Garden Gems

I wish I had brought my good camera this morning. The mild, wet weather we've had recently has really brought out the blooms. I tasted my first fresh salad burnet leaf this morning, and what a flavor it was! Like cucumber, but with an herbal/peppery aftertaste. I want to try it in a salad. The nasturtium seedlings are beginning to poke into the light.

Here are some of the flowers that were blooming:

Tulipa bakeri 'Lilac Wonder'
One of the earliest-blooming species tulips, apparently named after someone named Baker. The species seems to be the same as Tulipa saxatilis, the Latin saxum meaning "stone" or "rock" and saxatilis meaning "that which lives among the rocks." I planted these among some rocks my dad brought me from the creek.

Narcissus 'Trevithian'
I take photos of these every year, but I've never caught their effect in the garden on camera. This fragrant selection from N. jonquilla has smaller flowers than larger daffodils commonly grown, but it blooms en masse, forming a vibrant block of glowing butter that beckons the eye from hundreds of feet away.

Camellia japonica 'Nuccio's Pearl'
The Nuccio camellias were bred in California and are not well-adapted to the cold snaps we get in our Southern springs (the plant is hardy but the bloom time is out of sync with our weather patterns). Most years this camellia has brown, soggy, frostbitten flowers. Our mild weather lately, though, has allowed this camellia to shine.