A FIRST EVERY DAY

You walk around the garden and spot the first bloom on the ....... I'm sure you could easily fill in the blank. Surely every gardener shares this experience. And spring is the time when every day seems to bring that 'first flower' experience.
Here are some of my first flower experiences this week and most of them natives.

First I saw the bud then overnight a flower on the Ladyfinger cactus, Echinocereus pentalophus. These flowers last for at least 3 days and usually arrive in succession.

The blue gilia,  Giliastrum rigidulum. More commonly found in west Texas but I found one small patch growing on my lot and was successful in moving it to a place where I can see it and enjoy its beauty. It is almost at eye level so cannot be missed. It usually opens in the afternoon. Do you see the weevil? Not the dreaded agave weevil though.

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolium, seeds among the gravel and between the pavers. As does the Engelmanns daisy which has seeded alongside.

the pink evening primrose, Oenothera speciosa. Oh! Yes, it will run wild but that' fine. A quick pull here and there will keep it under control.

Baby blue-eyes, Nemophila phacelioides. I only have a little patch of shade and that's where they grow.

Everyone else may be able to grow the spiderwort, Tradescantia sp with ease. For me it is a rare event.

What's that I see through the shower window? It's the first blooms of the Anacacho orchid tree, Bauhinea lunarioides.

And the cross vine, Bignonia capreolata. has found tis way 20' from the mother plant.

And I have a mental block on what this plant is called. Help me out will you, please? Update. Thanks to Lyn for the id of Pavonia lasiopetala if I remember the species name correctly.

And wood sorrel, Oxalis.sp. For some it is a weed, for me I am happy to have just a few flowers in this shady corner.

Oh! How I love that morning, spring-time stroll around the garden. There will be more tomorrow, I'm sure.

FOXY

While trying to maintain an air of cheerfulness during these difficult time I want to show you some photos of my absolute favorite flower. The foxglove. Mine are incredibly early this year blooming a full month to a month and a half ahead of their normal schedule. I give you Digitalis purpurea 'Foxy'

I have learnt that they do better in pots, as our soil is very alkaline. I buy them in 4" pots very early in the season and pot them on first, into gallon pots and then into their final pot. They much prefer some nice quality soil like Fox Farm, so there is some expense involved in getting them to look good.

They say you can tell their color by looking at the underside of the leaf but I didn't notice any difference in them and it is rather like it used to be when you were having a baby. You needed to wait a while to find out what color. As you can see below when the blooms first appear they are not giving away any secrets.

Then suddenly a little color starts to show up in the flower bud and then all is revealed.

So this year they are all the same color which is a little disappointing as last year I had darker pink and white ones. At the same time their early arrival has been difficult for them because of swinging temperatures. They would really prefer a cool spring rather than the swings we have been having. First heat, then cold then stiff winds and now lots of heavy rain.
The older flowers are dropping much faster than usual.

My love of foxgloves goes back to my childhood and reading lots of stories about fairies. The markings on the inside of the bell were once thought to be the handprints of fairies.

There foxgloves in our garden
How careless they must be
To leave their gloves out hanging
For everyone to see.
Taken from, One Thousand Poems for Children.

Although wild foxgloves seed freely under the right conditions I don't believe there is viable seed in these. Therefore, as soon as the main flower spike has finished I will cut it off to give the side flowers chance to grow. Not so showy but still give a few more weeks of bloom.
                                                                              ~

WORTH THE WAIT

There are lots of plants whose flowers are ephemeral. I'm thinking of the flowers on my cactus which bloom for just one day. I wouldn't give up that moment for anything. And then there are flowers that give us a few more days to enjoy their beauty. Among these are the Spring flowering daffodils, grape hyacinths and tulips. Even those few days of flowering are worth the year-long wait.
Living in the south we enjoy a good selection of spring bulbs that come back year after year but when it comes to longevity only the species tulips do well in the southern garden.

Tulipa clusiana Lady Jane, returns year after year if given the right conditions. Fast draining, poor soil. If it finds a happy place it will spread over the years producing nice clump of flowers to brighten the early spring garden. When the flowers close at night they show off their pink underbelly.

One of the reasons I like the clusiana tulips is because they have elegant seed heads which I look attractive even after they have dried. I scatter the seeds in different places. The leaves die back at about the same time as the seed heads.

Another member of the clusiana family is Tulipa clusiana 'Tinka" Lemony yellow when fully opened with pink underbelly when closed.

Planted in 2016 the package was labeled  Tulips humilis 'Persian Pearl' but I learn that one has a yellow center. It is more likely to be Tulipa humilis 'Little beauty' which has a bluish center. Either way the plant is a beauty and perfect for rock gardens as the flowers only stand about 4" tall.

On this rainy the petals are closed up. I am thrilled to see more blooms this year. One year there were no blooms, the plants lying dormant under the gravel until they got just the right conditions.

Originating in the hills of Turkey, these tulips were brought to Europe in the mid 1500s. There they were bred to be the tulips we find today. For us in the south those tulips must be planted every year. These tulips can be left in the ground. They love the baking heat because that is the conditions under which they grew in the wild. So much easy to care for, forget and then enjoy every spring.
Look for these bulbs in the fall when they arrive at the nurseries or order them on line. And remember to plant in fast draining soils to prevent rot.

I'M TINY BUT SO FRAGRANT

I ventured into the greenhouse yesterday. I just haven't had the energy or the inclination to go out there. Naturally, I was wondering what kind of horror story I would find. It is mostly overwintering cactus and succulents but a few plants which require watering, including the flat of narrow leaf zinnias I started from seed. There was a sweet fragrance on the air and I looked up to see a cactus I had planted in the spring had a tiny flower. It's a flower that needs to be at nose level to appreciate. The flowers are less fragile than the night blooming cereus.

I remember last year when the mother cactus flowered I was so disappointed in the color and size of the flowers expecting a bloom like the night blooming cereus. It does make up for that in fragrance though. The original plant was a small piece I found lying on the ground near my son's house in Arizona. I still haven't managed to identify it although I think it does belong to the cereus family. There were tiny ants on the flower feeding on the pollen or nectar.

UPDATE;Thanks to c kind reader the cactus has been identified as Myrtillocactus geometrizans.

This morning I spotted flowers on the pink jasmine, Jasminum polyanthum. 

It doesn't always have a good year because of late freezes. Located in a sheltered corner of the garden and protected on both sides by walls the plant can make it through light frosts of which we have had four this year but flowering so early really took me by surprise.
It's a large vine that really needs strict control. It will run along the ground sending down roots at every node. Periodic cutting down to the ground will keep it in check.
It was raining but I did just step out to get  photograph and drink in the fragrance. At least I a not missing the gene for smelling the fragrance of these two plants.
Maybe I'll get my gardening mojo back soon.