Unexpected Violas

Last year, I seeded violas in a pot and really struggled with them germinating.  The pot sat on a coffee table on the patio all summer and while some of them did finally grow, they were slow and fairly scraggly.  So imagine my surprise and delight when these violas began to pop up in the cracks on our patio this spring!  They've been a bright, if unexpected, spot all season.  I'm sure there is a lesson about blooming in unexpected places,  taking your time to take root, etc., but I'm really just enjoying their sweet faces popping up everywhere!  

The Tulips

It's been a bit of an interesting spring here on the farm.  As always, there is so, so much beauty in the fresh greens, spring bulbs and flowering trees.  This year, we've had some heartbreak in that we lost almost 15 flowering trees, all ones that we've planted.  Crabapples, apples, dogwoods, cherries, and even the yellow magnolia that managed to hang on after a deer rubbed it with its antlers.  I knew that we would see some damage from the fall drought but I wasn't expecting so many of the trees to not come back!  In fact, it's frustrating because we don't have a definitive answer to its cause.  It could be the drought or the colder than normal winter, or a combination of both.  However, the tulips have been a constant and total delight!  They are just the pop of color that we crave after a dreary winter and beginning of spring!

In the fall, I planted a fair amount of "perennial" tulips in the garden and orchard and my hope is that they actually do stick around.  I put perennial in parenthesis because while most tulips would be considered perennial, many of them don't continue to have the same quality bloom year after year.  In fact, flower farms usually pull up the tulip, bulb and all, to harvest as this gives them the best stem length and they know they won't get the same quality bloom the next year.  I specifically chose the tulips for the garden beds (around the peonies) that consistently have come back year after year for other growers.  

In the orchard, I planted some pink ones that mimic the color of the apple blossoms.  

Personally, and I know this is a hot take, but I prefer tulips in the garden versus in the vase!  So while I will cut some for a pitcher or an arrangement, for the most part I leave them outside.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a bit different this year, it was the first time ever that neither of my children were here, which was sad.  However, they both called and we had a lovely chat.  My Mom, sister and Brendan (Bill was on a work trip!) came over for pizza in the evening, which was made super lovely by the weather we had!  We haven't really spent much time on the patio this spring so that was nice to do!

We conține to enjoy using the pizza oven, especially using seasonal produce from the garden!

For dessert, I made a Rhubarb Lilac Pavlova.  Honestly, I'm so obsessed with this recipe that this is the second time I've made it this season!  

Ramps

 

Ramp season has come to a close.  It was a top priority of Grace's, while she was home for Easter, to go foraging for ramps.  She finds it meditative to harvest them and will even do the tedious job of cleaning them!  One of the things we love about ramps is that they are really the first harvest we can make after the winter season!  It's so lovely to eat something fresh again!

We always enjoy finding new ways to use ramps, pickling the bulb ends makes them last longer than the two week availability window, and pesto can be frozen.  This year, we made a ramp pizza in the pizza oven and I made a stuffed focaccia.  

Till next year...

Lily of the Valley + Honesty Plant + Einstein's Begonia + A Fern

Lily of the Valley is a beloved spring flower, especially in France where it is given on May 1st as a symbol of spring and good luck!  We have a patch here that was already in place when we arrived but I've coveted the pink variety that one doesn't see that often.  In fact, I've purchased the "rosea" variety but it hasn't come up pink, but rather the traditional white.  

However, that changed when I met a complete stranger, Connie, at a garden center.   Last year, I was at the nursery and inquired as to whether they had a money plant, or Lunaria.  While they didn't have it, a woman who was shopping nearby overheard me and told me how she had plenty of Lunaria seeds (that are traced back to her Grandmother's plant), that she would be happy to share!  Not only did she drop the seeds off but she brought a few live plants (they are biennial) and their dried seed heads!

While here, we got to chatting and she offered up a tour of her garden, which I happily accepted.  As she was leaving, she commented on my Lily of the Valley and mentioned that she had a pink variety (also from her Grandmother!) and that I was welcome to take some!  I happily obliged and am so excited that they came up and are absolutely, perfectly pale pink!  We only got a few flowers this year but hopefully they will spread and grow!

I've been watching the area where I seeded the Lunaria and it's coming up as well!  Connie also gave me a cutting from her begonia plant that was originally Einsteins (I can't make this up, she actually sent me the complete history of this particular begonia)!  As if all that wasn't enough, I even came home with a fern that was from a cutting of her Mother's.  

Connie is a testament to the kindness of strangers and also reaffirms my opinion that Gardners are the best, the most inclusive and generous of people!  Also, ya'll in my wildest dreams I can't imagine Grace or Harris nurturing a plant of mine for decades and then passing it on to their child!