Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day—May
The first ‘Best of Friends’ daylily opened just in time for Bloom Day.
May in my garden sees the spring flowers fading away and summer flowers just starting to open. If you visited my garden right now, you’d see mostly green, but thanks to the selective power of close-ups of individual flowers, it’s going to look as if a lot is going on. And I suppose it is, really, because the tough, heat-loving plants are gearing up for summer. It’ll be here any day now.
In the spirit of the native-plant garden tour I’m posting about this week, I’ll designate native-to-central-Texas plants with this symbol: (N).
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On the upswing in my garden
Rock rose, or pavonia (N)
Mexican shrub daisy
Purple coneflower (N)
Blue mistflower (N)
Star-grass sedge, a pond plant (N)
‘Indigo Spires’ salvia
Texas betony (N)
Lindheimer’s nolina, in the back of the barrel with the 5′-tall bloom stalk (N)
Heartleaf skullcap (N) in front, and Salvia guaranitica in back
Zexmenia (N)
Blackfoot daisy (N)
Pink Autumn sage (N)
White Autumn sage (N)
Kidneywood (N)
Bulbine
Mealy blue sage (N)
Coral honeysuckle (native to east Texas)
Mexican snapdragon vine
‘Marie Pavie’ rose
‘The Fairy’ rose
Narrowleaf zinnia
Pink skullcap
Gaura (N)
Rock penstemon (N)
Purple heart
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Reblooming or flowering off-schedule
Chrysanthemum, blooming in spring because I neglected to trim it back. Oh well.
Anacacho orchid tree (N), in its second flowering
White shrubby boneset, or white mistflower (N). This plant normally blooms in late summer/early fall, but it’s sporting a few white flowers right now.
‘Tangerine Beauty’ crossvine, enjoying a second bloom
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On the decline
Star jasmine
The pomegranate is also finished, though a few tired blossoms still cling to the branches.
Next month, look for flame acanthus, Mexican oregano, Mexican bush sage, cuphea, and Rudbeckias. And happy spring to all you northern gardeners who’ve been impatiently waiting for your share of blooms.
Pam — Lovely as always. I noticed several of those white mistflowers blooming on the garden tour this weekend but mine shows no signs of blooming. And your post reminded me of several things — like the rebloom of the orchid tree — that I forgot to include in my bloom day report (the perils of posting after dark and trying to tour the garden by memory rather than actually going out and looking around!).
The orchid tree has surprised me with a decent rebloom. I don’t remember it doing that before. —Pam
Breathtaking!
These are the moments when I feel fortunate to be in the garden blogging community. All these flowers are a treat to the eyes and they have been photographed quite beautifully too.
Congratulations dear Pam for the lovely blooms!
Thanks for visiting, Greenthumb. I just took a “stroll” through your India garden too. Very lovely, even if summer’s heat has already become brutal. Here in Austin, we’ll be joining you in a sizzling summer shortly. —Pam
Beautiful pictures! I thought for sure I’d have more blooms than you this month, but I think not, unless you count the stuff I just bought for containers. Everything looks wonderful. Thanks for participating in bloom day again.
Carol
Well, that means my garden’s not out of the running yet! 😉 Thank you, Carol, for organizing another fun event with Bloom Day. —Pam
You have so many things blooming at once, Pam! How could your garden be mostly green? Although I also understand the “selective power of close-ups of individual flowers”.
I like the idea of putting an “N” for Central Texas Native – could I borrow that idea for the next bloom day? Maybe some of my natives will get off their tuffets and bloom by then.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Of course, Annie—sharing ideas is what blogging is all about.
As an aside, here’s where defining “native” shows its slipperiness. In doublechecking my “native” designations, I found that pink skullcap is not considered a native-Austin plant in the Grow Green Guide or in Wasowski and Wasowski’s Native Texas Plants. That was news to me! Also, purple coneflower is not listed as native in the Grow Green Guide, but according to the Wasowskis’ book, certain varieties are. So I decided to designate “native” on the echinacea but not on the skullcap. —Pam
Wow! Some truly awesome photos here. Especially loved the daylily.
Thanks, Bill. —Pam
Oh wow, so many beautiful blooms in your garden. I love the daylily and have one very similar. Stop by and see my slideshow of spring blooms.
Thanks for stopping by, Crafty Gardener. I just peeked over your garden fence, and it looks lovely also. —Pam
What a lovely collection of flowers you have — Very different from what I see growing here “up north” right now. I like the different types of salvia and sages especially.
Thanks, Christa. The salvias and sages are going to be doing a lot more soon. Right now there are the few stray blossoms, but by summer the skullcap will be covered, and the other salvias will go through several bloom cycles if I trim them back periodically. —Pam
Wow, what a lovely bunch of colourful blooms! I think I like the heartleaf skullcaps, the purple heart and the blue mist flower best. My star jasmine will start flowering in the garden soon and so will the Penstemons.
Your Mexican snapdragon vine is looking good, love that colour. Does the crossvine always come back for an encore? Looking good too, very vibrant!
The crossvine usually has a smattering of blooms off and on all summer, but nothing like the big spring show. —Pam
How interesting that your crossvine is flowering again!
Yes, it’s just a few flowers here and there though. —Pam
What a wonderful site and fantastic photos. It’s very interesting seeing Texas flowers – many I’ve never seen or heard of. It would be really hard to pick out a favorite – but I’ll have to say the lovely honeysuckle. Thank you for the visit. Alyssa
You’re welcome, Alyssa. Thanks for stopping by. —Pam
Nice show!
Does your blue mistflower spread aggressively? I read that it would seed itself everywhere if not dead-headed, but mine has decided to grab more territory using an underground strategy. Lots more territory. The butterflies like it though.
Why, yes, it certainly does. I was warned before I plopped it in the ground in a spot I’d been having trouble with, but I decided it was worth the risk for the butterflies it attracts. Now I’m not so sure. Better to have put it where it could have free range, I think. Even so, I haven’t decided to pull it up yet. I do like those butterflies. —Pam