Paperwhite Narcissus, Formosa Azalea, Jet Bead

This Narcissus has spread all over the yard.  It makes it impossible to mow until it is finished blooming and building nourishment for next season.

Here are a few non native bloomers in the yard.  I am not as partial to the overly hybridized varieties.  Love the natives. But the blooms have certainly added some verve to the old place.

Formosa Azalea blooms

I have never looked up this flowering shrub. It was here when I moved into this hundred year old house. There were several old favorites, Spirea, Forsythia, Crepe Myrtle etc that some lady of the house, now long dead, planted, perhaps lovingly, in her yard.  I have kept them in honor of her, whoever she was.  My father, a nurseryman, called this one Jet Bead but I never asked what family of plants it is in.  I am assuming that it is called Jet Bead because of it’s jet black berries that really attract the birds.  That is my primary fondness for this shrub that grows under my window.  Birdwatching.

~ by nouveaufauves on April 25, 2008.