Still Celebrating Spring

When I read other bloggers writing about their roses blooming, I think they must be having summer already. Roses are a summer flower, aren't they? Anyway, we're still celebrating spring around here.



The transplanted dark pink dogwood is blooming. I am so in love with this tree! An especially cold night made the flower color more vivid than usual. I'm still nervous about how it will do when the weather gets hot. Hopefully it will settle into its new spot and regrow roots quickly.



The clearance rack 'Katherine Havemeyer' lilacs are blooming for the first time. Unfortunately some of them are losing leaves and shoots to bacterial blight, but I think they'll outgrow the problem. I'm going to pull out more of the lawn that currently surrounds them to give their roots more room. I'll also make sure they get watered deeply and fed with low-nitrogen fertilizer this season, and that should help them withstand disease better in the future.



The white dogwood is also blooming, with lavender vinca flowers underneath. Sweetness! Soon the 'Stellar Pink' dogwood will join the show.



All my ferns are unraveling their new leaves. They're so interesting to me, even without any flowers. Did I mention how much fun I'm having with my new camera lens that goes down to a 2.8 f-stop? It creates some great blurry backgrounds to make the focal point pop.



Here at 2.8, the lens makes the bark in the background look like it's painted in an impressionist style. The sea pink (Armeria maritima) in the foreground is so pretty. Many plants have buds ready to pop open, and many of them are blooming for the first time in my garden. So I can wait a month or more for the roses, and continue to enjoy spring for a while.