Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day—April 2007
Purple prickly pear
On Bloom Day this April, sweet spring is in full swing in the garden. Sensory impressions: the delicious scent of ‘Marie Pavie’ roses; hot pink roses near the street that I’ve dubbed “Stop ’em dead roses”; birdsong in the back garden and peep-peeps from various birdhouses; warm, muggy weather one day and breezy, cool weather the next. Here are photos of every single plant in bloom in my garden.
Anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia congesta )
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea )
Hot-pink ‘Carefree Beauty,’ one of the “stop ’em dead” roses
Damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana ) backed by Mexican feathergrass (Stipa tenuissima )
Peach-colored purple prickly pear buds
Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens )
Pomegranate (Punica granata ‘Wonderful’)
Native crossvine (Bignonia capreolata )
Narrowleaf zinnia, which looks remarkably like . . .
. . . native Blackfoot daisy (Melampodium leucanthum )
Gulf Coast penstemon (Penstemon tenuis )
‘Belinda’s Dream’ rose
Autumn sage (Salvia greggii )
Autumn sage in creamy white
A passalong I call Shoshana’s iris
Hinkley’s columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha )
Native spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis )
‘Marie Pavie’ rose
Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides ), also called Confederate jasmine
Purple oxalis
Mom’s purple iris, a passalong from her Tulsa garden
Texas betony (Stachys coccinea )
Manfreda maculosa , a native succulent. Click on the link to see how this bud will look when it opens.
Zexmenia (Wedelia texana )
Nolina texana, also known as sacahuista, devil’s shoestring, bear grass, and basket grass, though it isn’t really a grass at all but a relative of the yucca
Guara lindheimeri
‘Valentine’ rose
White potato vine (Solanum jasminoides )
Purple heart (Tradescantia pallida ‘Purple heart’)
Native shade-lover lyre leaf sage (Salvia lyrata ) is just starting to bloom.
Another native Texan, mealy blue sage (Salvia farinacea ) is not a favorite flower of mine, but it’s still hanging around for some reason.
Yea! The first flowers on my new ‘Little John’ dwarf bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis ).
Hymenoxys (Tetraneuris scaposa ), or four-nerve daisy
A sunset look at Belinda’s Dream
I’m grateful for April’s bounty, not to mention its generally gorgeous weather here in Austin. I look forward to seeing how this changeable month has touched other bloggers’ gardens.
April does indeed some like a wonderful month in Austin. Your blooms are oustanding. I can only imagine what it must be like to walk through your garden on a sunny, spring April day… how nice that must be. (No comment on the weather here today.)
Thanks for participating in the 3rd Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
Thanks, Carol. And thank you for coming up with a great, community-building idea like Bloom Day. —Pam
Your garden must be as close to the garden of Eden as one can get !
Wow! So many flowers! A lot of those types of flowers only come around here (Ireland) a little later in the year.
And some never.. wonder if I can grow a bottlebrush in a sheltered area, I love the look of those. And the pommegranite’s flower is fantastic!
What a gorgeous array of blooms you have in your garden. My Canadian garden is just waking up. I have lots of plants poking through the ground. I love the prickly pear. It has been wonderful visiting your garden on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Hope you stop by and visit my garden. I will add you to my World Gardening Blogroll so that I can come back and visit again.
What a wealth of blooms you have in Austin TX.! Here in Canada the chill is still on however I did manage to find brave blooms!Come see! NG from Canada zone 6
How many acres do you have there? That’s a lot of bloom.
And congrats on all the M&T nominations. They are well deserved.
Indeed, Pam, that’s an incredible bounty of flowers. I so looking forward to seeing them next weekend. And to be able to congratulate you and Annie on the M&T nominations.
Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful!
Anna Maria, thanks for stopping by. I don’t know about the Garden of Eden (blog photos are selective, remember), but it often feels heavenly to me at this time of year.
Silvia/Salix, thanks for visiting. Spring comes early to Austin, before the blast furnace we call summer arrives in mid- to late May. Your Ireland garden is looking fresh and colorful too.
Crafty Gardener and naturegirl, it’s good to hear from two Canadian gardeners. Thanks for visiting. I look forward to checking out your northern gardens this bloom day.
Ellis Hollow, we have a small, typical, suburban lot in a neighborhood built in the 1950s. It’s probably not even a quarter-acre. I don’t have a lawn though (unless you count the ornamental “lawnette” I planted last fall), so I have more space for flowering plants. Thanks for the notice and your kind words about the M&T awards. I hadn’t seen the finalist list until I got your comment, and I was bowled over to see Digging had so many nominations.
Susan, thank you. I look forward to seeing your garden next weekend too!
Kathy, thanks!
Oh, Pam – what a huge number of plants in bloom at once! It’s such a pleasure to see an established garden made by an artistic gardener, and to selfishly hope I’ll see some of these blooming in my garden one day. My Bauhinia/orchid tree is only 12-inches tall, so it might be awhile!
And now Lyre Leaf sage is added to my list of future plants.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
You can bet you’ll get a lyre leaf sage from me at some point, then. The three I have were passed along to me by another gardener, so I’ll start looking for seedlings. —Pam
Wonderful photos and especially nice on such a rainy day (here)! Enjoyed the tour through your blooms!
I’m glad you enjoyed the tour of my garden, G.G. Come back anytime. —Pam
So many beautiful plants. I’m tempted to push the hardiness limits and try some of them here. Salvia coccinea hybrids always self-sow for me, but then bloom very late. And I didn’t realize there were any shade lovers among the Salvias – I’ll have to look into S. lyrata.
Down here, Salvia coccinea does best in dry partial shade. Otherwise its growth is rank and leggy. The cedar sage, Salvia roemeriana, and black-and-blue sage, Salvia guaranitica, are also shade lovers. However, many plants that need full sun in cooler climates need some shade in central Texas, so I’m not sure shade/sun requirements can be generalized from region to region. Experimentation is always fun though. Good luck pushing those hardiness limits. Maybe if you have a sunny, south-facing wall . . . —Pam
Wow, you have so much in bloom! It’s beautiful, just beautiful… but it’s also no fair (*wink*) that you already have so many “autumn” plants in bloom. They really do bloom in autumn up here… lol.
Thank you, Kim! Spring has to arrive early here before summer shows up. Your garden will catch up soon enough, I’m sure. —Pam
Yeah, Pam!!! I wanted to put you down for being my neighbor (and might have, because I don’t remember!!!), but your photography is so amazing that I might’ve voted for you in that category. I didn’t realize you could vote for one person in two categories. Your nomination is soooo deserved. I love New Braunfels!! Yep, that photo was in front of Guene Hall. I don’t think the bicycle was too far from there. Have you ever been to Madonado’s?
Thanks, I really appreciate your kind words.
I love Gruene Hall. No, I don’t know about Madonado’s. What is it? —Pam
Good lord what a great collection of beautiful flowers! A bit of heaven in your yard right now.