I'm joining in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day this month. Kindly hosted by Carol over at May Dream Gardens - it's an opportunity for gardeners from all corners of the globe to get together and share what's blooming and blossoming in their gardens of the 15th of every month. Head on over if you want to join in!
It's been really difficult to decide what blooms to share with you all - therefore this is Part 1 of 2. As well as playing catch up in garden, I'm also playing catch up in downloading and editing my garden pictures. Being that this is the first year I'm recording everything in the garden, I don't want to miss anything out.
The first of the Rhododendrons are flowering R. Shamrock and R. Baden Baden - they would normally be joined by Rhododendron Taurus but as it has struggled with Cushion Scale this last couple of years it was removed from the garden last week.
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| Rhododendron Shamrock |
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| Rhododendron Baden Baden |
Little pots of Muscari are useful at adding a little spring interest where perennials don't bloom until later in the season. I like the delicate colours of these - they make a nice change to the darker blue of the more common one.
Despite being very optimistic in February - my attempts at succeeding to bringing tulips through 2 winters in containers has taken a bit of a knock. I suppose that winter 2011/12 doesn't really count as winter as it was so mild! Many have come up blind, others have miniscule flower heads and others are half the height and don't look like they going to produce a bloom worth blogging about! Not pictured here today are 2 pots of Tulipa Queen of the Night. Identical pots, both treated the same way after flowering in the 2 previous years, yet 1 pot has come up completely blind and the other has half and half of blooms (yet to open) and deformed flower heads.
The little creamy white tulips, with no name, that share a pot with Narcissus Thalia are somewhat disappointing - only 2 bulbs produced flowers - the remaining 8 are blind. The fact that the Daffs are doing so well in the container leaves me baffled! I'd be interested if anyone has a thought on this.
Tulipa National Velvet is another confusing case! They are shades lighter than they were in previous years. All bulbs produced flower heads with only half of them choosing to open. As you can see from the picture they are not the dark maroon colour they should be. I don't particularly mind this colour - it matches perfectly with my new Aqueligia!
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| Tulips National Velvet and Aqueligia Spring Magic Pink |
A couple of alpine flowering this May - both quite different in nature.
Soldanella villosa - requires a moist cool shady spot. This one grows in a container unlike the others in borders which have yet to flower. it's common name is Snowbell and will push it's dainty little flowers up through the snow on the mountain tops of Europe.
Erysimum kotschianum - Alpine Wallflower, prefers a sunny well drained site. It has settled in well in the Alpine Trough. It's bright yellow flowers really do stand out.
I've 2 Clematis flowering right now - both have not come through winter unscathed.
Clematis cartmanii Pixie - an H3 hardy evergreen climber. Protected in winter with fleece thrown over it and stored against a sunny wall for shelter. Certainly not abundant in growth but has produced a few of it's waxy blooms. It will be given a larger container later in the season when it has finished flowering.
Clematis alpina Helsingborg has flourished in the garden this past few years but a 'cat fight' between one of my cats and a stranger that ventrued into the garden saw the clematis almost torn apart from it's support. I spent a whole afternoon recently carefully snipping and untying all all the damaged stems. Only 1 single stem has survived. I live in hope that it will regenerate from the base.
Fritillaria, Primula and Narcissus from previous posts are still looking well enough to be considered 'flowering'. The usual spring herbaceous plants are flowering - I will be including them in Part 2 of this post.
If you've liked any of my plants and want any more information on them you can follow the links I've provided to my 'What's Growing' pages - here you will find growing information on each plant.
Thank you for joining me this May GBBD - please come back soon.
Soldanella villosa - requires a moist cool shady spot. This one grows in a container unlike the others in borders which have yet to flower. it's common name is Snowbell and will push it's dainty little flowers up through the snow on the mountain tops of Europe.
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| Soldanella villosa |
Erysimum kotschianum - Alpine Wallflower, prefers a sunny well drained site. It has settled in well in the Alpine Trough. It's bright yellow flowers really do stand out.
I've 2 Clematis flowering right now - both have not come through winter unscathed.
Clematis cartmanii Pixie - an H3 hardy evergreen climber. Protected in winter with fleece thrown over it and stored against a sunny wall for shelter. Certainly not abundant in growth but has produced a few of it's waxy blooms. It will be given a larger container later in the season when it has finished flowering.
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| Clematis cartmanii Pixie |
Clematis alpina Helsingborg has flourished in the garden this past few years but a 'cat fight' between one of my cats and a stranger that ventrued into the garden saw the clematis almost torn apart from it's support. I spent a whole afternoon recently carefully snipping and untying all all the damaged stems. Only 1 single stem has survived. I live in hope that it will regenerate from the base.
 |
| Clematis alpina Helsingborg |
Fritillaria, Primula and Narcissus from previous posts are still looking well enough to be considered 'flowering'. The usual spring herbaceous plants are flowering - I will be including them in Part 2 of this post.
If you've liked any of my plants and want any more information on them you can follow the links I've provided to my 'What's Growing' pages - here you will find growing information on each plant.
Thank you for joining me this May GBBD - please come back soon.
