Category Archives: bloom day

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2016

alley bed, backyard bed, bloom day, fence bed, gate bed, loki bed, perennials, pollinators, spring

A bright and sunny albeit wind-chilled day marks this season’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. Spring has been wonderful on the Lot this year with transplants having made it through the winter, insects already busily buzzing about, and a few new feathered friends visiting the garden.

Currently the South bed is empty of blooms, the tulips having recently passed. The sweet william in the bed has not quite opened yet. Only a bit of carpet phlox is left behind in the Southwest bed. However, on the East side of the Lot, a pretty vignette has brightened up the corner of the house near the gate.

May Flowers in Gate Bed

The labrador violets are still going, now joined by the purple spear-shaped blooms of bugleweed (Ajuga x ‘Chocolate Chip’). The rock foil (Saxifraga) is blooming like the phlox, but this ground-hugging perennial holds its clusters of white flowers above its mat of foliage. Also blooming in the bottom left of the photo is the pasque flower (Anemone patens). Here is a close-up of the flowers.

Pasque Flower

Next are the white blooms of the foam flower, or Tiarella, accompanied by the neighbor’s escapee bluebells.

Blooms in Fence Bed

Further down the fence, the cranesbill has seeded into the backyard from the two plants near the compost bin. Tucked around the Lot everywhere are forget-me-nots.

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Sharing the bed with the new cranesbill plant are the dwarf iris. I did some major shuffling around of this plant last season when I removed some tickseed. I’m glad to see the iris have seemed to adjust well.

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And here’s a busy bee on one of the irises.

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The brunnera is in bloom…

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…as well as the Jack in the Pulpit. Jack invited along some friends this year.

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The strawberries which ducked under the fence from the westside neighbor are blooming.

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And the same bed brings our second year of blooms from the Geum triflorum ‘Prairie Smoke.’

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Last season I divided the solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum Variegatum) in Loki’s bed. The plants seemed to have weathered the winter well and are currently blooming.

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Here is the Mt Airy Fothergilla, looking quite stunning in the late afternoon light.

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The lilac is blooming near the alley bed.

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The Other Half is not the only one who enjoys sticking his nose in the lilacs.

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And the last Bloom Day photo is a patch of violas we are not responsible for planting last season, but have been enjoying nonetheless. The violas are an annual in our Zone 6a garden, but reseed for the following season. I’ve let the generations of the little plants wander about the garden for several years now. The recent cold snaps (we had a frost last night) do not bother them.

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That’s all for the Lot this month. Be sure to visit May Dreams Gardens for links to many other May blooms.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – April 2016

backyard bed, bloom day, bulbs, fence bed, front bed, loki bed, pollinators, spring

Warmer weather has arrived at the time of this Bloom Day, a garden bloggers’ meme where gardeners across the world share what is currently blooming in their gardens. This April on the Lot is dappled in blues, lavenders, and yellows. The snowdrops, tommies, and aconite have faded, but the remaining early spring bulbs are now in bloom.

Early Spring Bulbs Gate Bed

Here is a photo of the soon to be developed, additional backyard bed where we planted a serviceberry shrub last Fall. Glory of the Snow (Chinodoxa luciliae), Blue Squill (Scilla siberica), and Tete-a-tete Daffodil (Narcissus ‘Tete-a-tete’) add little dashes of color around the budding shrub.

Early Spring Bulbs

Also blooming in the backyard are the Ice Stick tulips, which remind me of fried eggs when completely open in full sun.

ice stick tulips

Here is one of the many early pollinators I found around the tulips and other early Spring bulbs when snapping photos for Bloom Day.

bee Ice Stick Tulip

Here is an up close and personal looks at both the Glory of the Snow (with bee) and the Blue Squill.

Bee on Glory of the Snow

Blue Squill

Around front in the South bed, the Lot’s more familiar Spring arrivals are beginning to appear. These daffodils near the front steps always have the prettiest ruffles and frills.

Double Daffodils

And last but not least, our lovely Lenten Rose (Hellebore) in Loki’s bed.

Lenten Rose

There were a few times during the extreme temperature swings this Spring I worried about frost damaging this plant. However, being well established now and the first perennial plant on the Lot every season, it sort of shrugged off the frost each morning and gradually recovered throughout the day. It does a great job brightening up the shade bed where is lives.

lenten Rose Flower

Beyond some cheery violets and violas, that is about it for the Lot this month. To see more beautiful, Spring blooms, check out May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – March 2016

bloom day, bulbs, front bed, loki bed, pollinators, spring, the Lot

Spring is on its way to our Zone6a Lot. Bulbs I planted in Fall 2015 have broken through the ground. Birds visiting our feeders only during migration, like junco, bluejay, and black-capped chickadees have been singing. I saw my first robin last Wednesday. I heard the first flock of Canadian geese flew through yesterday… but on to the blooms!

Bloom Day is a meme among garden bloggers around the world. We share photos of what’s blooming in our gardens over at May Dreams Gardens. I agree with the hostess Carol that Spring seems a touch earlier than recent years. Looking back through my photos, March of 2012 was the most recent Spring similar to the behavior of this year.

First on the Lot are the little snowdrops we added after the Other Half took a liking to them. Over the years they have multiplied. I like the look of snowdrops more when they appear in larger groups.

snowdrops in garden bed

And then are the crocus, a floral harbinger of Spring. They always sprout up first on the east side of the house along the foundation. The yellow versions appear, shortly followed by the purple and striped versions.

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Here are the winter aconite planted last Fall. Again, the smaller the bloom, the better they seem to look in larger groups.! I also chose to plant them closer to the walkway where the snow would melt first and we could enjoy them on our way between the garage and house. I love this photo of the delicate flowers pushing up and aside chunks of soil

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I noticed like the crocus, the aconite only open up when they can turn up toward a shining sun.

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While photographing the blooms, I heard an insect buzzing around for pollen. Upon closer inspection I found a fly! I wonder how many other early Spring-blooming plants rely on flies for pollination since the bees have not emerged yet. Here is a photo of it wading around within the bloom. It had pollen stuck all over its body.

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So those are all the blooms for the Lot, but I wanted to make a note of the emerging lenten rose. I’ve trimmed back all the old growth from last season to allow room for this new growth.

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And finally, I snapped this photo as another bookmark on where the Lot is in its growth for this year. Daffodils are the next flower up, and these are well on their way. Collapsed around it are the old seedheads of sedum, one of the last plants to bloom in the Fall.

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