Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, April 2010

It's April Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in Austin, Texas! Wasn't it easy to find my house after I reminded you to look for the big Mutabilis Rose with lavender blue creeping Phlox in front? (All photos should expand if you click on them.)

Watch out when you get out of the car - please don't step on any Blackfoot Daisies or Bluebonnets -you saw them in the wildflower video, remember? This Teucrium fruticans, Silver Germander just started to bloom for the first time.
Take a closer look at the mutabilis (or maybe you'd prefer its other name...Butterfly Rose)


and then cross the drive to the Pink Entrance Garden... sweet enough this April to make your teeth ache. Last fall I ran across a bag of 30 pink hybrid Ranunculus bulbs and there's been a Pink-splosion of Ranunculus with 'Telstar' Dianthus...


And with tall, fragrant purple iris & Bridal Wreath Spiraea

The unexpectedly sturdy Weigela 'Rumba' is more like a large woody perennial than the Cardinal Shrub Weigela of the North, but it blooms every spring and slowly increases in size.

Another pink-splosion may happen when 40 buds-in-waiting on the 'Belinda's Dream' rose unfurl their petals

Other bags of Ranunculus came in mixed colors - those primary colors look pretty wild when you come in the garden gate

In other years I've tried to make a Texas spring look like an Illinois spring - but today these colors remind me of the bluebonnets, paintbrush, daisies and verbenas along the roadsides. I keep trying to get bluebonnets & paintbrush and native daisies to grow here in the garden, too - a few bluebonnets are open but the paintbrushes were late for bloom day, although their relatives appeared in my "Lady Bird Loved Wildflowers" song and video.

Look right as you clear the gate and greet the pink climbing rose hidden behind nandinas and sapling crepe myrtles when we bought this house.

There are 20 plump buds and full-blown flowers this year and they smell very old-fashioned. Every year I ask if anyone has a guess as to the name of this rose, but she's still a mystery.


We'll pass the recovering Meyer's Lemon and the in-bloom Mexican Lime tree and look on the other side of the back door where another faithful spring bloomer, a Clematis sold as pale pink- is budding in a deep burgundy that lightens to reddish purple as it opens.


On the other side of the walk a new annual Phlox, '21st Century hybrid White' is looking very cool - found it at The Natural Gardener.

Across the herb patio another mutabilis rose blooms in a terracotta pot, and beyond the table the pearly clematis/yellow Lady Banks rose/Coral honeysuckle combination seen in the last post is nearing its end.
Lets duck into the house via the patio door to grab a cup of coffee (or maybe you'd rather have iced tea?). On the windowsill is the final flower on the Hippeastrum/Amaryllis 'Red Dragon' , rebloomed from 2008,


This bowl of yellow 'Julia Child' roses gives a hint at how well she liked the cool winter with adequate rainfall


We'll carry our cups out and wander around the edges of the garden where some less flashy, new-old friends hang out. I grew Hyacinthoides hispanica/Spanish Bluebells in Illinois but never thought it would survive here. Then the blog of MSS- Zanthan Gardens showed Spanish Bluebells blooming year after year in her Austin garden. Last fall I found a bag of mixed Hyacinthoides at Countryside Nursery...here's a bluebell just opening in front of the loropetalum.
- more white & blue Spanish Bluebells are going to open with these green & burgundy oxalis.
A new abutilon from Barton Springs Nursery has one bud - practically every Austin gardenblogger already grows this plant so I'm copying
Near the back fence the Michelia figo/Magnolia figo has had a very good spring, producing hundreds of buds and flowers. The old leaves on this fragrant Banana Shrub look ratty - some still bearing hail damage from March 2009, but look closely and you'll see all the new leaves ready to expand.

The banana shrub is near the edge of the canopy of one of the pecan trees - it gets enough sun to bloom when the leaves are down. Near it a Salvia roemeriana/Cedar sage does okay with filtered shade. The white buds in the background are on a fragrant vine, Confederate AKA Star Jasmine/Trachelospermum jasminoides

This hummingbird bed extends out from under the tree canopy where it gets more sun - enough for the Mockorange/Philadelphus inodorus to bloom against the fence, for flowers on another Bridal Wreath spiraea and for several shades of Salvias greggii and Salvia 'Hot Lips' to thrive.

Walk in closer and you can see there are also Red 'Telstar' Dianthus in a ceramic planter, 'Butterfly Blue' Scabiosa and another plant favored by Pam/Digging, Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost'.

There are tomato flowers and a few pepper flowers in the vegetable patch, but I forgot to photograph them so keep going and we'll be back at the other end of the long border. More ranunculus are blooming, but this one is in pristine white, very refined with Lambs Ears and the foliage of Achillea 'Moonshine'

A budded plant waits near the ranunculus, just in case a migrating Monarch happens by.

A note from the director of Keep Texas Beautiful passed along information from Monarch Watch, suggesting that gardeners, farmers and transportation officials help to get Milkweed planted as a lifeline for these butterflies. The number of migrating Monarchs appears to be down to their lowest numbers in decades after terrible killer storms in their winter home in Mexico. It's also proposed that the annual ornament from Keep Texas Beautiful should be a Monarch Butterfly design this year.

My huge milkweed plants were frozen down to the ground this winter - it will be months before they recover - if at all - so I planted this 'Silky Gold' Asclepias in back - think I'll look for another milkweed plant for the front yard.
We're now standing in front of my favorite floral pairing on this April Blooming Day, Clematis 'Ramona' and Rosa 'Julia Child'


If this were a film camera instead of a digital point-and-shoot I'd have gone broke paying for developing... I can't stop taking photos of the butter yellow rose and deep lavender-blue clematis

Okay - one last shot from the other side of the triangle bed and I'll send you on your way to the next garden on May Dreams Carol's GBBD roster.

Complete lists of what was in bloom (including botanical names) for many Garden Bloggers Bloom Days can be found at the Annie's Addendum Blog.

Finally Time for March 2010 GBBD

The Central Austin garden bloggers first called Spring when their redbuds and Texas Mountain Laurels began to bloom on March 11th.

Eleven days later the Texas redbud in my far NW Austin garden has poked out little pink tongues so I'm calling Spring here, too!
We've had frost warnings the last 2 nights, with the actual low temperature falling to 34°F/1.11ºC each morning.

Now it's time to once again take off the thermal covers from the Meyer's Lemon and the Mexican Lime and switch off the Christmas lights. The weather looks pretty good for the next week - are we done with freezes?
Are there flowers today? Yes! It's a week late but today I'll join Carol of May Dreams Garden for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

The Mexican Lime has buds and tiny new leaves that stayed safe under the thermal covering
The top branches of the Meyer's Lemon died and most of the leaves fell off, but it's pushing out new leaves and making blossoms, too.

At their feet Oxalis regnellii 'Atropurpurea' blooms happily after recent rain

The Texas Mountain Laurel is a little squashed from the sheet thrown over it last night

One yellow Lady Banks rose shows petals

The Spiraea on the back fence is in full bloom


The Carolina jessamine has passed its peak flowering time but still smells sweet
There are enough yellow flowers left to please the bees

Earlier yellow daffodils have wilted - my muse 'Thalia' takes her turn
Only one of the Pale Peach colored iris has opened but there are many buds

Most of the white 'cemetery' iris, a favorite Austin passalong, are already blooming

Blackfoot daisies are finally happy here, making flowers in the parkway bed
The Cherry sage/Salvia greggii blooms there, too

A single mutabilis Rosebud is ready for its closeup
And there's a hint that the most famous sign of spring in Texas, the Bluebonnet, is on the way

But even without open flowers the garden has been exciting to watch every day

Cedar Waxwings arrived a few weeks ago to strip berries from the evergreen hollies and act like kids in the birdbath fountain (23 seconds)





The song of the Mockingbird called Spring before anyone else was sure it would come (about 1 minute)


Pam/Digging holds Foliage Followup the day after GBBD - my foliage is appearing today not because it is spectacular... but because the leaves bear witness that these plants are alive

I've left the Shell Ginger outside in other years - but it spent this winter in the garage


I was sure the Amaryllis planted outside would be gone after 13°F/-10.5ºC , but MSS of Zanthan Gardens thought they could make it - she was right!

If my pomegranate is alive maybe that means Rock Rose Jenny's will be alright, too?

The Japanese Painted Fern disappeared during last year's heat and drought but it's appeared again, ready to face life in Texas for another year. I hope we humans can do it, too.

GBBD for October 2009, Late but Flowery

"GBBD for October 2009, Late but Flowery" was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog

Look out the front door and see the butterfly garden awakened by rain (photos enlarge when clicked)

The native Gregg's Mist Flower looked as if it would die in August but it's full of bees and Queens in October. The Blackfoot daisies should show up if you click.

Walk to the flower bed at the end of the porch and see the white Salvia greggii reblooming... did you guess that those emerging leaves are narcissus? Even while summer lingers the garden is thinking of spring.

As you cross the driveway, notice the usually sedate Salvia leucantha is throwing a party under the garage overhang
The Pink Entrance Garden really is pink now - 'Belinda's Dream' rose, 'Champagne' minirose, pink gaura, rosy ice plant, pink skullcap, lavender pink angelonia and white lantana rejoice that they lived through summer 2009


Next to the garden gate a tall white abelia hangs blossoms, its clusters full instead of sparse. In quantity they are lightly fragrant.
Walk through the gate and look left - after sulking through the summer, the Salvia madrensis swallowed the rain, had a growth spurt and quickly made buds. But those flowers weren't open for GBBD - the rascals tried to fool me by staying close until the 17th. I fooled them by being late. The two triangle beds and the long borders don't look too bad at a distance, and some flowers can stand a close-up...but this month we're not displaying our bedraggled and raggedyfoliage in any medium-close photos.

The walk to the door is pretty interesting right now - the Meyer's lemon has some wicked thorns and the 7-foot yellow brugmansia blocks the sidewalk while dropping little green spiders on anyone approaching the back door. The clematis still has a few unopened buds.
Blue goes with everything - Mistflower goes with Black & Blue salvia and a pink butterfly bush passalong from Lori likes the Salvia guaranitica hanging over its shoulder.
Above left, more Salvia 'Black & Blue' works with Yellow bulbine in the front butterfly bed while at right the Blue Butterfly Flower/Clerodendrum ugandense cavorts with Mexican Mint Marigold in the larger triangle bed in the back yard.

The two flowers below earned closeups: Pineapple sage/Salvia elegans and Scutellaria 'Dorota Blue' - one of the Skullcaps. Any "Gossip Girl" fans out there? I just learned the show has a character named Dorota
The 'Julia Child' rose looks good once again - and so do the clematis flowers. If you're interested in the botanical names check back at Annie's Addendum - eventually the full list with botanical names will appear.
As the finale here are two little white lookalike flowers, both having a very good October.
Please go to Carol's blog to see the other gardeners taking part in GBBD for October.


"GBBD for October 2009, Late but Flowery" was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog