Spring 2011 - What's blooming in your garden? Part 2

Geat blooms Helena, love the blue.

Helena - Those bloom flushes on all your roses are stunning! I just love it!♥ Your iris is gorgeous, too! Yay!

I can't believe I have my MG blooming!! I thought it was too hot recently for them ..however, the vines are not fully grown yet, but flowers are still coming. Only on the reds & pinks though..is this usual, or am I just special!! hahahaha

Cindy - Not too hot for most MGs! Which species/cultivars are you growing?

Thanks pixie, Jackie and Becky. I'm enjoying my blooms and can't wait to see blooms from my mg's!!!

Very exciting all those baby MGs you have growing, Helena!

I haven't planted any, every day something goes wrong to keep me from
starting any sds. :-(
I'm so glad some of you are off to a good start.

My yard is coming alive these days! Spring ... rather summer weather has had everything bursting with color! I love Springtime!

More unknown daylilies.

Another pretty bloom.

One more.

Poppy blooms ...

another...

more ...

red poppy

0ne more ...

Front garden bed.

More nice blooms.

Thanks, Jackie!

I really became a huge fan of daylilies last year. I had really good luck sowing and growing crossed daylilies from seeds a couple of years ago. The crosses from those plants are really pretty! Much nicer than anything I've seen sold here locally. Many thanks to Sandy, Karla, and Nicole!

Without their generosity in sharing some of their seeds, blooms such as these in my garden would not be possible.

These are growing in the raised 3-tier bed. Seems the plants in my raised beds do much better than anywhere else in my yard except the containers and buckets. I hope in the future (next year hopefully), I can add more raised beds around my backyard. I still want to do the paths in white gravel, too. All future plans. This year, no new additions for the first time in 8 years. On a tight budget this year. :-( I'll just enjoy and care for the existing garden areas. :-)

Roses are another plant I am finally having success with. All grown in containers and doing extremely well. Wished I'd known about container gardening years ago. I'd have a lot more roses that would've survived had they been in containers instead of the ground.

This is the Japanese climbing cultivar that has reached to the top of the arbor. This bloom was hanging down. There are so many petals on the blooms of this cultivar that they never seem to open up completely. I love cottage gardens and hope that is what my yard becomes some day... when it is completed. But then again ... gardens are never complete ... are they?! ;-)

This message was edited Apr 17, 2011 12:45 AM

My strawberry plant is getting to be a nice size. As you can see, the bees have been busy pollinating the blooms. I counted 9 forming strawberries on this plant today! Yay!

I always laugh when I see unexpected volunteers in unexpected places. This area was heavily mulched and covered, yet I still got this nasturium volunteer that is now blooming. That's fine with me! I enjoy this plant and it's bright colored blooms...

I added sunflower seeds to a cleared out small square bed. And most of the seeds sprouted much to my surprise. I probably have too many in that one small area. Will have to pull some out eventually. Not sure what the short sunflowers in the front will look like.

I remember Debra saying she grew MGs next to Sunflowers so they could grow up the sunflower stalks. Never realized how sturdy the stalks were. I had to cut down most of the ones growing next to the bird feeder as the squirrels were climbing the tall sunflower stalks to get to the hanging bird feeder. LOL! Smart squirrels!



This message was edited Apr 17, 2011 12:54 AM

Here is one of the guilty squirrels. Can't blame them though ... this is a mother squirrel and needs the food to feed her babies.

The Cashmere Bouquet buds are getting ready to burst into blooms! This plant when in bloom attracts everything from ants to bees to hummingbirds! Must be a good nectar plant...

And last photo for the day is the contrast of the white and red poppy blooms! I am going to grow California poppies next. They are supposed to bloom all summer long. Lovin' these poppy plants and blooms!

Becky, I know the squirrels are a nuissance but I'm fond of them too. A baby squirrel is the sweetest baby animal.
Love your daylillies. I moved off from my old home and left my pretty Susan Todd daylilly.
It was a huge gold bloom.
Becky, if your Cashmere bouquet makes sds, please save me a few. I think that's the same as Clerodendrum bungeii, and I lost mine.

Jackie - I don't think that Cashmere Bouquet makes seeds. Never seen any. And the bees, ants, and butterflies are all over the blooms. I think it propagates by runners. Mine is in a bucket. I'll try to figure out some way to get mine to produce a runner which I can share with you. That's going to be tricky since the bucket isn't very wide at all.

My small ponds are back in full swing with the water lilies. Didn't take long for them to spread and start making blooms.

This is a close-up of today's water lily bloom. I honestly think that water gardening is my favorite way to garden of all. Vines come in a close second. And everything else is third. Roses and daylilies are high on my list, too! :-)

Another daylily bloom today. I love every single one of them ... even though they are all NOIDs! :-)

Jackie - Here is my cherry tomato bush. It is loaded with tomatoes growing and ripening! I can taste them now. I love the smell of tomato plants. And I love the smell of Lantana. Most people think they stink, but I love the smell. Brings back fond memories of my childhood! :-)

And as always ... I am trying to dwarf some of my plants. This year I am trying to grow water lilies in cups. This is a tiny cup. Maybe 4-6 oz. It has a teeny night blooming water lily growing in it. I am curious to see if I can get it to bloom.

And more waterlilies growing in regular coffee cups. I so wanna see miniature blooms on these water plants! Wouldn't that be cool? :-)

Becky, I don't remember my Clero bungeiii making sds either. Sometimes Logees has this one so I might check with them.
Love the waterlillies. I hope I see a few blooms on mine this summer.

Jackie - I didn't know you had waterlilies! Do you have a pond? Or are they in water containers?

Becky, I grow mine in those rope handled tubs, holds about 20-25 gallons of water.

Jackie - That is a great idea to use those rope handled tubs to grow water lilies in!!!

I've been fertilizing all my plants with MiracleGro and Fish Emulsion and now I am being rewarded for dealing with that stinky stuff! My plants love the fish emulsion, thank goodness it works well otherwise I wouldn't use it at all. Pee uuuu!

Lousiana yellow iris.

Lantana, 4 O'Clocks, and Sunflowers growing in the ground in one area of my yard. Some plants do grow well in the ground here. The ones most like weeds, I suppose! LOL!

The Cashmere Bouquet is got quite a few bloom clusters all over it! Love this plant as long as I can contain it in a pot! Otherwise, it would probably take over my yard! LOL!