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Monday, May 28, 2018

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz

Time for Auntie Kay's annual photos of her perennials. Bear with me, folks, I'm at it again.
A new twist for 2018: Auntie Kay doesn't remember the names of all her trees.
No, not names like 'Mary' or 'Jim' or even 'Myrtle' — just doesn't know the genus, the species, specifics, or special features.  
"Sigh," as Auntie Kay is wont to say.
It's been a great month weatherwise, not so great memorywise, so bear with me folks.
It's Spring, I gotta do it before summer starts this week!
SO, LET'S CALL THIS MYSTERY 'MERRY'
EVEN IF IT ISN'T A CHRISTMAS  TREE 
"Merry" has been tantalizing me, and some of my long-suffering friends who have tried to help, but we can't come up with a definite identification, even after posting photos on Facebook. Sigh.
One theory has it that it might be lavender. Research shows it might not. I hope it isn't, but only because I don't remember having a lavender bush or tree, and one would think one would, especially a tree-shrub-whatever with such obviously old stems and branches?
(NB: after several blogging friends have studied the subject, it turns out that my most mysterious mystery tree is honeysuckle, even if it doesn't look exactly like my little honeysuckle bush.)


Image may contain: plant, flower, nature and outdoor
FIRST THREE ARE CLOSEUPS OF MY MIGHT-MAYBE-BE-LAVENDER BLOSSOMS





AND BELOW A CLOSEUP OF THE
ANCIENT TREE-SHRUB-BUSH THAT BORE THEM, 
DEFINITELY NOT A NEW ADDITION TO THE 'GARDEN'



SO...back to my usuals, starting with the ubiquitous Ornamental Crabapple Tree below—
an annual favourite of mine and, I hope, yours.



THE EVER-POPULAR HONEYSUCKLE, BELOW, OR WHAT'S LEFT OF IT


AND WE MUSTN'T FORGET THE NANKING CHERRY TREES
WITH STEMLESS FRUIT GROWING RIGHT OUT FROM THE BRANCHES


DOES ANYONE RECOGNIZE THIS TREE/SHRUB/WHATEVER
THAT VOLUNTEERED TO DROP
ITS ITTY-BITTY WHITE FLOWERS ON THE DECK?
EVEN MY BIG NEWPUSH-BROOM CAN'T SWEEP THEM UP


AND MY BELATED SPRING
GARDEN POST WOULDN'T BE COMPLETE
WITHOUT A LONG SHOT FROM THE DECK TO THE BACK GATE


This, then, is my world
Posting for Lady Fi's wonderful

REMINDER: ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED

18 comments:

Marcia said...

Your unknown tree looks like it has honeysuckle blossoms. But here they grow on vines not a tree. Maybe its a white version of your pink honeysuckle.

Penelope Postcards said...

Wish I knew what the correct names were for some of the foliage. The maybe-lavender looks a little like a species of honeysuckle to me. To make sense of it all we do need the labels, despite assurances that a rose by any other name is still a rose. :)

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Well, Kay, I can reassure you that that is definitely NOT lavender. Lavender is a small shrub that usually grows 20 to 24 inches tall and wide. The height includes the flower stalks, so when not in bloom, the foliage may be only a foot tall. A tree it can never be, except by ornamental training in pots and even then...

What you have there, I am reasonably confident in stating, as Morrow's Honeysuckle - a very mature one, by the furrows on the bark. It is an 'import'.

AS that took forty minutes, I'll let someone else research the other white-flowering tree!! YAM xx

Lady Fi said...

Your garden is beautiful! Your maybe-lavender isn't lavender at all. Looks more like honeysuckle to me.

William Kendall said...

Pretty blossoms!

Tom said...

...spring is such a glorious time of year, enjoy it.

jesh StG said...

Don't feel bad, I have never known the name. I just grew up with the word "flower." Have a progressed a little since I've been blogging to know "some" of the names of flowers, thanks to several bloggers:):)
But your captures are beautiful!

Thank you for your comment about about San Francisco. My avoidance stems from having to deal with "traffic" and noise, waiting an hour or more to get one's order in restaurants for more than 30 years in the Los Angeles basin.
Nice to see you still have the "old" comment form. This week it's like being in "another" blogspot country, because of the changed comment forms!

carol l mckenna said...

Magnificent photos of Spring! Lovely post!

Happy Times to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Life Of 2 Snowbirds said...

I'm sorry that I don't know the name of your tree but I did enjoy your pictures and comments about your trees. They are all beautiful. Just wanted to drop by to thank you for commenting at my blog, Life of 2 snowbirds, about your visit to the Las Vegas area. It was so nice to hear your thoughts and get to know a little about you and your family!

Phil Slade said...

Hi Kay. Now if you'd asked about birds .... sigh!

Can't help at all I'm afraid but out there somewhere is someone who will know.

Hope you are keeping as well as can be. And yes, spring is here at last, even in wet and windy Lancashire.

Mara said...

Goodness me, I love your garden with all those flowering trees and shrubs. Not a clue what they are, I would just go with white flowering tree and pink flowering tree!! Sorry.

Powell River Books said...

Your tree names may not be Mary or Jim, but Myrtle is a common tree name. Just saying. - Margy

Andrea said...

Hello Kay, i smiled much to your introduction, seems i can fully relate with you on the forgetfulness. But in terms of specific names of plants, i want them to be correct in my garden, hehe. My collections are mostly labeled unless it is really NOID. Sorry i cannot help with yours as i am not familiar with temperate plants, only the most common.

RE-ur comment in my post: The Philippines is home to about 200 species of hoyas. I would like to inform you that before we learn about it, many species has already been gone from our forests and already in nurseries of collectors abroad, mostly US and EU, where they are cultured more difficultly indoors. But they raise a lot of wonderful plants and flowers, its industry already there. Now that we already know its value, not just as weeds, we want to have them back at least in the gardens here in the country, unfortunately the prices there are too much for our capacity to pay, so we just can't have samples of all of them again! This is a very sad story.... By the way, there is a very successful hoya grower in Canada, from the University.

elizabeth said...

Beautiful!

LA Paylor said...

Hi Kay
I'm sending a link to my landscaping friend in the Netherlands... she'll know ! Love your writing!

stardust said...

Spring is sprung! I especially like the Crabapple tree in bloom and the view seen from the deck to the back gate. Though the reason is different, calling plants with your own name reminded me of a Japanese poem for children by Misuzu Kaneko.

Names of Flowers

I don’t know the names of flowers
other people know.
I know lots of names of flowers
No one else knows.

You see, I gave them to them...
Names I like to flowers I like.
The names for flowers people know
Someone gave them, anyhow.

The sun alone, up in the sky,
Knows what each name really is.

So I call them what I like.
Just me.... Names I like....

Yoko

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

And a beautiful world it is! Especially to a Spring-deprived person like me (Not much difference between winter and spring here in the subtropics). And because it comes earlier in Oregon, many of the flowering trees are past their prime by the time we get home. So thanks for the pretty pictures and the memories!

Indah Nuria Savitri said...

I love honey suckles..The smell is sweet and lovely!