FIRST FLOWERS SPRING!!! Memorial Day Edition

I love tulip poplars! Such great trees.

I don't have much blooming at the moment. Just roses, salvias, allium Schubertii, and clematis. Some of my geraniums are blooming, and I'm looking forward to next year when geranium Espresso should be blooming at this time, too.

I remember from last year that there wasn't much blooming at all in June. The summer bloomers hadn't started yet and the spring flowers had finished. What blooms for you in late May/June?

Annuals. LOL

Your flowers look great, Holly! I really like your Amsonia. I have A. hubrichtii, but it doesn't have many flowers yet.

Wind, that's a nice story about your Tulip Poplar. I guess it really wanted to grow in your yard! I saw Tulip Poplar flowers on the ground in the forest but didn't know what they were; now I do.

A Butternut tree is trying to grow in my yard. It looked great last year until it got some sort of disease. I thought it was dead, but it's not.

Tulip Poplar gets really huge...(said the one with two American Sycamores ...)

....not as big as Sequoia's Sequoias are going to get!

What kind of Sequoias do you have, Seq?

pot with piece of Frances Williams hosta, couple coleus, bit of sedum

front bed with moss phlox, Frances W hosta, Campanula Elizabeth and Pink Octopus not yet in bloom, Sweet william, Sea oats

surprise vignette of Siberian iris, Glechoma, Onoclea bead fern, sumac

Tradescantia Sweet Kate- if you like spiderwort you'd love Sweet Kate

Nice, Sally! Pretty hostas. The foliage on Sweet Kate is pretty. Is it at all thuggish for you? Whatever cultivar I have keeps trying to take over the one bed it's planted in.

A few things bloomed for me while we were away at Penn State:

1) Penstemon barbatus 'Prairie Dusk'
2) Spiraea japonica 'Little Princess'
3) Lavender (hidcote or munstead--wasn't keeping good track back then)
4) Astilbe x arendsii 'Fanal'--seems to be doing well this year in my 'death bed'!
5) Gaillardia aristata 'Gallo Yellow Trumpet'--this one's a bit of a cheat since I purchased the plant earlier this season and it already had some buds on it

Lol Holly, that's why I buy annuals, too! Petunias and begonias for those empty spots.

Catmint, my spirea japonica bloomed about two months ago. It's interesting how two different cultivars have such different blooming times.

I've never heard of Sweet Kate before. That's a cutie pie!

ssg- Penstemon is just getting ready to bloom here, an early penstemon might fit your niche bloom time request. Otherwise I have no ideas, same thing here.

Sweet Kate is not thuggish- I think the pale foliage means she can't muster up all the energy needed. Been a slow grower, considering how many years I've had it, very slow for spiderwort. I'll consider dividing in late summer, it dies down in the heat doesn't it, spiderwort? and back up in fall. like iris.

We have a Giant Sequoia and a Dawn Redwood. I can't grow a Coastal Redwood because they are only hardy to zone 7 :(

Our May/early June blooms are: Geum, Salvia, a veronica variety (forget which though), Rhodies, tiarella, dianthus, columbine, Weigela, FMN, painted daisy, saponaria, geranium, and Annuals :)

May is a tough month for blooms though I think. That might be the next area I focus on. This year's focus was late summer/early fall.

Beautiful pics everyone!! I love that fern in pic 4 Sally. Tulip trees are one of my top trees that I'd like to plant if I had more room, they're so beautiful and I like that they grow super fast. They drip tons of sap though so you need to watch their location.

SSG: it sounds like you did your best on planting your Rhodie, now the rest is out of your hands, hope for the best :)

Thanks, Seq, I'm feeling good about this one! :)

1 and 2 are mystery flowers. They're mixed in with the daffodil foliage. What could this be?

3 is penstemon. Yes, I need more of them!

4 is yellow Knockout from typ. I didn't realize that the yellow variety was fragrant! Too bad about the sawfly damage, but I'm just not good about spraying neem regularly.

I have a calla lily that's coming up. It survived the winter! :O

Not sure on the mystery flower. I feel like I've seen it before though. I love penstemon! I have one I planted last year that is getting shaded by a phlox and monarda that are growing faster than it. I'm not sure it will do well as a result :(

That is a beautiful penstemon just love that.

SSG, I think the mystery flower is bletilla. I love it, have tried growing it three times, but have had no luck with it lasting beyond the first planting season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletilla

Hmm...interesting. Their leaves do sort of look like daff leaves. I almost bought some of those from Lazy S&S last week but decided against it.

A few Iris from my gardens.

A few more flowers

Holly what is the first and second picture in the last set?

That's Siberian Iris Butter and Sugar I will have some available for the "Fall" Swap.

I love the butter and sugar iris Holly! Guess I know one thing I'll be asking for come fall swap! :-)

I was just thinking that it needs to be dug up and divided but right now it is blooming so it will have to wait for Fall. It is a favorite flower of mine.

I think right now is hosta happy time. Nothing else really needs to bloom for me when the hosta leaves are fresh and green. Just as long as there is no hail in the forecast....

Pic #1 is my yellow garden. It's my favorite place in the yard right now.

Yes, it's Dark Towers! I need more for other parts of the garden that are too plain green.

Holly, that creamy iris is so pretty.

Typ, your roses look so healthy! My hostas are looking really good this year, too. I think I put down the Sluggo at just the right time. I haven't seen any serious slug damage, even on the brunnera.

Typ, I love your yellow garden--your hostas look so beautiful and healthy. I did put some Sluggo down but seem to have nibble marks on mine anyway. The roses and salvia are beautiful, too.

Nice yellow garden Typ :) Your peony looks great as well.

I love the butter and sugar too Holly! your iris gardens are beautiful

Cat, your penstemon looks nice with the salvia (May Night?) in the background!

Seq, that's interesting on the sap dripping from Tulip trees??? I've never seen that yet. We have a New Dawn Redwood too... got it after our dog Aspen died... we did a trip to Cape May and made a garden center stop on the way home and got the New Dawn on sale because the trunk was a little twisted... it straightened out just fine over the years.

thanks, Wind. That is Salvia 'caradonna' in the background! :-) It does look very similar to May Night!

This message was edited May 27, 2014 7:53 PM

Yes, It really is a pretty Iris.

Cat, I really like the first pic you posted. So much going on but everything works so well together!
SSG, I'm so glad that the rose is happy with you. I don't think it ever bloomed that much for me.
Holly, love those iris!

I wanted to do a yellow garden like at Ladew Gardens, but I keep "accidentally" putting purple compliments instead of maroon and chartreuse instead of real yellow. Oh well, it's my own spin on it! Cat, this is the garden where your S&S will go. :)
Ladew's yellow garden:
http://homesteadgardens.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/img_8289.jpg

oh, wow--love that Ladew's yellow garden, Typ--gorgeous! And your own spin on it is lovely as well! :-)

The penstemon barbatus turned out to be sort of a skinny-stem plant--hard to take a photo of it without invoking whatever is in the background--LOL! oh well--I actually like the cottage garden look! :-)

This message was edited May 27, 2014 8:19 PM

Oh when I said "so much going on", I meant it in a good way! I like the cottage garden look too!

thanks, Typ--you're very kind! :-)

I ditto what somebody said- there are fewer flowers at the moment, but still so much fresh green growth its still fun to watch. Waiting for my light pink peonies to open, it's a nice surprise that they are later than the white and the dark pink.

Congrats Wind on your new Metasequoia!! My in-laws have a neighbor with a Tulip tree in their yard and it's right near the property line so that some of the branches overhang the in-law's driveway. The sap drips on their cars. It hits like a raindrop and splashes all over.

This is the time I like to watch my rhodies grow. It's fun to watch them get bigger.

Aspenhill, I'm not sure if it's bletilla.

Here are a couple if more pics.

Do you have any pics of the leaves or are those the leaves (like daff leaves) in the pictures? Also, do you have a picture of the flower head on?

Those are the leaves! Very grassy looking.

I can't find a good open bloom right now. We had a downpour and the flowers took a beating. I'll take a better picture when new ones open up.

SSG it sort of reminds me of my spiderwort

Do you remeber my little "mystery shrub" that was no more than a little cutting--
and them it grew a bit more--and the 2nd year--it had signs of being a wispy shrub of some kind.

By now we were all guessing that it may be a Mockorange.

Planted it last year in the back corner of my YUK bed where I dug up my dead Butterfly Bush.
It really grew and took off...

This spring--there are blooms.....What do you think it is???? Not much fragrance--as i would
have expected a Mockorange to have. what could it be?
I am, actually, a bit disappointed in it....Whatcha think?

G.