TODAY'S FLOWERS, Weekend Flowers & Floral Friday - Spring in Full Force

Spring has busted out all over while I wasn't looking

The crabapple 'Floribunda', that sparingly flowered all winter

surprised me with more blossom than ever

my deep pink flowering almond thought it was boring so it 

added some pink sports!

The oak just had to get in the act and it looks like wi'll have

a great crop of acorns for the pigs to enjoy

and yippee! I have masses and masses of tulips.

I'll show you more next time.

Linking with

TODAY'S FLOWERS 

 Weekend Flowers

Floral Friday

and

SATURDAY SHOW OFF

TODAY'S FLOWERS - Winter Blooms

My crabapple, Malus floribunda, is as confused with the 

seasons as the birds

it is not supposed to flower in early winter when all it's leaves

have fallen

the last autumn leaf still lies on the ground

yet the garden has skipped three months and thinks it's spring!

Thank you Denise for keeping this cheerful meme going for 

more than five years.

I have always found it a delight to share my flowers here.

TODAY'S FLOWERS - Birthday Wonders

On this special day for me, when I reach my first

three quarter century, I went around the garden

and park to show you the wonders mother nature

has blessed me with on this one day. This is but a

selection of all that is flowering at the moment.

My shade-house full of scented and other orchids

is not even touched upon here.

The wisteria along the house is in full bloom.

On first waking very early, this Adelaide Rosella was nipping

off the new shoots of my rose bushes.

I went to the farmers' market and on my way back, saw this

amazing tree peony. The elderly gentleman kindly invited me

into his garden to photograph it and insisted on presenting me

with a bloom for my birthday!

With these few hardy tulips, I would like to thank all those of

you who so kindly prayed for us, sent kind thought and light.

Your intervention on our behalf has already paid dividends as

the prognosis for my wonderful sister has changed from an

impossibly frightening one, to a more hopefully operable

contained brain tumour close to the scull.

The operation is scheduled for Monday so please if you can,

continue with your support a little longer.

Below is my birthday tree that never fails to have at least a

few blossoms on the day. This year it is in full flight and a joy

to behold

I thought with all the turmoil in the family my birthday would

pass unnoticed but to my great surprise, suddenly last night

my son, daughter-in-love and youngest granddaughter

materialised on our doorstep!

Above, a close up of my birthday tree and below a mountain

of gold . . . am I rich or what??

Everyone should have a daisy a day . . .

Heading into the park, I was greeted by Sam who excitedly ran

towards me faster than I could get his tail into my sights.

The Judas tree is full of pretty pink buds,

This ash that I cannot remember off hand has bright pink flower

like leaves.

the Choke CHerry, Prunus padus, takes me back to my Latvian

childhood with it's wonderfully heady scent.

The Banksia is covered in golden birthday candles just for me

and even the young oak that I grew from an acorn is flowering

for the first time

and lucky last, these deep pink blossoms on my red-leafed

crabapple.

And that is not the half of all that is in bloom at the moment.

I wish each and every one of you a happy day!

Just click on the Logo and fall into a wealth of flower and show

your own as well.

TODAY'S FLOWERS - Pink and Pretty

Spring is in full swing, daylight lasts longer, the days are

warmer and blossoms abound everywhere.

Prunus persicum, in my daughter's garden just down the hill.

A closer look - isn't it pretty?

I just popped in this one to see if you were awake, no, this

is not pink but it is a Prunus and looks like a veritable snow

queen.

Just to whet your appetite, one of my all time favourite trees,

Malus floribunda or flowering crabapple. I'll show some

more of this tree in another post.

This one is a real splash in my garden, a double flowering

almond

and again so you can see the very double blossoms

All may be enlarged at will.

Join TOSAY'S FLOWERS and show us what is flowering in your neck of the woods.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 31 My Garden Today

As I went out to the garden this afternoon, I found
this ballerina in her tutu dancing on my Almond tree.



when she saw me, she blushed rosy red, was she
pleased, was she embarrassed? Who can tell....



Meanwhile, Viburnum burkwoodii was out in all her
glory exuding perfume all around.



Not to be outdone, the first branch of my Orchid had
opened and the whole shadehouse was bathed in scent.



Shy 'Claire Matin' coyly turned her head as I lifted
my camera.



Further down the garden path the Crabapple was
reaching for the sky,

here it is again in all its perfumed delight, Malus
floribunda, shading the grass that perhaps I should
have weeded out. On the other hand, the grass is

still green and green is good.

For flowers of other seasons, click on the Logo.

All photos enlarge with a simple click.

Luiz Santilli Jr. is the originator of this great meme,
do join in, it is great fun.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 26 Winter Wonders

All images are better when enlarged!

A double flowering Prunus, one of a pair that survived
the drought.



In the winter cold, a welcome snack to hungry bees.



This is the normal time of year for Almond trees and
ormanental Plums to begin blossoming . Not so for
the usually much later flowering Malus floribunda, which
has been confused by the winter rains into thinking that
it is growing time again, as have all the Roses.
Normally this particular Crabapple is the showiest tree in
the garden. After the prolonged drought, there are just a few
out of season florets on it. It at least, unlike so many other
trees, has survived..



Daphne odora, that I grew from a cutting and gave my
eldest g-daughter for her 21st birthday last year.
Amazing what the granddaughters managed to do with
a bit of sink water, it is beautifully healthy and blooming
all over.



There is frost on the ground in the mornings and yet
the roses, having been dormant during summer and autumn ,
are asserting what life they had left in them, by bringing
forth flowers of unimaginably rich colours due to the cold.
Colours that are totally unexpected, below is 'Charles Austin'
normally a gentle apricot, blushing with embarrasment at being
caught out of bed so early in the season.



A mutant flower on 'Abraham Darby', again a much
deeper colour than in Spring.



Luckily not all the blooms look like they have been hit
by Chernobil and have turned into London double
decker buses. The flower below is normal except for the
colour, normally pink with a light blush of apricot.



Oxalis, a proclaimed noxious weed, is doing magnificently.
It has such happy yellow flowers and looks so pretty but
is almost impossible to keep in check after a long dry spell.

The ever hardy Lachenalia, commonly called Soldier

Boys because of their red jackets. Come hell or high
water, they will survive!

This winter there is so much flowering in the garden
that I have not even touched the half of it in this post.
There are no mass displays as yet, but there are
countless single blooms here and there so that it is a
discovery trip every time I go outside.

For more Flora of different seasons, click on the Logo.

*

Congratulations to Luiz Santilly Jr. for creating this most

popular and delightful meme and for keeping it going with

the help of his idustrious elves week after week for its first

successful year. With the list of participants growing daily,

I hope this meme continues for many years to come.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 24 Flowers in a Bare Winter Garden

Mid-winter and the nights are full of frost
but after years of drought and now a little rain,
it seems not all is lost.



I went out to the garden, to see what I cloud see
I spied a little Almond bud upon an Almond tree




and Crabapples were blooming though winter cold is here




a Pansy and a Hyacinth,





a little Rosebud dear

some Cyclamen

and Snowflakes

Geranium as well

and in the shadehouse corner a Jacob's Ladder fell
like pearls strung on a necklace with tiny flowers strewn

that mingled their sweet perfume

with that of grass new mown

Just when I thought how wonderful

the presents it bestowed

a lone Anemone smiled up

nodded its head and shyly bowed

Precursors of the Spring to come
the welling tide they promise,
but just for now I am content
with what the heav'ns to me have sent.

Click on the red Rose Logo for a world of flowers.

A hug to my friend Luiz Santilli Jr. and the Team he has

enlisted to to give us this joy of sharing flowers.