The pages of my blog book tell a different story about what was blooming in the garden last February. So many flowers in bloom following a mild winter. This year on that same day it is hard to find more than a couple of blooms.
Iris reticulata is a new one; the bulbs planted last November. I don't know if this bulb normally does well in central Texas or the unusually cold winter provided the perfect growing conditions. I don't have a good track record with bulbs, forgetting where I put them and then digging into them some time later, so this time I made rings out of wire coat hangers to mark the spot where I planted them.
Daisy fleabane, Erigeron, certainly enjoys the cool wet weather we have been having. This self sowing plant is an asset in the garden because of its neat mounding habit. It is less weedy than many of my other self sowing plants.
The viburnum 'spring bouquet' is still in bud , whereas last year the flowers had opened to their more muted pale pink. The cool wet winter seems to suit the plant.
The native anemone, Anemone decapetala, is now blooming in large numbers on sunny days.
I still have a preference for the purple and blue flowers, this once seen with a new Mexican feather grass, Stipa tenuissima.
With the ground still too wet to work, I spend a lot of time looking. Looking to see if there are any signs of life in those plants which were really hard hit. For many it will be at least another month before new growth will show. For now it is the hardy plants which are peeking through the ground. These are new shoots of Oenothera, the yellow primrose.
Outside the potting shed door, in the gravel, all kinds of seedlings are growing. I have rescued a number of Lychnis, rose campion, which have been potted up until they are big enough to transplant into the garden. These plants are hard to find in the nurseries but quite easy to grow from seed sown in the fall.
