Garden mysteries

The 1st week of deployment was tough, so I thought that a post about the budding plants in the back yard might focus my mind on positives. It is good to see new life come to the garden this spring. Some plants I recognized even in the winter, but others are a complete mystery to me.

We have several of these odiferous plants (above). If the blossoms are beautiful, they stay. Otherwise, I will trim them down substantially. We had a butterfly bush in Massachusetts, and I’m curious to see what color these will be (below).

I wonder what kind of a tree has golf-ball-sized leftovers in the fall – you can see one of them in the lower left branch in the photo below, and there were several on the ground. 

I believe we will have plenty of lilies coming up, based on what this looks like!

I’m not sure about these guys….waiting and seeing.

No idea what these cute yellow flowers are called, but the bees are very happy. Clearly, I need more practice with editing photos- just trying to break up the routine here.

These red branches brought cheer among the snow, and now they are sprouting green leaves.

I really hate to mow the lawn when it is filled with several versions of cute flowers! Thankfully, my neighbor said that most Germans wait to mow their lawn until the first week of May around here. 

I wonder if this is a bleeding heart- will see. I recognize the furled leaves from Massachusetts.

I definitely recognized this bunch, but was surprised that only one daffodil bloomed in the front and one in the back of the house! Will have to fix that in the fall. Hopefully the squirrels will not dig  up all the bulbs!