GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY, MAY 15TH 2012

Please join Carol at Maydreams and gardeners everywhere as they share what is blooming in their gardens in May.

If my garden plants were in the least bit sensitive they would be a little put out by the fact that such a recent newcomer to the garden was being given top billing in the photographs today.  But how could I not. I picked this cactus up, for what I thought was a song, at Lowes yesterday. It is an Echinopsis, Echinopsis subdenudata,' dominoes' and with flower buds it was an easy pick. I had no idea that it was to open this morning. David spotted it when he went outside. We enjoyed its brief bloom on our breakfast table. There are more to come. It's getting very crowded on the cactus and succulent fireplace!

With spring blooms winding down in the pool garden I am out there daily pulling the spent stems. Even so the planting remains quite full as others take their place.

In the sunken garden dahlberg daisy, Thymophylla tenuiloba, and wine cup, Callirhoe involucrata.

And my simply gorgeous, purple skullcaps,  Scutellaria wrightii 

With just  a few statice, Limonium sinuata, blooms remaining the yarrow, Achillea millefolium, along with Coreopsis tinctoria, is blooming alongside the  Berggarten sage. It has a more rounded leaf and low growing compact nature than the culinary sage.

Blackfoot daisies, Melampodium leucanthum, and rock rose,  in the English garden paths.

And a pretty pink yarrow.

Salvia coccinia.

And a mullein peeking through the clusters of daylilies and purple coneflowers.

Flax, Linum lewisii.

Liatris, Liatris spicata with blanket flowers, Gaillardia pulchella.

Bee balm, Monarda fistulosa, 'Peter's purple' given to me by Daphne Richards our Travis County horticulturist to test in the garden. I am thrilled the plant bloomed as promised because I tried for years to grow a bee balm. I had foliage for many years and then one year it flowered and died. Let's hope this one will put on a shoe for many years..

Fragrant mistflower, Eupatorium havanese. This plant usually blooms in the fall but there are many fall bloomers blooming right now in the garden. The plants are having another confused year.

Vitex Agnus Chaste on the driveway.

Pink Skullcap, Scutellaria suffrutescens with Ruby crystal grass, Melinis neviglumis.

Blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum.

Daylilies with Engleman's daisy, Engelmennia peristenia. 


It is a beautiful blooming May in Austin Texas. happy Bloom Day everyone.