are crowding it.

tulips

After a very long cold winter and a late spring, the tulips are blooming with abandon.  The continuing cold weather, while making us humans miserable, has the oppositie effect on the flowers - keeps them blooming longer than usual.

Many years ago, I ran out of room in the flower beds, and planted tulips in the vegetable garden.
Since then, I have dug out the bulbs to plant elsewhere, but I always miss some, and they come back, spectacularly blooming amongs the veggies.  This year, they are sharing space with the garlic.

almost black with a rim of white contrasts with the white daffodils

green and white is a great colour combo.

magenta lily flowering tulips contrast with white daffodils

pink streaks

so many variations...

This tulip has curled out from under a rock.
Life is persistent!

A few years ago, I rescued these bulbs from a dump
where they had spent a year languishing above ground.

Red tulips guard the space under the honey locust tree
 while the hostas are getting ready to come up.

These tulips surround a flowering crab apple tree.  
They keep the pink and red theme going.

prairie smoke

This beautiful plant, also called Pasqueflower, is a native plant on the Canadian prairies.  It blooms early and gloriously, with large nodding purple petals and bright yellow centres.  The leaves and stems are very hairy and catch the light, and the whole effect is quite magical.

Last year (above pic) I was excited to see it produce two flowers.  Then my husband flipped over the garbage bin lid onto this raised bed, and crushed the plant flat.  Needless to say, I was a bit put out.  And moved the garbage bin.  But I guess the plant likes abuse, because it's even more glorious this year, with 10 flowers open and on their way.

Growing tips

• The pasque flower grows well in full sun or partial shade in raised beds, on hillsides, in rock gardens or in sunny borders. It’s happiest in fertile, slightly dry soil supplemented with peat moss or compost. 
• 
  
• Soil should be well drained.  Waterlogged soil at any time of year will kill it.
• 
  
• Sow fresh seeds (available from growers specializing in native plants and seeds) outdoors in late fall. Plant 10 centimetres deep and 30 to 40 centimetres apart. Plants may not bloom until the second year.
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• To propagate, take root cuttings every three to five years in early spring. Dig to expose a root—be careful to minimize damage—then remove and replant it.

After the petals fade, it produces some funky seed heads that persist a long time.

of snow and spiders

The level of the snow has gone down enough so that the birdbath is now peeking out.  The cat is finding it really easy to get a drink, but the birds will have to be really careful before they try.

I've been eyeing a spider plant baby that installed itself on top of a picture.  I peeked behind it to find that the roots have attached themselves to the back of the picture!  How strange!  It is getting nourishment from the mother plant, but finding a perch on the pic!

It was quite hard to pry the roots off the picture.  Now the baby is soaking in water in order to encourage the roots even further before I pot it up as a new plant.

snow is receeding

It's April 13, and the car is slowly emerging from a giant snow pile.  We have a long way to go before we can back out of the driveway.

These two little guys are part of a flock that has never visited our feeders before.  They are song sparrows.  I have been noticing a lot of new very melodic calls, but didn't know these were the callers.