Thursday, April 15, 2010

Garden Bloom Day - April

I'm pausing my Spring Break in the Desert for Bloom Day and Foliage Follow Up. I'll continue with Day 2 and 3 of Spring Break in a couple of days.

I recently noticed my Pistache chinensis trees blooming funny little tufts of flowers on the ends of the branches before the new leaves emerge. Kind of cool close up.


Pistache chinensis

Every Aristea I've gotten to know has its own special qualities. Aristea major has lovely large flowers. Aristea ecklonii is a gentian-flowered workhorse for dry shade but Aristea inaequalis has stolen my heart. It has clouds of blue flowers for much of the year and even before it blooms the foliage is a beautiful blue-gray. And it is so tough and maintenance free - totally fine with my dry parking strip. The blue flowers look great with the chartreuse flowers of my Euphorbia characias 'Dwarf' that also populates that area.


the best aristea

Heuchera maxima is such a lovely plant in my garden this time of the year. Another one that is super tough and hardly needs any summer water. I was hoping to get a better photograph of it for Annie's but I've realized it is truly impossible to photograph. It always just looks like a bunch of blurry white dots. Grr. The close-up turned out pretty interesting but that is hardly indicative of the grace it contributes to the garden.

impossible to photograph Heuchera maxima

Heuchera maxima up close and personal

And it is still poppy season in my garden. Can't resist photographing an opening poppy bud. And the Kid can't resist prying open the buds. Here he is hard at work.


poppy macaron

working diligentlypeelingopeningpapaver rhoeas

The Trichodesma scottii is still blooming in my garden. It is so graceful. Some flower clusters are developing seed which are just as interesting.

grace

now the fruit

Gen II of my Nasturtium 'Evelyn' are coming up in my garden. Have to remember to not put all the flowers in my salad but let some go to seed so I can have generation 3 next year.

nasturtium evelyn generation 2

My Saturn Peaches are just beginning to pop the dried flowers off. Such fuzzy little nutlets right now.

from flower to fruit

I'm not a really big rose person and I just popped this White Lady Bank's rose in out of desperation when my lovely Passiflora alata 'Ruby Glow' completely froze one year. But I'm really becoming a fan of climbing roses. They are so romantic looking. And what garden couldn't use a touch of romance?

one of my few roses

My Eryngium eburnum is not blooming very much this year. It's getting pretty old. May be losing steam. Too bad, it's another no-maintenance parking strip toughy.

eryngium eburnum

Weeds! Ugg, so many I need to pull. Maybe I should get off the computer and go out there and do some weeding.

weed

And my Puya caerulea is going to bloom this year. The flower is more foliage than anything else at this stage.


flower or foliage?

See you at Foliage Follow Up tomorrow.

5 comments:

  1. I've had exactly the same problem as you when trying to photograph my Heuchera maxima! But I think I've figure out the secret now: I just only photograph it within about ten minutes of the time the sun sets. It's the only time of day when the buds actually show up correctly in my photographs.

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  2. This is a great collection for bloom day. I am always surprsed when I see Pistache blooming. The Trichodesma is not familiar to me, what structure!

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  3. Amazing photos - the contrast you get is amazing. what camera do you use?

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  4. Queer by Choice- that is interesting. I'll have to try that.
    Les-Thanks!
    Stevie-Thank you and I use a Canon Rebel.

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  5. Enjoying your pictures and info, I too am interested in what camera you used.

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