Sandhill Creek Tulip Farm

 It's Tulip season and Sandhill Creek Farm is open for viewing!  This local farm, located on the road to Sauble Beach, just opened for the first time last year, and we were mightily impressed!  We have visited the famous tulip fields of the Skagit Valley in Washington State, and this is just as impressive.  The season is short though, so we went during the first week.

There are numerous rows of the tulips, each about four feet wide.  Some are a single colour and others are mixed, with all styles of blooms.

The pathways are of hard-packed sand, and wide enough for me to ride down between each row.

I personally like the various mixtures of colouirs, but let me show you the range.

There are early season, mid-season and late tulips.  These two rows are obviously of the late variety.

The tulip field has been moved to new ground from last year, but they still sit in the shadow of the old farm barn.

Among the single colour rows, these bright red were one of my favourites.

There were bright orange, ...

brilliant yellow, ...

And more subdued purple.

Mrs. F.G. was most impressed by these very large white ones, with unique variegated leaves.

If my mom had been along, these would definitely have been her favourites!

Maple Tree Flowers

 At the moment here in southern Ontario, the maple trees here are bathed in a light almost fluorescent green which I always thought was the leaves emerging.  But it's not, it's the tiny flowers of the maple trees, take a look below.  Shortly the leaves will unfold, a darker green, providing the canopy.

The photos above are of a Sugar Maple. and by the end of the summer these will form the maple keys we're all familiar with.  I never noticed these until someone pointed them out a few years ago.  At the same time the leaves are starting to emerge and will transform our world into a green one within two weeks.

These three photos are of a Norway Maple.  Same idea, but slightly different shape to the 'flowers', and ultimately there will be a different shape to the maple keys, the easiest way to identify the difference.  

So next time you're walking past any maple trees, take a close look and see if you can see the tiny flowers!

More Spring Wildflowers!

I used to wander the woods a lot in the early weeks of May.  So to build on my sister's photos of Trillium and Trout Lily in my last post, here are a few of my own favourite spring wildflower shots.

This is one of my favoujrite wildflower shots of all time, a Red Trillium.

This really weird purple flower unfolding is the Blue Cohosh,  

No, it's not purple once the leaves appear, just green.

And I've never seen a plant grow so fast; it will grow two inches a day.

Violets are plentiful on the forest floor.  This is the Northern White Violet.

And this is the Downy Yellow Violet.

Wild Ginger is one of the most unusual, as the flower lies on the ground under the leaves.

A close look shows a flower that is deep red, almost brown.

This one is Spring Beauty, a delicate little flower.

This unusual one is Squirrel Corn.

Ad these delicate little blooms are Dutchman's Breeches.

And I'll finish with my own favourite photo of a White Trillium.

Thanks to my Sister!

 Ten years ago at this time of year I would have been out in the woods, walking whatever trails I could with my camera and looking for wildflowers to photograph.  The first three weeks in May are a special season in the woods, after temperatures have risen above freezing but before the leaves come out.  For those few weeks the sun can reach the forest floor, and that's when you can find the wildflowers in bloom.

Of course I can't do that anymore, but my sister can, so today she's given me permission to use some of her recent photos.  Thanks sis!

It's the season of leaves emerging, and soon the forest will be a different place.

But for now the woods looks like this, sunlight filtering through the branches to the forest floor.  Quite simply it is the most beautiful time of year in the woods.

And here in Ontario it is the time to look for Trillium, here a beautiful large patch.

I have always loved Trillium, and my sister did a great job of capturing these.

You probably would not recognize this field of small white flowers, because they are very rare here.

These are the white form of the Trout Lily or Dog-tooth Violet.  I have only seen these in one location myself.

This is the much more common version of the plant, with a yellow flower.  These are very common here, carpeting the forest floor.

And a great swath of bright yellow Marsh Marigolds.

A small clump, up close.

Thanks to my sister for getting these great photos and sharing them.  The two smaller ones are my own.

Garden Work is Well Underway!

 Mrs. F.G. has begun the annual spring clean-up  and tune-up for the garden.  In particular she and our garden helper have carried out the bags of soil and reconstructed the 'towers', adding the soil as they went.  Mrs. F.G. uses a number of soil amendments to achieve the balance she wants, so it all requires mixing.

A great deal of the garden work goes on indoors where Mrs. F.G. has lights set up in the basement and grows many of her plants from seed.  This year she has tried geraniums, and she has already moved them into the garage to harden off.  They won't get planted out until the end of the month.

In the back yard work began on building the towers, starting with the soil mixture.

By the end of the day three towers were in place, ready for Mrs. F.G. to try out various little plants in them.

The big job was filling each layer with soil as they were built.  These towers are taken apart and the soil removed for the winter.

In other news the onions and peas have been planted.

The decorative trellises for the peas have been installed.

And the grandchildren's giant dragonfly added.

Mrs. F.G. has also begun her annual translocation trapping for chipmunks and red squirrels.

The Garden is Growing!

 Since I last showed you shoots of Daffodils coming up through the snow, the garden has boomed!  We have bunches of Daffodils out front, and a few out back.  And work on the garden is getting underway.  More on that tomorrow.

The small kidney-shaped garden a round our two trees out front is just beautiful at the moment!

One lonely Dandelion showed up in the front lawn.  I like Dandelions, but this one didn't last long.

And a few Daffodils out back.  Daffodils mark spring at our place.

There are  other plants in bloom!  The Forsythia provides a bright splash of yellow in the corner of the garden.  Yellows seem to typify spring around here.