Mid April

Although this weekend -- the middle of April -- is an unusually cold and windy one, the days up until now have been lovely and warm. Nights are cold, days are sunny and warm. The heat comes on in the morning, but by lunch time the sliding doors have been opened and it's pleasant in or out of the house. Ahh.

It's dry. Some days are very windy, others are less so. Fruit trees are flowering, and our pink flowered plums on the street have finished and are now well clothed in purple foliage. The honeylocusts are still bare.

When I walk out my front door my neighbor's forsythia waves to me from across the street. You don't see forsythias as overused as in the east, and this one is cheerful and bright and a welcome sight in the browns and grays of Santa Fe.

Too bad about the utility boxes right there, but what can you do. For a forsythia, this one has a nice form.

My potted Japanese maple 'Seiryu' is leafing out and it looks delicate next to the stucco house wall.

It's such a pretty form, and I hope I can keep it pruned and shapely in a container by the deck. I'll need to repot it and give it more room at some point.

The hummingbird feeder is hung right outside the kitchen window, and it's easily seen while sitting in the living room too. On the colder nights the sugar water freezes, but it quickly thaws when the day warms up.

I saw our first hummingbird visitor this Thursday, April 12. It was bigger than the ruby throated hummers back east, but it darted so fast I could not tell what kind it was. Black chinned hummingbirds and broad tailed hummingbirds are common in New Mexico, but there are others too. I'll need to learn to identify them. I have a great view to do that.

There are surprise irises. The edge of the rock drainage path tucked against the neighbor's fence was overgrown and looked like nothing last summer. I cleaned it up over winter, watered the area some, and here in spring is a row of irises scattered among the spiky yuccas.

I was interested to see what color and type of iris these are, and by mid April they are starting to bloom.

Just one has opened, but tight buds are waiting to open all along this patch. They are deep purple bearded irises. Very rich and velvety.

The iris foliage looks accordian-folded on many of the plants. My research tells me that's because of drought followed by too much water, and cold followed by too much heat. These irises had all of that. I didn't even know they were there, and through neglect they went unwatered all last season. When I watered in late winter and spring it was too much. Then winter was too warm, and the foliage crinkled up in disgust.

But the irises persist and Susan tells me they have advanced under the fence and are growing on her side too.

And coming into my courtyard from her patio garden are some exploring tendrils of vinca.

I'll let it wander where it wants. I like vinca, the blooms are pretty, and this is in an empty spot along the side fence where the utility closet is and garden items are stored. It's a fine place for patch of vinca.

Catmint is blooming -- too early it seems. It started in early April. Last summer I saw a little blob of green in the stones around the aspens, but it hadn't been watered and didn't look like anything other than a declining weed. I watered it a little over winter, to see what it might be. Now, in spring, it is growing and blooming and it is clearly a nice clump of catmint.

Catmint, or nepeta, can get big and bushy. I don't think it was planted here, it must have escaped from somewhere nearby. I should move it, since I think it probably rooted on top of the underlying landscape fabric, with no real soil there.

I could transplant it to one of my new amended gardens; catmint is a nice big flowering plant that will fill some new spaces. But I like the way it set itself in the stones, offset casually to the side, just so.

Without enough soil under the gravel will it stay small but nice? Or is it doomed growing above a landscape fabric layer? If it does have enough soil in that spot it will get too big for the space. So . . . move it or not?

Another surprise is the green shrub at the edge of the deck. This was apparently intentionally planted, with the landscape fabric pulled back. It was healthy and a good size last summer, and the opposite leaf arrangement and color and texture made me think it was a viburnum.

But there was no evidence of berries or past flower blooms, and the shrub was little and low, so I doubted myself on the id. Plus I don't see viburnums sold in the nurseries around here.

Now, in mid April it has a couple bloom buds, and it clearly is a viburnum. There are so many kinds of viburnums -- I am pretty sure, based on the leaves and the rounded pink buds, this is the popular V. carlesii, or Koreanspice viburnum. Unless this is one of the compact varieties of Koreanspice, it will get too big for this spot by the deck stairs.
 

I am seeing buds on all my plants. The Rose of Sharon will open late, but it has leaf buds. The Spanish broom has tiny swellings on each thin blade and those will become yellow flowers soon.

Even my redbud, Cercis 'Oklahoma' which I planted last fall totally leafless and seemingly dead / dormant, has little leaf buds all over and even a few magenta blooms in places. It lived.

Despite the drought, spring looks promising and there are things to see already. But the one thing I cannot abide is the state of the Virginia Creeper vine on the coyote fence in back. It has buds and will green up and become lush (too lush without chopping back), but in mid April it remains brown and ugly. Bleeaah.

When I tire of looking at that brown vine on my fence, a morning at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden is called for. It's a nice visit on a weekday in mid April.