Sanservera Blooming

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day on the 15th of each Month.

More Country Girls

Another picture of my rocking Country Girl Mums from Garden Ally.

Bloom Day October 2014

There are lots of plants blooming right now...some of which I take for granted because they bloom relatively consistently (zexmenia), or I've gotten used to them blooming around now (gomphrena, Gregg's mistflower)...  Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for getting me to at least occasionally to look at the blooming plants and appreciate them.

Anyway, what I've taken pictures of this month:

Fall Aster with Gomphrena

A rose bush from one of my friends, Andrea from when she moved to West Virginia.  I just found the little tag buried in the pot yesterday, but I don't remember what it's called...something that basically means that the flowers change colors as they mature, or that the plant had 2 different roses grafted to it so it blooms in two different colors...I'm not sure.  Research is needed.

Caldwell Pink heirloom rose.  With some Big Muhly seed heads.  Such a hardy little rose this.

Cosmos and Giant Petunia.  The Petunia may be Carolina Petunia (if the plants at the Key West Botanic Garden are any indication...which they may have also been mislabeled, so I guess I'll never know).  Again, I suppose more research is in order...unless any of you out there are petunia experts.

And of course, since it's so rare to have my roses blooming, I went ahead and cut them off and brought them in the house (besides, it's also the only way I'll have flowers in the house).

My new garden gnome keeps watch over the roses.

From a different angle

Looking up at the Caldwell pinks.

April Bloom Day and Foliage Followup

Combining (and this is really sad because I was just contemplating on if 'combo-izing' was a word) Bloom Day, which is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens, and Foliage Follow Up, which is hosted by Pam at Digging, and posting them together a little late.  Oh well.  Better late than never.

Ghost Plant Blooms

One of my cacti from East Side Succulent

Artemisia with the dead avocado tree in the background

Hell strip which includes Artemisia, Santolina, and Iris

Dr. Huey Rose getting ready to bloom with blooming photinia in the background

May Night Salvia with a dead agave in the background.  Sigh. 

Baby Blue Eyes

Smith's Unknown Iris

Two types of portluaca

Gulf Coast Penstemmon

Red Corn Poppy

Summer Thyme

Englemann's Daisy

Amethyst Iris

Cemetery Iris

Primrose with Amethyst Iris

Lucinda Huston's Iris

Pink Poppy, which my husband has deemed his favorite, which means I ought to let it reseed freely.

Other plants blooming:
Coreopsis
Dahlberg Daisy
Tomatoes
Peppers
Red Columbine
Yellow Columbine
Passionvine
Chocolate Daisy
Blackfoot Daisy

March Bloom Day 2014

Even with the terribly nasty weather (which fried my iris blooms, and the bush germander blooms - BOOOOOO!!!), some things are still blooming.

These things, naturally, are weeds.  The henbit is going crazy right now in my yard.  And that's fine - the nectar-drinking insects appreciate it, and as long as I get it removed before it goes to seed, it's not a big deal.  I've also got some tiny-flowered itty bitty plant that's blooming and is ALL over my hell strip - I really need to figure out what it is so I can determine if it's friend or foe.

I do have 2 other plants that are blooming now - Baby Blue Eyes and Verbena.

Baby Blue Eyes

Verbena

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting bloom day on the 15th of each month.

Bloom Day: Cactus Flower

So it's February.  There is very little blooming.  in fact, the only things blooming are the Henbit and my cacuts. 

I've contacted my cousin to get some custom flower pots made for my growing cactus and succulent selection.  In the meantime, I'm just appreciating the cactus flowers from my little Mammillaria weingartiana.  This little cactus has been blooming non-stop for almost a month.  Right now it actually has 3 open flowers, this is just an older photo - a photo from BEFORE I accidentally pulled it out of its little pot with my winter scarf.  Note: Winter scarves and cacti do not mix well.

January Bloom Day (Delayed)

So, I wonder if Carol at May Dreams Gardens expected to have many Bloom Days in January when she started this whole shindig.  Hell, I never expected to have blooms of anything other than indoor plants when I found out that bloom day was a thing.

Anyhoo, this year, I have had plants blooming in January -
The Bush Germander started blooming at the beginning of January and hasn't stopped (actually, it may have had all the blooms knocked off last night due to the SNOW!): 

The other bloomer is a plant that I JUST got at the end of December.  I didn't expect any of the succulents/cacti to bloom - and I especially didn't expect it so soon after buying them:

According to the tag, this little lady is Mammillaria weingartiana

Wide Shots

So Tim at Xeric Front Yard has been posting wide shots of his yard every month.  He started doing it because Heather at Xericstyle said people should post more wide shots of their yards.

This seems like something I should partake in as well.  I mean, the macro shots are great, but it's very hard to convey the feel of the yard if everything is a macro shot.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the macro shot - the macro shot makes it easy to hide all the empty spots.  It makes it easy to hide that invasive nandina in the back, or the fact that the Asiatic jasmine is making a break for it and is about to take over the fence to the neighbor's yard. (Which reminds me, add "cut jasmine to be in bounds" to my ever-growing to-do list.  Actually, add "make a to-do list" to my to-do list.  Does anyone know if any of those gardening social sites have to-do lists as an option on them?)  The macro shot makes it so easy to hide the imperfections of the yard.  My grandma and grandpa said they liked seeing my yard when they came to visit last spring because I never post long shots of the back yard.  I will, however take long shots looking toward the veggie garden, and the point of it is to show the different stages the veggie garden goes through. Which, you know, is kinda the POINT of taking long shots of the entire yard - to provide perspective, to show where the problems are, to show that things are ephemeral.  Also, HI GRANDMA! :::waves wildly:::

This is kinda like Bloom Day and Foliage Followup, right?  The points of those is to show what plants are blooming (so you can figure out if your plants are ahead or behind schedule for your area), and which plants are doing the heavy lifting in your yard when the bloomers are being petulant. 

So yes, I will make an effort to participate more frequently in these type of things - I may not post on the day (because I do work, and I normally get home after dark), but I will at least try to post something at the beginning-ish of the month for the wide angle shots, and something in the middle of the month for bloom day/foliage follow up. On the plus side of doing the wide shots, I'll probably do those photos with my phone as opposed to the macro shots, which just beg for the DSLR.

And of course, since I just decided to participate in this, you're going to have to wait until Saturday when I get a photo of the front yard, and I'll even do panoramic of the back yard (maybe it will even be a little video if I can figure out how to do that).

Bloom Day November 2013

After the freeze we had earlier this week, I'm a bit surprised that some of the plants are still blooming.  The eggplant, tomatoes and most of the cosmos are toast, but everything else seems unfazed (the peppers were covered).  The following are still blooming:
Gomphrena
Prairie Fleabane
Zexmenia
Blackfoot Daisy
Lantana
Butterfly Bush
Mexican Mint Marigold
Coneflower
Gregg's Mistflower
Culinary Ginger (was brought in during the freeze)
Mexican Petunia
Shrimp Plant
Jalapeno
Milkweed
Unscented Plumeria (was brought in during the freeze)
Henry Duelberg Sage
Autumn Sage
Caldwell Pink Rose

Some VERY late pictures for Bloom Day

So on Bloom Day of this month (May 15), I totally took a bunch of pictures of the plants that were blooming.  Unfortunately, I lost my blogging mojo at around that time so I never posted them.  Here are a smattering with a list at the bottom of everything that was blooming.

Marigolds

Caldwell Pink Rose

Zexmenia*

Tahoka Daisy

Dahlberg Daisy* and Prairie Fleabane

Blue Passionflower

Cosmos Flowers*

Confederate Jasmine vine

Other plants blooming on May 15, 2013:
August Duelberg Sage
Yellow Columbine
Red Columbine
White Yarrow
"Paprika" Yarrow
Texas Betony
Gregg's Mistflower*
Tropical Milkweed
Parsley
Lantana
Lanceleaf Coreopsis
Englemann's Daisy
White Mistflower
Mexican Hat
Dr. Huey Rose
White Guara
Winecup*
Prairie Verbena
Drummond Phlox
Purple Skullcap
Blackfoot Daisy
Larkspur (purple and white)*
Summer Thyme
Plains Coreopsis 'Nana'
Arizona Blanketflower*
Birdseed Sunflowers (i.e. sunflowers from fallen birdseed)

* = plants that are from (or the original plant was from) fellow garden bloggers (either plant or seeds)

Bush Germander

 

Ummm...I think Spring has done gone sprung.

September Bloom Day...A few days late

Pictures of things blooming around the yard (really it's the same as in August, but I figured I'd show pictures of the things I didn't show last time)

Alamo Vine

Chocolate Daisy

Eryngo

Tahoka Daisy

Red Turk's Cap

Zexmenia

Gomphrena

Gregg's Mistflower

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day on the 15th of every month