March 8 flowers

I took way too many photos on March 8. Lots of flowers, and then we had the big seed planting in the afternoon, too!

A look around the neighborhood flowers during Jackie's morning walk. This first photo is to show that I take these while holding the dog, so it is very difficult to get a good shot. She is a very sweet dog, but was abused and abandoned before we took her in and has serious emotional issues, including fear of almost everything (except children) which causes her to try to run away. Usually, while I am trying to get a photo.

Anyway, this is a nanohana. We meant to sow these along our embankment this year, but forgot. Next year!

These are from the garden plot to our east. That's our house in the background. Actually the lot next door has 4 plots. The people who use the plot closest to our house are wonderful and them giving us a big bag of snap peas when we came to look at the house pretty much made up my mind to buy it. The man with the middle plot lets it all go to towering weeds and only shows up on really beautiful days to ruin them for everyone else by spraying horrible smelly chemicals on his fruit trees. The people with the far side plots are also very nice.
And, in one of the far side plots, pink bachelor buttons are blooming!

And then I saw blue ones blooming, too, a bit further down the embankment.

For some reason our garden and embankment is always weeks behind the rest of our neighborhood. Here is one of our bachelor buttons...

Not even close! But, our efforts to get them to grow on our embankment have been paying off. For two years I have been pilfering seeds from the neighbors embankments and sowing them along ours while walking the dog, and my husband has been weedwacking away the past two years. This spring several plants are growing. Maybe in a few more weeks.

A cherry tree along the embankment in front of the weird guy's house is starting to bud. It really is spring!

Of course, the one flower of ours that is in sync with the rest of the neighborhood is the dandelion.

Back at home...
crocuses
The new anenomes I bought this spring are about to bloom.
Mini tulip
surrounded by crocuses. I planted a bunch of mini tulips in here, but only one seems to have come up. These are at the base of the dead frog tree.
Grape hyacinths from my husband's friend (thank you, Lさん) are doing great.
More daffodils and narcissus are blooming.
Osteospermum
My pansies I planted from seed are finally starting bloom, though the plants are still tiny. I mean, you can't even see any leaves here.
These weren't my favorite flower, but I made a pot of a yellow one, an orange one and daisies for the front of my classroom and they look so cheerful, I am really starting to like them.

Springing!

The yellow crocuses are croaking their little hearts out. No signs of any other colors yet...
My first daffodil on Feb 22
And on Feb 24!
Apparently pansy season is over, because pansies were going for clearance discounts at the home center. I got some to fill in for ones that didn't like this year's cold winter. Only one of my pansies which I started from seed has bloomed so far. Haven't got a decent photo yet, though. I also got some anenomes because about 80% of mine didn't make it through the winter.
I pulled out most of these little yellow flower plants last summer because they were getting out of control, but they are back in strength. Quite cute, but I think I need to move them to the embankment because they are more of a hardy wild-flower (weed?) than well-behaved flower-bed-flower.
Speaking of hardy wild-flower weeds on the embankment, dandelions are blooming. The girls love to pick them. And they are cheerful and bright at a time of year when the embankment is pretty bleak.
And I have always loved these tiny blue flowering weeds. So cute! Though I do pull them out of my flower beds.
Our one strawberry meets a bitter end. So we are holding out for the blueberries...
which seem to have adjusted to their new spot on the north side of the embankment. We hope they are happier here than they were in their previous location.
None of the snap pea seeds my husband planted came up, so he bought seedlings at the garden store and planted them in the new field in the empty lot next door.
Helping keep those weeds down, every little bit counts.
Nothing like a well deserved rest in the sun after a hard morning weeding the garden. It's nice to know that the vegetable-picking basket is good for more than holding just spinach.

flowers

The yellow and white irises are blooming. My mother always insists there is no such thing as yellow irises.



















I saw an ad in one of the free magazines for a park with a big field where kids could go pick dandelions. It must be aimed at downtown kids. This is the embankment behind our house, but they are rampant alongside every rice field.












The girls gift me with large bouquets daily.















My main osteospermum (Thanks for the name, Vicky!) is blooming its little heart out now.














The periwinkle by the side of the house is coming along. I'd like to fill some of that space with periwinkle, but my husband is very opposed to vines unless they come with cucumbers attached.












One of my weird little flower shop acquisitions, blooming. Why do I frequent it? I have never encountered less friendly service in Japan. Downright surly. The prices can't be beat, however. And the excitement of waiting for a mystery flower to bloom is rather enticing.










This one had really pretty pink flowers when I got it (from the garden center), but didn't bloom at all last year. I was happy to see that it is looking like it will flower this year.












My father-in-law kindly gave us an Emperor Dahlia. Not our favorite, truth be told, but it will be cheerful at a time when not much else is blooming. We planting it by the embankment, so it can be seen from the road (and not so much from the house).