Monday, April 15, 2013

Garden Blogger Bloom Day April 2013


Spring has certainly arrived here in Central California! The daffodils are finished as are most of the other spring bulbs with only the freesias still in bloom. The wisteria has finished its big spring bloom and yesterday spent blooms were picked out of and from around the pots in the fallout region. Many of the pots had layers of blooms 2 inches thick so those were easy to remove, just like peeling dryer lint out of the lint catcher if you were really negligent about that lint catcher, only thicker. Except, of course, for  having to maneuver around plant stems. The individual blossoms stuck to individual succulent parts were more time consuming and annoying. 


 Working under the wisteria had a surprise benefit as these first passionflower blooms were discovered. The passionflower, planted to climb a small trellis, has decided to exceed the 10 foot predicted growth and is now intertwined many feet into the wisteria. Luckily, the wisteria doesn't care and neither do I.


The abutilons are blooming, this one in front of Rosa Climbing Cecile Brunner which is also in full bloom.


The hardy geranium, Biokova, is blooming everywhere. From one little 4 inch pot many years ago this stalwart plant has filled in lots of areas. It is wonderful in afternoon shade, otherwise it looks a bit bedraggled by the end of summer.


I am crossing my fingers and hoping for a good lime crop this year! The tree is finally getting to be a good size and, although I've gotten a few limes each year, this year there are lots of blooms and maybe there will be lots of limes!


The columbine is in full bloom and has reseeded here and there so it repeats around the garden a bit. I used to be yellow-phobic but I have gotten over it and this columbine was one of the things that helped.


The bearded iris are starting to bloom and this is one of the first. It blooms above heuchera maxima. Apparently I moved rhizomes around last year and mistakenly moved a tall white iris to about 8 spots even though I don't like it. So I am trying to pull those out as they bloom so I don't have even more next year. I guess I need to be more careful!

Other blooms this month include:


Rosa Climbing Flower Girl
Rosa banksiae Albo Pleno
Solanum jasminoides
Rosa Climbing Berries and Cream
Pink Breath of Heaven
and...

wax begonias
dutch iris
alyssum
scabiosa
pansies
fennel
pelargoniums
scented geraniums

To see how far along spring is in various parts of the country (and beyond!) visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens and connect with bloggers from around the world through their links. Happy Spring!!




5 comments:

Kathy said...

Lovely. Hard to imagine all those plants I can't grow thriving outdoors there. One day I will have to try an abutilon as a houseplant. The flowers have such delicate shading.

Layanee said...

My daffs are just beginning and I will only see passionflower on blogs and in conservatories. Lovely blooms. May they keep coming.

Unknown said...

I love the plucky passionflower! How fun that it has decided to hang out with the wisteria. :-)

Cindy, MCOK said...

Wow, passionflower blooms already? None here yet ... that could be due to my yanking the umpteen vines out of the ground before they can make it to bloom size. They would take over if I let them so I try to only allow one vine to mature.

David said...

Your garden seems to be very colorful as well as lovely.