Grand-flowered Horned Poppy (Glaucium grandiflorum)

I’m late in sharing my Bloom Day post for this month, but it’s because I’ve barely been home in the last ten days, and even now write this from California.  But I can share some of the recent flowerings in the garden.  At Plant Delights this year I brought back this stunning large orange horned poppy.  The plant is distinctive — once you’ve seen the large horns you won’t forget it — and the flower color is wonderful.

Grand-flowered Horned Poppy (Glaucium grandiflorum)

Although we almost take the azaleas for granted, they are everywhere in flower at the moment.  And along with them the Peonies are the dominant flower in the yard.  Unfortunately we were in Boston while several of the species peonies bloomed.  We only got back for the very end of those flowers coming forth on 85 degree days.

Paeonia obovata alba

The magnificent Tree Peonies are fully in bloom at the moment.

Pink Tree Peony

Tree peony as Bee Magnet

Pink Tree Peony detail

We have several groups of Primrose sieboldii that are at peak flowering right now as well.

Primula sieboldii ‘Rock Candy’

These primulas are wonderfully hardy and expand in a very controlled fashion.

We added an Enkianthus at the back of the monolith garden and those little bells are just coming out.

Enkianthus campanulatus

And I couldn’t help noticing the crimson clover coming up in last years vegetable garden.

Crimson Clover

We haven’t put in a cover crop for several years but they still manage to reproduce.

Back in the alpine bed, where I spend a lot of time nowadays, the detailed flowerings are wonderful to watch.

Penstemon rupicola

Lewisia columbiana

Kalmiopsis leachiana

Lewisia ‘Little Plum’ (Lewisia longipetala x cotyledon)

In closing let me note that it is a very opportune time to grab seeds of some of the spring flowers.  I was surprised to see that for the Anemonella thalictroides the flowers and seeds are present at the same time.

Harvesting Anemonella thalictroides seeds