GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY MARCH 2014

Welcome to March in my garden, which is far from being its normal self following a terrible freeze just over a week ago. We are not used to having a temperature as low as 20° at this time of the year and it has taken its toll on Southern gardens. Despite this, there are some plants who just don't care and they are the ones blooming today.

In the early morning Tulipa clusiana Lady Jane showing her underskirts.

An hour later she begins her show,

Until finally her petals are fully open. In Texas these are the only tulips that can be grown successfully, naturalizing and returning whatever the weather. I think they are sorely under utilized.

This large agarita bush, Mahonia trifoliata, was just a little behind some of the others and so her blossoms managed to survive unscathed. There is an intense honey fragrance on the air today.

A cluster of unknown narcissi on the corner of the once named Spanish oak garden. I shall be sorry when their blooming finishes because they have just been magnificent this year. I think the spring bulbs have benefited from our very cold winter.

Viburnum 'Spring bouquet' Has been its most magnificent this year.

Close up of viburnum flowers.

Ipheion

Summer snowfake, Leucojum aestivum.

Narcissi with California poppy.

First buds on the stocks.

Gopher plant, Euphorbia rigida

Erigeron daisy.

The first of many bluebonnets to come. Please join Carol at Maydreams to share your March blooms.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY FEB 2014

The hard winter has left Texas gardens far behind how they would normally look at this time of year. It is a time when structure takes over from planting.

However there are signs that spring is on the way and with temperature in the 70s and 80s this next week it is going to come quickly. It is likely to be here sooner than we think.

Viburnum 'Spring Bouquet' is about to burst its buds. WIth its evergreen foliage, undamaged by many freezing nights it is a welcome addition in the winter garden.

A clump of paperwhites, always the earliest of the spring flowers.

With an 80° day promised these daffs will be open before the end of the day.

A pot of violas is a welcome splash of color. I planted these in November and left them to the elements. They needed no pampering.

My last flower is a patch of alyssum in the gravel of the vegetable garden path.
Is your garden still under snow? Do you see crocus and snowdrops pushing their way through? That will be a sure sign that a new gardening year is on the way. Please join Carol, at Maydreams for another Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

JANUARY IN THE GARDEN

On this beautiful January day I took a break from pruning to photograph the blooms that had, in my absence, missed Bloom Day.

This is the first time my yellow bulbine, Bulbine frutescens, has survived and bloomed with great vigor in January. Admittedly it is in a sheltered spot against the wall of the house and protected from the frost, which rolls down the hill, by the high retaining wall. A deep freeze would have killed the South African plant but I think what it really liked was a dry winter, and that it has been.

The viburnum,Viburnum tinus Spring Bouquet, in the English garden, looked as though it would not produce blooms this winter but here it is. It really looks its best before the flowers open as the pink turns to white once the flowers open.
 I am concerned for our spring wildflowers. For the first time ever I have not one bluebonnet in my sunken garden and only a handful in the front garden. So many times I have been annoyed by being unable to walk though the area for bluebonnets, but now I have only two or three plants and they are right under the little table! Did they hear my grumbles?

This was the front garden in early April, 2011. I think I may need to do a little transplanting from the outside. I find I do need bluebonnets after all.

Another first for me is the bloom on the kalanchoe, mother-of-thousands. While other gardeners show off their pretty blooms mine seems to reproduce without blooming. Hundreds of babies along the edges of the leaf but not a single bloom-until this year. Maybe I really stressed it out by forgetting to bring it in from the cold. Returning home from our trip I discovered the plant had succumbed to frosty nights. The plant itself is a gonner but by golly the blooms were still there so I cut them off and brought them inside. No need to worry about new plants here. Their offspring is growing in every pot I have!
Spring will not be far behind if we continue to have the unusually high temperatures of the past week. I remember attending a gardening seminar shortly after I came to Austin, where the lecturer warned about feeling the warm sun on the back of the neck in early February and rushing out to the nurseries to buy and plant annuals. Just what the nursery business wants. A freeze comes and wipes them out and now you have to buy again. Oh! but it is so hard to hold oneself back when the days are warm and balmy.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY FEBRUARY 2012

Please join our hostess, Carol of Maydreams, who invites us to share our February blooms.

When I went outside this morning to look for blooms I was really surprised to see that the Ipheion uniflorum was in bud. It was in the shade so I thought I'd wait until I came home in the afternoon. By then the whole clump was in bloom. I have 3 clumps. Two will bloom, the third has been eaten down by critters.

Later on in the afternoon the summer snowflake, Leucojum aestivum,  had opened one bloom.

There are always a few larkspur that jump the gun.

and a couple of grape hyacinths peaking above their lanky foliage.

A few blanket flowers, Gaillardia pulchella, will risk blooming early.

Erigeron daisy in the sunken garden.

and lots of four nerve daisies, Tetraneuris scaposa, in the from garden.




 Sweet alyssum, in all its many shades.

early blooming purple skullcap, Scutellaria wrightii.

The viburnum, Viburnum tinus, spring bouquet. Pink buds open to white flowers.

And now for the February surprise blooms. The color of this gazania is a real surprise. Started from seed last year it sulked its way through the fierce Austin summer, took advantage of the warm winter and voila. February bloom.

Another gazania in the sunken garden. You never know what the colors will be in a mixed seed packet.

Usually Verbena bonariensis, dies over the winter. Not this year. I have several clumps 2' across. I am torn between pulling them out and saving them. If only they were in the right place.

Despite these early blooms the garden is really still in its awakening state with green being the predominant color. Give it another month and it will be awash with color.
Wherever you may be I hope you are all enjoying February bloom day in your garden.