March Bloom Day: An Early Spring

According to the calendar, the first day of spring isn't until next Tuesday, but you could have fooled me.  We have had record-setting temperatures this past week, and the garden is bursting forth with blooms and all kinds of new growth, just in time for this month's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Flowers and gardeners are not the only creatures feeling the stirrings of spring.  Even a lone hoverfly was out last week enjoying some early blooms and frolicking in the pollen.

Checking through past years' records, I did have a few tiny crocus blooms opening last year.  But this year the crocuses have been in bloom since early February, which also sets a new record in my garden.

I noticed in my past March Bloom Day posts that three years ago I was wondering what had happened to all the crocuses I had planted, because only a few had appeared.  I'm not sure if the crocuses blooming now are from that mystery year or from later plantings, but they seem to be multiplying everywhere.

 I'm glad because although each tiny little bloom is such a welcome sight, especially after a long winter, they look so much better in groups.

It's also early for daffodils in my zone 5b garden. On Monday I took a few photos of the buds, but by Tuesday, they had opened up completely.

In the coming weeks there will be other varieties of daffodils coming into bloom, small tazetta blooms and ruffled doubles in different hues, but the first unnamed yellow stalwarts are always the most appreciated, for they signal the true beginning of spring for me.

Spring bulbs are slower to emerge in the shade garden, but the hellebores are capturing all attention right now.  Taking a picture of the white blooms requires some contortion and playing with the camera, as most of them are the downward facing variety.

A few years ago, I purchased a collection of five plants in different colors but all the same species from a mail order company.  I'm no expert on hellebores, so I don't understand why the white ones look like this . . .

. . . while the purple ones look like this. 

The upright blooms of what I think is 'Red Lady' are definitely easier to see and photograph!

Cleaning up the flowerbeds this week has revealed more budding growth and a bonus surprise--the first primrose bloom.

Hydrangeas are budding early, too. After seeing these on the macrophyllas one day, I've been checking all the other hydrangeas and new shrubs nearly every day for buds.  I've had my fingers crossed about a few plants that didn't do so well last year, so any sign of new growth brings a sigh of relief from me.

This morning I noticed one of the flowering crabapples is beginning to leaf out as is the lilac.  Looking at the garden shows that it will soon be time for the parade of tulips.  Yes, spring has definitely arrived early this year!

I hope you are enjoying some early blooms in your garden as well.  For a look at other signs of spring, check out the list of participants at Carol's May Dreams Gardens.  And yes, I know I'm late to the monthly meeting, but I spent the day yesterday at the Indianapolis Flower and Patio Show.  More to come on that later ...

November GBBD: End of the Season?

Every Midwesterner knows that November can be an unpredictable month. Often gloomy with gray, wet days that never end, this is one month I've often wished could be wiped off the calendar. Last year, however, was an exception. I remember planting bulbs, warmed enough by the sun that there was no need for a jacket, all the way till Thanksgiving. This year November has been a welcome surprise and relief after an unusually wet and dreary October. Although we have had frosty mornings, the sun usually brings the temperature up to a comfortable warmth. For example, yesterday I sat through yet another disappointing Illinois football game wearing only a sweatshirt and jeans.



The cold of October has brought the garden nearly to an end. Yet there are a few things still to enjoy for this November Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day:





There are the usual suspects for this late in the season, like the fall pansies sitting on the steps.

Or the potted mum carelessly planted in a container to replace the dying zinnias and heliotrope.

Or the lavender mum in the shade garden partially obscured by the dried feathery plumes of the heuchera.

More typical scenes in my garden, though, are like this one. Some of the Victoria Blue salvias are still showing some signs of their vibrant purple of early autumn, but most are fading to a silvery hue for the winter.

The hydrangeas are wilting and turning brown, but "Let's Dance in the Moonlight" is determined to give one last colorful hurrah before ending its season. I know you're probably tired of me showing yet another photo of this plant, but this fall I have been enthralled by the hydrangeas that have been almost as colorful in their final days as they were in their summer prime.

Looking for something--anything at all--still blooming in the shade garden one morning, I was sad to see that the Brunnera "Jack Frost" had finally succumbed to the frost. Or so I thought . . .

The next day, after a few hours of warm sunlight, I was surprised to see a full recovery! "Jack" is typical of what it is still blooming in my garden--what I call the "hangers-on."

Still hanging in there, protected on my back porch, is the Desert Rose begonia. This is one of the few plants that will be taken in the house for the winter--I've never had a begonia do so well for me as this one.

Another hanger-on is the "Homestead" verbena. It seems to actually enjoy the cooler weather, but here in zone 5 it is an annual so its time is limited.

The lamium, specific name now forgotten, is another plant unfazed by cool temperatures and is still setting blooms. If covered with leaves, it wil usually stay green all winter.

A few stray petunia blooms are also hanging in there, along with the helichrysum. Someone asked me about this plant on a previous post. It often goes by other names, such as licorice plant or mouse ears, and it is one of my favorite accent plants in containers.

Another tough plant is the sweet alyssum. I think all of these re-seeded from last year. They were getting rather leggy this summer so I gave them a "haircut," which gave them a new burst of energy for this fall.

There are a few surprises for this time of year, though. This is the first year I have planted lemon verbena, purchased early in the season from the local Herb Society's plant sale, and I don't think I've ever featured it here before. According to information on the Missouri Botanical Garden website, lemon verbena, Aloysia triphylla, reaches a height of 2-4 feet. Not to brag, but my plant is at least 5 feet tall! (Wish I'd moved that trampoline out of the background, though.)

However, the website also mentions that it has showy white flowers from June to September, but mine never bloomed. I'm not too disappointed, though, because this plant has done so well otherwise and provided much more than blooms. Every time I was in the Butterfly Garden I couldn't resist pulling off a leaf or two and taking in its heady lemony scent. While it can be used in making teas or desserts, I have only dried the leaves in hopes of making some potpourri. Unfortunately, while lemon verbena is a perennial in zones 8-10, it won't survive in my zone 5 garden. But I am going to attempt to root a cutting, and if that fails, I'll be back at the plant sale in the spring for a replacement.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the new lush greenery and pink blooms of the Achillea, or yarrow. This is a tough plant that is one of the first to bloom in the spring and one of the last in the fall.

But I was surprised to see these little violas blooming in the pot of now-spent dianthus. Did I plant these in here last spring and they've come to life again? Or did I throw out the dead spring blooms in this catch-all pot? Sometimes there are advantages to being forgetful.

Yes, the season is winding down, and for the next few months, I'll have to use some ingenuity to come up with a Bloom Day post at all. I'll enjoy the garden for as long as it lasts, admiring the seedheads of the daisy "Becky" and discovering right next to these dried up blooms . . .

A brand new "Becky" bloom!

You may have noticed a common theme throughout this post--throughout my flowerbeds are leaves, leaves, and more leaves.

Sometimes, though, it pays to pull back a few of those leaves to discover a final surprise underneath--a few primroses are blooming again! This can only mean one thing--only a few more months until spring!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is the brainchild of the always entertaining and energetic Carol of May Dreams Gardens. For more Bloom Day posts from around the world, be sure to visit her.

ABC Wednesday: Pretty in Purple

The perfect choice for this week's ABC Wednesday letter of P is . . .

A pot of purple pansies.

This is the time of year that every gardener looks forward to--getting outside and planting in their gardens. In my Midwest garden, zone 5, the last frost date is May 15, so I have had to restrain myself from buying too many annuals yet, because we could still have a killing frost. Pansies are one of the few annuals that actually prefer cool weather, so they are a great choice when the gardening "itch" hits in spring and you want to plant something for a little color. I took the advice of Carol at MayDreams Gardens several weeks ago and planted a couple pots of pansies to brighten up those cold, rainy days of spring.






While I have had to wait until this week to purchase annuals, like pink and purple petunias, I have been enjoying watching the perennials come up and begin to grow this past month. This early purple primrose is nearing the end of its blooming days, but there are many other plants waiting to take its place in the spotlight.

The heucheras, including "Plum Pudding" and "Palace Purple" survived the harsh winter nicely and are spreading out. Soon other perennials will be blooming, and by mid-June my garden will be awash in purple, with purple nepeta, purple salvias . . .

. . . the purple Russian sage . . .

. . . and my favorite of all, my signature plant, the purple coneflower, which, of course, isn't purple at all, but rather pink, another predominant color in my garden.


In case you're wondering why I am posting my ABC Wednesday post on Tuesday, it's because tomorrow I plan to join a group of fellow bloggers who post book reviews on the first Wednesday of the month. The book I plan to review is light reading, a novel about a private eye, The Last Place, which I purchased at my favorite book store in Phoenix, The Poisoned Pen.

Enough with the P's--the sun is shining, and it's a perfect day to be in the garden!

For more ABC Wednesday posts, you can visit the ABC Mr. Linky.

April GBBD: A Waiting Game

Today is April 15, and we all know what that means . . . no, no, I don't mean the day we fork over half our money to the IRS. Today is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted the 15th of each month by the effervescent Carol of May Dreams Gardens. (For those of you visiting from the ABC blog, my "M" post is below.)



Two weeks ago today I was surrounded by blooms in Arizona, including this beautiful tree, identified by Chandramouli as an orchid tree. I don't know anything about this tree other than the fact it was blooming this profusely back in December as well.

Even the cacti were welcoming spring with blooms. March and early April are the peak times for blooms of all kind in Arizona, where the temperatures begin to creep into the 90's, but nothing like the 100+ degrees that will toast everything in a few months.

But for the past week I have been back to reality and anxiously waiting for blooms to appear in my Illinois garden. The daffodils have been going strong for a few weeks now.

And the hyacinths have all opened up, perfuming the front walkway.

But mostly it's a waiting game here. Waiting for one of the newer daffodils planted last fall to open into full bloom. Waiting for the wind to stop so that I can get something other than a blurry picture. Waiting for the temperature to get above the 34 degrees it was when I awoke this morning.

I'm waiting to see if the lilacs, which leafed out early, will bloom or if they have suffered any damage from the frosts we have had recently.

A month ago I waited eagerly for signs of all the tulips I planted last fall. They have come up, but now it's a waiting game to see what colors emerge.

This tulip bud looks pink, but is it? I will have to wait to find out.

The surprise/mystery lilies, aka "Naked Ladies," are growing by leaps and bounds. Now that I know they are here, I am waiting and watching to see when they disappear and magically reappear later in the summer.

I am also waiting to see if the Hellebores will bloom this spring. An order of five arrived the day before I left for Arizona, and I hastily planted them. I was so happy when I got home to see that they had survived the frost and snow, that is . . .

. . . all except one. I wonder what could have eaten this plant?

A deer, a rabbit, or heaven forbid, Sophie?? I will have to wait to see if it survives.

While I will have to wait for these yellow primrose buds to open . . .

. . . I no longer have to wait for these pink primroses which were similar buds two weeks ago.

Nor this mass of primrose blossoms. I planted several primroses (or are they primulas?) last spring, not knowing if they were hardy here in zone 5. But not only did they survive, they have increased in size with two to three times the number of blooms on each one.

But most of all, I am waiting for the ground to dry out, so I can finally get in the garden!

Footnote: I wrote most of this post this morning and then ran out of time to finish it. Since then the sun has come out, and it's in the 50's with a forecast of sunny days in the 60's ahead! I guess all good things come to those who wait:)