At IPPL, we are glad that the bipolar weather of March is behind us, and the warmer weather of April has brought happy smiles to all our faces. In addition to the sunshine, we have been experiencing a welcome profusion of blooms around the IPPL sanctuary.

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For the past several weeks, the daffodils planted by young volunteers last fall from the University School of the Lowcountry along the driveway leading to the sanctuary have greeted us coming and going. A few still remain!

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Now the azaleas are out. The last week in March and the first week in April are typically the top weeks for blooms here in the South Carolina Lowcountry, when azaleas are at their peak with Easter-bright colors of pink, red, and magenta. It’s the preferred time for tourists to come and tour plantation houses and hidden gardens.

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We also love the purple wisteria that drapes itself over the fencelines and the elegant Lady Banks’ rose, which has little powder-puff yellow blossoms and arches gracefully among our gibbon runs.

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And we keep finding new plants to try! The bougainvillea is a recent experiment.

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It’s not just the flowering plants that are popping out all over. Our gibbon garden (which the Mount Pleasant Gardening Club ladies set up for us last year) has been giving us chard and collards throughout the winter, but now they are about done.

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However, the radishes that our caregiver Sam recently planted have started to appear. Nearby, we even have some snow peas that are doing well in their squirrel-proof enclosure!

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The trees are amazing, too. The loblolly pines have recently released their masses of pollen. Our gibbons have black skin on the bottoms of their feet, but for about a week their soles were chartreuse.

The only people not delighted by all this flower power are the poor allergy sufferers, but even they must be smiling through their watering eyes!