Plant life on the farm #1 121219

      I think we are late enough into winter that you might enjoy seeing just some of the spring flowers we had on the farm. It was the best time for many of them, even the only time for some.
      This weigela bush was right beside the house and it would attract butterflies from all over.

      This nandina was pretty all year around. This picture was taken in March, but the berries usually lasted through to late winter.

      Pear blossoms in spring. This tree was an Orient pear and did not require a secondary tree for cross pollination. It produced well every year, but we rarely got any of the fruit because the deer loved them less ripe than we could eat them. The deer would stand on their hind legs and pluck the pears from the tree branches. They would even leap for the higher fruits. It was a sight to see. It was a big reason we had so many deer on the farm.

      We had Iris everywhere on the farm. There were so many different colors and thanks to Steve Williams we had even more than before. His father collected Iris and Steve and Linda cleared out his father's Iris beds one year because they had grown too thick and we got the benefits with wheelbarrows full of the more exotic Iris. If you have ever grown Iris you know the flowers grow on tall stalks and the flowers seem so delicate; truth is they are tough. We had high winds some years in spring that bent those stalks over to the ground and the flowers would still turn up and look beautiful.

      This red rose was right beside the front porch. As you can see they were stunning. The only problem was they all bloomed at once and in a few days they were gone. This rose would climb up to about 12 feet before I would cut it back. It would come up to the porch railing and then travel along it until it got to the front steps and I would have to clip it back.

      I always loved these purple-leaf sand cherries. The spring blossoms were fragrant and the breeze would carry the aroma as far as the front porch, 60 feet away.They rarely produced any fruit, but when they did and I tasted them I knew why they were called sand cherries. The name fit them perfectly.

      
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.