Rhododendron Time on the Farm

Do you have Rhododendrons where you live?  We sure do!  Our farm place has many different varieties here.  I think one of the owners had nursery stock for sale over the last hundred years.  We moved in to this farmhouse in January and I will never forget when Spring arrived and everything started sprouting and putting out blooms.. it was amazing!  This is the first one to bloom.. I've noticed that the whites and creams bloom first and the darker ones later, although I do have a pure red one in bloom now, too.  The buds on this start as pink but it opens to a pure creamy ivory white.  

This is the whole shrub, see the pink buds?  Behind it is my favorite color, it's a brilliant magenta/fuchsia color.  See the Japanese Rose that has infiltrated the rhodies?  Tsk tsk.

Standing at the base of this is divine, looking up into all that lovely bloominess.  (Oh look, I coined a new word!)

The Kerria Rose/Japanese Rose is pretty, although invasive. 

Next to the pond, my Bleeding Hearts are beginning to bloom. 

We have a pot of chives.. if you don't have one, you need to get one!  This pot of chives has been thriving with no special care for almost 15 years!  We use it all the time in our cooking. 

We planted several hardy Fuchsias in these baskets the last few years, it was such a mild winter that the green one in the center never even lost it's leaves!  They're all filling out wonderfully! 

 Our DIL Kristi brought the boys out for a visit yesterday, they're sitting with grandpa on the shed deck.. poor gramps was mortified at this photo, we have some garden work to get done, but the weather has *not* cooperated until now.  Buddy is a hole digger the little bugger.

Grandpa got quite a bit of mowing before the kids got here and did more after they headed home.  They love riding on the mower with gramps. 

I took the dog on a walkabout earlier and I just wish you could smell the aroma of fresh mowed field grass and the Laotian flower farmers that grow fields of blooms across the road were out planting Dahlia tubers in the fresh tilled earth.   

Here are some purple Ajuga that Dayle spared while mowing, he also spared the blue flowers beyond.  We have a wild farm garden and my blog friend Gracie told me that she's been learning about gardening by watching a BBC program on Permaculture - and assured me we're doing the right thing with our wild garden ways.. yay! :-) 

I thought this unfurled Azalea bloom was kind of cool.. behind it is my Honeysuckle which is bushing out and putting on buds.

Here is that patch of Forget-Me-Nots, they are all over here. 

Our red Azalea out by the road is opened up pretty well, soon the whole bush will be brilliant red. 

I walked into the front yard and got a photo of our other creamy colored Rhodie, and I realized that it's a different variety as it's got all the red dots in it's throat, but the other one is un-dotted. 

This is another early blooming one.. it's pale pink and floppy.... we've had a super heavy pollen year and all the leaves have a coating of it on them. 

Here is the deep red one. 

Here I am in our driveway by the red azalea near the road - see the new mown grass?  See Dayle on the orange Kubota tractor by the barn?  See all the wild cherry trees in bloom? 

I have been checking the lilacs daily for the tight buds to open so I can bring in a bouquet of them.. this little half-forgotten lilac behind the carport is the closest one to being open.  The wild cherry behind and the shorter one in bloom is plum.  Our farm used to have an orchard and we still have a big old apple tree, several pear trees, plums, walnut and chestnut. 

My daughter in Ohio sent these photos of the girls having a tea party in their screened in porch at their new house.  She found this real porcelain tea set at a garage sale nearby.  Aren't the girls just adorable?  I miss them sooo much. 

Cute girls. 

We're having a nice easy weekend.. how is yours going?  I hope you have a great week and that you have flowers in your yard.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)