This is not a War story. Aside from a scattering of yellow-on-gold daffodils, the showoffs right now in the garden are all white. It's been raining a lot the last couple of weeks, so the homo sapiens are generally kind of grumpy and distressed, but the fauna are digging it. I managed to outwit the camera I love to hate and grab a passable shot of the evergreen Clematis. I can't say enough good things about this plant.
As the name suggests, it's pleasantly green year round, and for a surprisingly long time in spring it turns into a mass of delicate white flowers. Size, as they say, matters, and this megaplant is a good eighteen feet high; pruning is accomplished with a chainsaw and a laser cannon would be better. It's mildly fragrant, and since there are approximately 3.8 million flowers, you get a real treat walking up the stairs if it's even mildly warm.
Here's a close-up of a camellia blossom. If you have a big screen, you might want to click on this one to see it full-size. This plant is not one of our successes and is doomed when we find a replacement; its leaves are chronically mottled and ugly, and the flowers start to turn brown even before they get fully out - the specimen above is an exception. We've tried some conventional remedies (so far) to no avail.
The Magnolia and the Azalea and the Rhodo are getting ready to bust out, and the roses are gathering their forces, we're looking forward to some serious colour in the immediate future.
