Inheritance, part one

When we bought our house, it came with a number of beautiful plants. The landscaping wasn't perfect and was starting to get a little out of control, but there are still some elements of real beauty, especially in the early spring.

The heavenly bamboo actually adds a little color all winter long and is one of the most interesting things to look at when everything else is dead. We have two of these in our yard and two more just over the property line out back.

I just missed the peak color on the forsythia. It's bright yellow flowers are always a good indicator of when to get the cool-weather vegetables planted. As the leaves start to come in, the yellow gives way to green. I'm planning on trying to clone forsythia this year to work toward having it as a hedge around the side of our back yard.

We have three of these pretty pink-flowered bushes. After they finish flowering, I'll be cutting them way back.

This is one of my favorites. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I think either a gardenia or a camellia. The flowers are just beautiful and smell nice, too.

I think the periwinkle might be my wife's favorite. It's growing as a ground-cover along the side and the front of the house. Right now, I'm allowing it to come into the side garden a little, but I'll be cutting it back when it's time to plant out my tomatoes.

I'm sure this wasn't intentionally left for us when we bought the house, but I really do love this purple deadnettle that's growing as a weed in our yard, so I had to get a picture before I mowed for the first time this weekend.

Speaking of beautiful weeds: I don't know what this is, but I took a picture of it before mowing as well.