Choice Morsels

Today, my Portuguese Squill is in season! The heads make the most interesting photo specimens as they first begin to bloom, the blossoms gradually unfurling a few at a time until it's one full, flat head of bluish-purple flowers! Easy to grow. It's a bulb you plant in the fall. Of the 5 original bulbs I planted 3 years ago, 4 survived and have doubled.  

  Today, I thought I'd share 3 pictures of things in my Garden in full Spring Bloom! Everything is signaling that, here in Florida, winter is over! My Porteguese Squill: So unique looking! Had bluish-purple flowers that gradually unfurl from the center! My Winter Jasmine is looking pretty now! It's actually been blooming a few flowers ever since November, but now that's spring is on, it's really getting covered! I keep it trimmed in this draping form. Finally, a have a large cluster of Spring Snowflakes appearing around a stump in a back bed where I planted the bulbs years ago every spring! This photo is a close view of the flowers. They remind me of little white skirts edged with green dots, like small upside down tulips.

I flew down and visited friends in Orlando a week ago. It was a nice getaway and got to know them a whole lot better. This week for Garden Pics, I'm featuring some "Blues." I collect flowers that bloom blue because they are uncommon. Bloomed earlier this spring: Portuguese Squill    Blooming now: Blue Clematis It's sort of a soft lavenderish-blue. I bought it for this color and because it's smaller stature for a clematis (5 feet), but my soil is acidy, so it was much more violet last year. So I watered it often last fall with water with baking soda and also added some lime--so this year, it's more the proper light blue color!

I haven't posted for awhile mostly because I've been in the throes of moving files from my old desktop to my new one. It very much like moving into all your stuff into a new house, then unpacking it and arranging it. I t's been a slow process, but today, since things in the garden are beginning to spring to life, I could share a picture of my new Portuguese Squill. It's got a fastening head and will continue opening new rows of flowers until the whole center is one huge cluster of blue/purple flower! I've seen honeybees visiting already!