queerbychoice (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queerbychoice) wrote2016-02-14 08:06 pm
queerbychoice) wrote2016-02-14 08:06 pm
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Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, Valentine's Edition: It's Spring!
Spring may be more than a month away by our human calendars, but my plants have already begun their celebration of its arrival. Daffodils everywhere! Even several of my shrubs are blooming. And the first of my California native annuals! I have far more to show you for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day this month than last month.
This is in my front yard. The blue flowers are a non-native hybrid larkspur (Delphinium belladonna 'Bellamosum') that I'm trying out this year for the first time, and the yellow daffodils in the background came with the house.
I'm quite pleased with the larkspur so far. Larkspurs are generally difficult to grow, but this cultivar was advertised as being easier than most, and so far it's living up to those claims. I wish it were easier to find the native larkspurs for sale; I'd like to grow those too.
This daffodil always sneaks up on me. Each year, by the time I notice it's in bloom at all, it has several flowers already.
Closer views of its flowers.
On the other side of the driveway, there are more daffodils, in other colors.
And in the back yard, along the back fence, the same kind.
And also other kinds! Still along the back fence.
Had enough of daffodils yet? Here's another non-native that came with the house: Siberian tea (Bergenia cordifolia).
And here's the last of the non-natives blooming this month: Japanese flowering quince (Chaenomeles japonica). This plant came with the house.
There's a second, smaller one nearby. One of the few plants that survives directly under my pecan tree!
Moving on to the natives now . . . here's another shrub beginning to bloom. This is a very young golden currant (Ribes aureum), planted last fall, just budding out under my bedroom window for the first time.
Back out in the front yard, my native woodland strawberries (this one is Fragaria vesca 'Golden Alexandria') are blooming heavily but not fruiting much yet.
Here's a closeup of a flower on another of the woodland strawberries. This one is the straight species, not a cultivar.
In a ceramic pot in the back yard, my checker mallow (Sidalcea malviflora 'Purpetta') is blooming madly.
It's blooming so much that it's hard to fit all the flowers in the frame while still getting close enough to do justice to all the details of them. This cultivar is much more vigorous than the straight species.
Here's a view from above.
And finally, as a sign of what's to come next month, here's the very first of my California native annuals to bloom! This is five spot (Nemophila maculata), named of course for the spots on each of its five petals. It just started blooming today, in my front yard, and there are plenty of other native annuals preparing to bloom soon.
This is in my front yard. The blue flowers are a non-native hybrid larkspur (Delphinium belladonna 'Bellamosum') that I'm trying out this year for the first time, and the yellow daffodils in the background came with the house.
I'm quite pleased with the larkspur so far. Larkspurs are generally difficult to grow, but this cultivar was advertised as being easier than most, and so far it's living up to those claims. I wish it were easier to find the native larkspurs for sale; I'd like to grow those too.
This daffodil always sneaks up on me. Each year, by the time I notice it's in bloom at all, it has several flowers already.
Closer views of its flowers.
On the other side of the driveway, there are more daffodils, in other colors.
And in the back yard, along the back fence, the same kind.
And also other kinds! Still along the back fence.
Had enough of daffodils yet? Here's another non-native that came with the house: Siberian tea (Bergenia cordifolia).
And here's the last of the non-natives blooming this month: Japanese flowering quince (Chaenomeles japonica). This plant came with the house.
There's a second, smaller one nearby. One of the few plants that survives directly under my pecan tree!
Moving on to the natives now . . . here's another shrub beginning to bloom. This is a very young golden currant (Ribes aureum), planted last fall, just budding out under my bedroom window for the first time.
Back out in the front yard, my native woodland strawberries (this one is Fragaria vesca 'Golden Alexandria') are blooming heavily but not fruiting much yet.
Here's a closeup of a flower on another of the woodland strawberries. This one is the straight species, not a cultivar.
In a ceramic pot in the back yard, my checker mallow (Sidalcea malviflora 'Purpetta') is blooming madly.
It's blooming so much that it's hard to fit all the flowers in the frame while still getting close enough to do justice to all the details of them. This cultivar is much more vigorous than the straight species.
Here's a view from above.
And finally, as a sign of what's to come next month, here's the very first of my California native annuals to bloom! This is five spot (Nemophila maculata), named of course for the spots on each of its five petals. It just started blooming today, in my front yard, and there are plenty of other native annuals preparing to bloom soon.
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