The Fairy Garden

To Amuse a Princess;
Fairy Bait
   The first fairy bait has appeared in the garden. This could be our lucky year, this may be the year we finally catch one. It would be a special time to catch one. You and I, we're experienced fairy hunters, but this will be Jenna's first time on a fairy hunt. She's right at that age that you were, when we started. You know what they say about beginner's luck.
 So here is the first of the fairy bait to come to the gardens this year;

 Everyone knows that it's a good year for hunting fairies when the fox gloves come in so soon and so well. A favorite of the fae, high fashion, good potions. There will be a lot of strawberries in the garden this year, so any fairies coming by will need to find potion ingredients. Pink, white and purple this year.

 With the size and the colors that are coming, our garden could become the place for any high fashion fairy to see and bee seen this year. High fashion fairies are easy to catch, they get distracted with pretty colors and the newest flowers.

A Dragon Roars? 
Curious things are showing up all over the place this spring. I do believe there is mischief afoot in the gardens. In all my years of hunting the fae, the signs have never been so good. This is looking like it could be our year.
The long freeze we had this winter killed all but one of the old-growth Snapdragons. You know fairies, only a vintage Snapdragon Wine would be acceptable at any Proper Fairy Party. No Proper Fairy will be seen in a garden with no snapdragons. The wines from an old-growth Snapdragon is much sweeter, much more robust. Not to mention the seeds of a first year Snapdragon are harder to grind into flour for their cakes. So, no doubt, if we're putting out the best  fairy bait, old-growth Snapdragons are a must.
Since all but one plant died back during the freeze, I put out first year snapdragons. Knowing it's not the best, it is still better than no Snapdragons at all. And they are doing well, fine blooms, pretty colors;

 And indeed, they are regal dragons. A proper pink, and stout enough for an acceptable wine. Any Proper Fairy will be impressed.

As we have learned, a Proper Fairy will pry open the Snapdragon head and scoop out the pollen to boil into a wine. It's a bit of work, but the reward is sweet. Any Proper Fairy knows a fine Snapdragon wine is a key ingredient for any successful soirée during the high summer festivals. Here is the curious thing, something I had never seen before; the one old-growth Snapdragon to survive the winter.

It seems to be roaring, does it not? As if it is exclaiming to the gardens it's joy of surviving a brutal winter, a winter that few survived.  No fairy is going to have to work very hard to gather pollen from this Snapdragon. It came back a much deeper pink than it was last year, perhaps hinting at the sweetest of a snapdragon wine. Every Proper Fairy will want this vintage for the high summer festivals this year. And we know it's easiest to catch a Proper Fairy, when they have a belly full of wine at an afternoon gathering, for they become slow and sleepy, prone to make mistakes. I'll have to be sure to harvest seeds from this one, so we can try to grow them every year. If I want to make sure I get some seeds, though, I had better hurry. The fairies will grab all the seeds to make the cakes to take with them on their autumn journeys. The Seeds from this one could make the finest flour, which makes the finest cakes. All the signs are pointing to a mischief afoot, a magical hunt this year. I can hardly wait for high summer.

Curious Things Afoot
 As more things come up in the garden, the more curious things become. As with the roaring snapdragons we have seen, the second group of snapdragon blooms have come, and the are all roaring. I had thought it might just be the first blooms that would roar, but it looks like the dragons will roar all the way into the high summer.

If you look at the bloom on the left, it sure looks like someone or something has all ready been pulling the pollen out. Something curious is afoot in the gardens indeed.  Something else is happening with the dragons this year too. This is what came up today;

 The curious thing about this is that I usually don't plant white snapdragons, as they are much more temperamental than the pinks, and much harder to get a proper wine from. Only an expert fairy vintner can coax a decent wine from a white snapdragon.  Curiouser, it came up in a patch of  purple ones. Another thing that strikes me as odd, is that the purple ones next to it, haven't opened yet. So it looks like it was placed there before I put in the first year purple dragons. We know that a Proper Fairy uses White Snapdragon Wine for only very special occasions. They don't normally go through the trouble of the white even for the High Summer Festivals, so something curious is certainly happening.
  As we discussed I was very concerned that the lilies are so late in coming in this year. It seems I would expect them to start coming in right after the solstice. The First Fairies are attracted to the Early Flowers, like the lily, hyacinth, and daffodil. The First Fairies are the ones who scout the gardens, and look for the proper ones for the others, perhaps even a Foundling. We know how hard it is to catch a First Fairy. They are the elite of the  Trooper Fairies, they are the explorers, the adventurers, the scouts and pathfinders of the Fae. Being so used to unexplored gardens, and   unseen danger from cats, rats and hawks, that we humans wouldn't stand a chance to sneak up on one. That's why we usually don't even try, after the few times we tried in the beginning. We figured out if the First Fairies find the garden to be a fairy garden, the other fairies will come to shop and play in the garden. If it is a proper fairy garden, we may even attract a Foundling Fairy. That would be the ideal outcome, for if a Foundling Fairy likes the place, they'll move in and start a new fairy clan.
 So I worried about the lilies coming in so late, thinking a First Fairy might just pass us by. We did get the Daffodils, and the Hyacinths, but we know a Lily is the best fairy bait of the Early Flowers. But they did finally start to come in.

Again though, it brings a mystery with it. Last year, this was a Pink Lily, and this year it came up with the white in the center. Interesting, more unexpected white in the flowers. Also, the only Morning Glories and Moon Flowers to open so far are white. This is curious, as in other years, the blues and purples are the first to come in, with the white ones coming in late summer. Something is afoot, but I'm not sure what it is. If that's not enough; the Day lilies are coming in, too. More lilies, more curiousity;

 They were a pale yellow last year, they are golden this year. Something mysterious and magical is afoot, but I can't quite figure it out.
To be continued.........as things come up.