Easter Lilies and Eggs

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

I hope those of you who celebrate Easter had a very happy day. I'm enjoying the fragrance of the Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum) on our breakfast table this year. I was wondering if I could plant it in my garden, so I checked and saw the MSS at Zanthan Gardens has written a great deal of information about the lily here. Edit: MSS points out that her entry is actually about "LA hybrids, which are Longiflorum lilies (like the Easter lily) crossed with Asiatic lilies. This hybrid is more hardy in the garden. It does not, however (like the Asiatics) have a scent." Thanks MSS!

The day before Easter, my son and I dyed 8 hardboiled eggs using a PAAS kit. I read the PAAS site and learned that the company has been around for 125 years! PAAS is short for Passen, the Pennsylvania Dutch word for "Easter".

Our dyed eggs turned out pretty well; though a couple were a bit spotty...

Our friends in Scotland sent my son a lovely box of Easter treasures which I put in the basket on the right in the photo below. The rest of the bounty was from our local U.S. Easter Bunny...

My garden surprise this morning was a visit from a uniquely dark Texas Spiny Lizard. I'd never seen one this dark before. Not sure if it's his natural coloring or if he's darker when he's feeling cooler.

Happy Easter!


"I think of the garden after the rain; And hope to my heart comes singing,
'At morn the cherry-blooms will be white,
And the Easter bells be ringing!'" ~Edna Dean Procter, Easter Bells

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

A Very Cold Easter Weekend

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Austin was extraordinarily cold last weekend. We even had sleet here near the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. I tried to prepare for the freezing temps by covering my flowers with sheets and putting a heater in my new container water garden. The sheets seemed to work, but I still lost a few fish to the cold.



Looks like I have another excuse to visit Hill Country Water Gardens. Not that I really needed one.


One interesting thing we observed during the cold snap last weekend was a lone hummingbird. S/he hung out at our hummingbird feeder all weekend drinking from the feeder and shivering. I felt sorry for the little guy who looked very cold indeed. In the photo below he's drinking at the far side of the feeder. Please forgive the through-the-screen view.

The newly planted passionflower, pentas and milkweeds below the squirrel-proof birdfeeder seem to be doing well despite the cold. The cardinals happily ate sunflower seeds during 30 degree chills.

The milkweed seems very happy in fact. I hope its neighbors do as well.

I visited Wild Birds Unlimited near the Lakeline Mall a few weeks ago and bought this wren house:

The man at WBU said that the 1-1/4 inch entrance hole would be big enough for a Carolina Wren, but all my bird books disagree. If the Carolina Wrens ignore the house I'll increase the diameter of the hole myself.

Speaking of birds, I found a fun Live Birdfeeder Video cam which I believe is in Louisville, KY. Pan all the way to the left or click "Home" and you'll see the feeder. I saw a pair of cardinals feed each other via that site this afternoon. If you know of other live birdfeeder cams, please let me know the URLs. Thanks!

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.