Three for Tuesday

Around the backyard this morning...

The 'Purple Ballerina' Datura has started blooming. I ordered the datura early in the year. I ordered the one with the plain white blooms. Shipment was delayed and delayed and the nursery finally informed me that their crop had failed and asked if they could substitute this purple-blossomed plant. Obviously, I said "yes" because here it is blooming for me!

Datura is a very interesting plant. It is related to brugmansia, or angel's trumpet. You can see the relationship in the shape of the bloom, but where angel's trumpets point their blooms (trumpets) down toward the earth, the datura bloom is pointed up toward the heavens. Thus, one common name for the plant is "devil's trumpet."

Another trumpet-shaped bloom is that of the crossvine. 'Tangerine Dream' is a prodigious bloomer in early spring, but often it will put on second and third flushes of bloom for me in summer and fall. That is what is happening here.

 It's not only the plants that are blooming! The Eastern Bluebird pair that nested in my backyard earlier this spring and raised four babies have built a second nest and Mama has already laid these three beautiful blue eggs. I can only hope that their second attempts at raising a family will be as successful as the first. One can't have too many bluebirds!