Three Thrilling Things

Chris Mousseau

Try saying it quickly three times. Try saying it slowly just once: Three. Thrilling. Things. I was going to wait until Thursday to post this, and title it Three Thrilling Things on Thursday – I do love good alliteration – but perhaps not. Spring means everything in the garden is in hyper drive – bursting out of the ground and growing, almost as you watch, a half inch or a whole inch or many inches every day. By Thursday these three things will look entirely different.

These three things were entirely unexpected and, when discovered, really, really thrilling!

The first thing are these poppies. They’re either Danish Flag or Lauren’s Dark Grape – I scattered seed last spring but nothing came up. I was disappointed, but with gardening, nothing is guaranteed, right? A week ago I noticed these funny leaves coming up, and realized the spot is close to where I originally scattered the poppy seed…I’m looking forward to seeing the flowers!

The second thrilling thing is a small apple tree, and its blossoms. There’s a small, meadowy section at the back of the property where, years ago, I would toss the odd apple core. I noticed this tree a few years ago but it’s never bloomed. Until this year! It’s thrilling, but a bit sad since there are no other apple trees in bloom nearby, so, no apples. Even sadder since rabbits or mice or voles decided to chomp away at the trunk this past winter. If it survives the year I’ll prune it next winter and plant another…

The most thrilling thing this month, possibly this year, is my chestnut tree. Started from a conker (seed) found in a park in Toronto a good 20 years ago, planted first in a pot, then in my shallow limestone clay soil that gets really dry in the summer (chestnut trees do not like dry soil…), it’s blooming for the first time! Just four flower clusters this year, hopefully more next year.

Happy to have a telephoto lens to get an up close look at these rather complicated flowers.

So Many Thrills in the garden this year! How about you? Anything new and unexpected show up?

12 Comments

  2. Hope the apple tree survives and you plant another one…there is nothing quite like biting into homegrown apples. 🍎 And good luck with the poppies. My first red poppy grown from seed opened this morning, despite the rain, so that – and the colour green after this rain – is most thrilling right now. 😃

    Liked by 1 person

  4. It’s wonderful that your chestnut tree is flowering, but I’m impressed with the tree itself. I don’t think I’ve ever come across one — I’m pretty sure I haven’t — but it’s a handsome (and thrilling!) thing.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I love chestnut trees – this is a horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, not the American chestnut (which has edible fruit and is quite rare today because of chestnut blight) or European or Chinese chestnut. A large Aesculus covered in flowers is an awesome sight!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. An apple tree blooming now would be thrilling, but would not happen here so late. The fruit is developing now. I suppose that should be thrilling, although expected.
    A black locust fell into a motorcourt last night, but damaged nothing. It was thrilling, but uninteresting.
    An electrician (who knows nothing about horticulture or arboriculture) returned a chainsaw after cutting bay trees that were in his way (without telling me). That was briefly thrilling, but in the end, no big deal.
    So, nothing as thrilling as the bloom of a special chestnut.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. I would have been over the moon seeing those poppy seedlings! I hope the Apple tree survives the damage to it. No really thrilling things this month here; it is jut too wet! Wait a minute… today we saw a Black Jezebel butterfly for the first time in our garden. That was thrilling!

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.