Thursday, May 17, 2012
Garden Blogger's Bloom Day May 2012
Welcome to my GBBD post, to see lots more go to May Dreams Gardens, graciously hosted by Carol. The spring bulbs are winding down here, and the geraniums are beginning. One of my favorites, G. sanguineum, makes lovely mounds of deeply incised petals, studded with magenta or pink flowers. They also self-sow themselves around in a pleasing fashion. There are a few Ajuga there too.
Another Geranium, macrorrhizum, is stronger in the foliage department and does amazingly well in dry shade.
Another reliable bloomer and spreader is G. x oxonianum 'Claridge Druce'.
But the main flowers blooming now that give the garden an exquisite dreamlike quality are the Columbines. Mine are all grown from seed, and like to self-sow, very frilly doubles in one or more colors, like little fluted pinafores, lifted up high above the Forget-Me-Nots and Ajuga,
or dwarf singles, who can resist them with their delightful foliage as well?
I started some Aquilegia formosa from seed, but may have to wait a year or so for blooms, so couldn't resist the other native yellow and red Columbine, A. canadensis-
More of the frilly double Columbines, which also are present in dark purple, blue, and white-
On a larger scale, the Rhododendrons are starting to bloom, entire 10' shrubs like a giant bouquet, a lilac blooming behind it and perfuming the air-
And to finish off, a small tree peony in yellow-
Hannah
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Oh my, that rhododendron is striking! I love the columbines. You have many wonderful blooms.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I love it when the Columbines are blooming, they are so light and lovely, like a Hobbit garden. And no work, except cutting the bloom stalks down in late summer when they have set seed, and sprinkling the seed around some unkempt area in hopes they will take hold. I hope the new red and yellow ones will come true to seed, apparently Columbines are notorious for hybridizing. As for Rhodies, I have a bunch planted by the Previous Owner (PO) but can't really warm up to them much because the blooms are so short-lived then leave hundreds or thousands of little woody bloom structures to dead-head before the next winter, a chore I don't find welcome. I have cut some back inside to reveal the twisty branches, which are kind of fun.
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