A Garden of my very Own: Flowering Fauna

A lot of the real pizzazz that has been happening in my yard has already come to a close, the buds all flowering and falling, but for the past few weeks, I was welcomed into my new home by the garden around me. Every day brought a new bloom of color, little fireworks in my front lawn.

Discovery 1: A Forsythia bush
I wasn't quite sure what this yellow monstrosity was until I asked my part-time flower-shop-worker mother-in-law. I really never noticed that they existed, but once we found the one in our back yard, they were everywhere. Everywhere. I think it's a conspiracy.

While it's gorgeous for the two or three weeks it blooms, it's less than attractive the rest of the year. Also, the previous owners planted it too close to a fence line so it grows out diagonally, which will look rather awkward after we tear the fence down. Likely, we won't have a forsythia bush after next year. Unless I buy a new one.

Discovery 2: Columbines
I'm new to the existence of columbines. When the shooting at Columbine happened when I was in high school, for example, I had no idea the school was named after a flower. However, one of my aunts has given a number of columbines to mother, who is a fan of the columbine, over the years since. While de-crabgrassing the front beds, I noticed a few columbines. Sadly, some of them lost there lives during the battle. There are always causalities in wartime. Fortunately a number of columbines live on, both in the front and back yards, including those that have white, purple, and pink blooms.

Discovery 3: Four lilac bushes, plus a number of baby bushes that will need to be transplanted.
And here I was, sad about the lack of lilac bushes. Two of them have darker flowers.

Two of them have lighter flowers.

Discovery 4: Wisteria vines
We have three, two that have grown up the opposite sides of a trellis to form a living, CO2 breathing doorway into the front yard, both of which have purple flowers.

Another vine of white flowers shares a trellis with a none-wistera vine that we have yet to identify. It may be a clematis.

Discovery 5: Lily of the Valley, Blue Bells, and Violets

One of the best smells in existence: Lily of the Valley. Second only to Lilac.

I'd like to have a few more violets than I do, but I'll  take what I can get. Violets were my grandmother's favorite flower.

Discovery 6: The Beauty of my flowering trees

All of them in bloom at the same time, a grove of rose-colored hue. A flowering cherry.

A pink-blossomed dogwood.

A redbud.

Not to mention the two Japanese maples (one in the front, one with the rest of the flowering trees) and three magnolias, two in the front, one with the rest of the flowering trees).

Discovery 7: Two azalea bushes

We knew about the rhododendron bush out front, which blooms pink, but the azaleas, one in the front and one in the back, where a surprise.

The discoveries keep on coming, even as I continue my quest to rub out the crabgrass and plant my vegetables. The fun is only just beginning.