Floral Friday: May 11

The last of the daffodils are blooming and unfortunately I do not have much to show for my tulips because the voles ate most of them (close to 100 bulbs!) despite planting them with Repellex in the fall. Next year I'll have to consider planting tulips in cages to try and save them from ending up as dinner.

But a few tulips did survive in the back garden, and for that I am grateful.

Also in bloom are some grape hyacinths... which I would like to get more of next year.

Also in the back garden is the wildflower celandine (wood poppy), which is beginning to spread. I love the cheerful yellow blossoms. (This is not to be confused with its lookalike greater celandine, which is actually a weed.)

The bleeding hearts are also putting on a show in the back garden.

And although many people may not agree, I am happy to welcome a brown cottontail to my property. As many readers know, I have two house rabbits, so having a wild bunny out front is way better than the woodchuck. So far the bunny has eaten patches of overgrown grass and some of the many wild violets.

My Kwanzaa cherry tree also began blooming this week. I wish this tree would bloom longer but it's totally worth the wait and brief show. Each year it gets more and more flowers as it matures into a larger tree. I bought this variety of tree because it was the tree my grandfather grew in his front garden in Queens, N.Y. As a child, I would try to climb his.

Here's a glimpse of mine in the front garden, which I planted back in 2010.

Near the tree is woodland phlox, with this photo taken at dusk which accounts for the moody lighting.

The only downside to having large trees out front is that now some of my lilacs are not blooming, which I think is due to less sunlight. I'll have to figure out what to do about them this year. But two of my six are blooming at least.