Posts
The Carolina Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, has thousands of yellow buds, massed and ready to open.
Three daffodils are open or in bud. We found a few bulbs here in the yard when the shed was contructed and moved them into this border. I'm pretty sure these are 'February Gold'.
The Narcissus tazetta ‘Grand Primo’, planted in a front bed near the drive, and another near the garden shed, has a total of 6 heads blooming with small, lovely florets.A few miniscule white blossoms are open on one of the Tea Olives, Osmanthus fragrans, and as in the garden of Pam at Digging, we have Rosemary and Pansies in bloom, as well as these small Violas.
The Texas Mountain Laurel, Sophora secundiflora was shown in the “Green Screen” post. Can you see the buds, looking almost like caterpillars? Since it will be so cold tonight, I hope they can still survive and bloom next month.
The native Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, has started to make buds and blooms, probably a little too early.Indoors in the breakfast room, a Salmon geranium [really a Pelargonium] has been a source of color for months, and the Meyer’s Lemon pops a flower once in awhile. There is a single bud on the tree, and half-a-dozen tiny lemons developing. When this tree was outside, the blossoms were pollinated by insects, but this winter the Bee was Me. I used a new paintbrush to lightly touch the blossoms as they opened, and it worked!
Our coral honeysuckle may get bit back...its in a big pot in the front flowerbed rather than planted in ground.
ReplyDeleteI better to make sure it has enough water....
Ah, flowers. Thank you for posting pictures! We got about 8" of snow yesterday (inland areas got clobbered with 15-20") with plenty of higher drifts because of the winds.
ReplyDeleteYou can complain about Austin winters all you want as long as you put up with us Northerners whining about "heat" in the summer :-)
Annie, I sure hope all your flowers make it through the cold! I am enjoying learning about 'southern plants' through your posts and others.
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating...seeing all your flowers blooming reminds us that some day (soon, we hope), the snow WILL melt and we'll start to see some blooms.
I forgot about my vines! I have buds on the Carolina jessamine and a few flowers on the coral honeysuckle too. Hope they make it through tonight's freeze.
ReplyDeleteI see you made the blog switch ok Annie and I am jealous that you have archives with the correct dates. My template must have a date bug in the archives.
ReplyDeleteThe list of things blooming for "Bloom Day" is just entirely too long to attempt. I am readying a post on a bloom though. I didn't know there was a special day for garden bloggers.
Pattie, my honeysuckle already lost every leaf once this winter and had just grown back - I hope yours is okay.
ReplyDeleteFirefly, I promise not to tease you when Maine hits 88º, okay?
Carol, it will be spring before you know it! I'm looking forward to seeing the tulips, lilacs and peonies on northern blogs.
Pam, at our other Austin house the temperature dropped to about 16º one winter and the Coral Honeysuckle was able to regrow, but I didn't have Carolina Jessamine there. That freeze even killed off oleanders.
ChristopherC, my migration was forced, but easier than I'd feared. Maybe that's because it's the same template, and I hadn't changed much. The labels are pretty cool, and I'm much calmer now that my son has reduced the ridiculously huge letters that said "About Me".
Have you seen the same archive problem on other blogs with your template? Good luck with fixing it.
If you do a bloom list from Hawaii you'll have to break it up into chapters!!
Annie
Look at all those flowers! Up here in Minnesota, we have at least 2-2.5 months before we see narcissus and daffodils. At least you have a preview of what we have to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteIf I posted everything blooming right now in my garden...well, there wouldn't be a post!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see what you have blooming though. Oh wait! The fuchsia that I've wintered over has some blooms on it! That was a nice surprise.
Ross has been plowing madly for the last few days....we have very high snow banks and school has been closed for 3 days!
I enjoyed your squirrel photo below, but forgot to say so.
I also enjoyed reading about your back yard. You have an interesting collection of plants.
I must be so nice to have daffodils blooming already!
There are so many people north of me who are dying to see a post like yours...
ReplyDeleteHere in Charlotte, we reach a low of 20 degrees at night and the high during the day has been near 50.
New green is sprouting from the beds but until the nights warm a little, I think we're in a holding pattern.
Your posts are a breath of fresh air, Annie!
I wish I hadn't been in a grant fog, or I'd have posted things that were blooming in my garden - what a great idea Carol had! I miss the lilacs and peonies too - my mom in Virginia has a bed full of peonies, and I love to visit when they're in bloom.
ReplyDeleteWe had a pretty serious frost/freeze last night - and everything looks a bit different this morning (almost winter-like, imagine that!). I'll have to post frost pictures now I'm afraid!
It's cold and windy here. I know, what a shock! We are playing a tourny in Wheaton, today, and it will take an hour to get there. I betcha I don't see one flower the whole way-but lots of white stuff!
ReplyDeleteI will have a hot dog at Portillos for ya!!
How nice to see such lovely flowers... and how fun that "the Bee was Me" this year for your lemons! :)
ReplyDeleteHow did the plants survive the cold night last night--or don't you know yet? I guess now that I think about I don't really know whether you would see the effects immediately or if it would be more gradual thing?
Annie, It looks like you have quite a few lovely flowers blooming and more ready. Spring is getting closer. Yipeee!
ReplyDeleteHi Tracy - your helicopters were cute floral substitutes, but with such a long wait maybe you should break down and force a few bulbs inside? In Illinois I used to buy little pots with 'tete a tete' daffodils forced & ready to bloom in February, then planted them outside in May... the bulbs rebuilt, rebloomed and multiplied.
ReplyDeleteKerri, if you can get a fuchsia to bloom inside during the winter, you are a pretty powerful gardener! Maybe the snow reflected a lot of sunlight?
Hello Mary - we were below freezing last week, but yesterday and today were 60's and beautiful, so I was out working on a new border. Your temperatures don't sound much cooler than ours.
Pam, I saw your lovely frosty photos and post, and hope your lemon will come back. Bloom Day is a fun idea - Carol is amazing, isn't she?
Sissy, I hope you ordered that Portillos with a heap of fries. When it really is spring, you drive back to the same area and see the gardens at Cantigny. Or have you already been there? There used to be live music outside on the grounds, too - wonder if that still goes on now?
BlackswampKim It's Sunday night, and so far most of the flowers made it through 23º without too much damage - one iris froze, and the open Camellias turned brown, but the remaining closed buds look okay. Some of the perennials haven't looked good since the ice storm, but it's too soon to tell if they're really dead.
Hi Chigiy, we frequently have April frosts so winter isn't over yet, but there's a slightly different feeling in the air. It's coming.
Thank you all for commenting!
Annie
Cantigny is still there, Annie...! I can never find your blog until you comment on mine, can link to you on mine, please?!
ReplyDeleteSure, Sissy! I was bold enough to put you in my links without asking you.
ReplyDeleteCantigny was a big draw from the time I was a kid. Once I was a gardener myself, it was fun to watch the gardens grow in size and scope, with small differences at each visit. They had such wonderful peonies and clematis! I sure hope that part hasn't changed.
Annie