Well it’s getting cold for this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. Coldest temps of the winter expected this week. So I thought I would start with the Amazon Lily pictured above. This plant is about 30 years old and has never been repotted. It flowers twice a year with these orchid like flowers and survives with minimal care. We put it outside once the frost has passed us by and it will flower again in July. Highly recommended.
On the outside of the house right now the camellias are still the special flowers. This one sits in the northeast corner of the house and survives even being outside the deer fence.
Another special camellia is ‘Yume’ which has become pretty reliable.
Of course if you stopped by for a visit right now I would take you out to see the first daffodils. Rinjveld’s Early Sensation may turn out to be too early as the flowers may get blasted this week.
Otherwise what we have are a number of snowdrops, one of which has seeded itself into the lawn.
Out in the woods we do have a distinctive foetidus hellebore coming into flower.
Lastly I should share the heather which looks like it is going to flower all winter long.
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day March 2023
Well it’s two days past Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day but as you can probably imagine Spring is bringing forth not only tons of flowers but springtime chores as well.
As shown above the Hellebores are everywhere and together with the Daffodils they are providing an abundance of flowers.
This is one of my favorite Hellebores but I’ve lost the name. It sits upright and shows those lovely crinkly flowers.
Daffodils are one of our favorites for the Spring. We began planting them 45 years ago and here are the results for those first ones.
Of course it’s hard to not to admire the individual flowers as well.
Of course not long from now we will see many members of the Rhododendron family, but here is an early bloomer.
I spend a lot of time looking up the little guys that are poking up in the yard and woods.
The first of the Bloodroot popped up yesterday.
I planted a hundred Scilla sibirica in the front lawn last Fall and they are just showing their marvelous blue color.
Nearby the Primula vulgaris are continuing to spread into the lawn.
I also love seeing the Hepatica with their colorful flowers.
We even have one Hepatica in the woods that seems to have taken hold.
Also in the woods we also have a number of Corydalis that are slowly spreading.
To help them spread I put in a hundred of the red ones last Fall.
Another successful spreader is the Ranunculus sometimes called Lesser Celandine
In the Alpine bed we have a couple of small plants just coming into flower.
And in the greenhouse itself there are number of plants seeking attention.
But the real stars right now are the Clivia that I’ve taken into the house.
Everyone should have Clivia. So colorful, easy care, and blooming twice a year. What’s not to like?
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day January 2023
Just a quick post for the month with the least flowers on display. Our Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day finds that the winter has been mild but most plants are just fattening up there buds for the months to come. There are a few exceptions. The Witch Hazel shown above is joined by several others on the hillside but none are as spectacular in bloom as ‘Diane.
The snowdrops are popping out. Even a few that have migrated into the lawn.
And the first of hybrid Hellebores is now in flower (not counting ‘Jacob’ which appeared a month ago)
There are othe plants just on the verge
And I can see colorful buds on the Peonies.
The cyclamen are also noteworthy for the lovely patterns they create as they continue to spread in the yard.
And in the house we have steady stream of flowers from the greenhouse (especially Cyrtanthus) and some new orchids that arrived as Christmas and birthday gifts.
Finally I should point out that we did plant the Christmas tree last week to provide a future landmark in the pasture.
This is also the month for planting the seeds obtained from the NARGS seed exchange.
As always there are great expectations.
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day December 2022
I’ll begin this seasonal GBBD post with an image of the Christmas greens and flowers over the fireplace. The Japanese quince has been flowering on and off again all Fall. The the red Camellia sansanqua continues to provide a regular supply of beautiful blooms.
This is what the full plant looks like.
and the individual flowers
Nearby is another fall Camellia that we brought home from Camellia Forest some years ago.
In the front yard (risking deer damage) is another fall bloomer.
There are only a few plants in flower besides the Camellias and the Quince. One is the first of the Hellebores (also known as Christmas Rose).
I noticed in walking the yard that some of the plants in bud are well worth thinking about as we wait for Springtime. The Edgeworthia is almost better in bud than in flower.
And there are several other plants starting to bud up
But it is December so one of our seasonal events is to buy a balled and burlapped Evergreen for our Christmas tree. In this case a Canaan Fir seemed to be the most attractive in our size range.
After our Christmas elves finished their handiwork it really looks quite splendid
It will head for the forest in January.
Also inside right now is a pot of Cyrtanthus (like miniature Amaryllis)
Besides prepping for Christmas the other thing that goes on this time of year are the various seed exchanges. On December 15th every year the North American Rock Garden Society releases the listing of seeds available through the seed exchange. This year there were 2400 different seed varieties available and the contributions came from all over the world. In my case the seeds I’ve requested came from contributors in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Finland, Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. If you have any interest in growing unusual plants from seed I highly recommend exploring the NARGS seed exchange.
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day November 2022
As it turns to Fall (wintertime temperatures are on the way but we have been spared a hard frost so far) this GBBD post has to focus on Camellias. It is always amazing to me what a long season we have with the Camellias. Between the C. japonicas and C. sasanquas (and the various hybrids) we usually have Camellias blooming from October through April. I began growing them with 1 gallon pots that brought on airplane rides from California and then put them in the basement each winter until I realized they were actually hardy here. We had one really cold winter that seemingly killed this red sasanqua to the point where i actually cut it back to the ground. And then the next year it came back vigorously. So this bushy flowering plant is actually the second rebirth of our Fall Camellia.
Some of the others in bloom right now are shown below.
Elsewhere in the garden the Cestrum continues it’s flowerful display
Pretty special for a plant that dies back to the ground every winter.
Right next to it is the Japanese quince that has no business blooming in November (but it often does).
We have had a very extended Fall and the roses are still putting out blossoms.
And out at the front fence there are a continuing sequence of flowers on the Daphne I planted there several years ago.
In the pasture I still see spots of color from the gaillardia that have volunteered from wildflower plantings.
In the alpine bed there is still a single Moroccan Poppy remaining from the many that flowered there this year.
In the vegetable garden we not only have flowers of various sorts but fall peas and lettuce still coming in.
And then lastly let me close with an indoor flower. We see flowers twice a year from the potted Amazon Lily and once again it is doing its thing with a minimum of care.
Highly recommended as a wonderful houseplant that can play outside in the summertime.
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day August 2022
Well, I missed last month’s posting to GBBD (first time in ten years) and I feel somewhat guilty so I have a couple of special items for this posting. Back in April I received as a gift one of the largest plants I’ve ever gotten in a box in the mail (from ForestFarm).
It was a Gordlinia grandiflora, a relatively rare hybrid derived from a cross between Franklinia alatamaha and Gordonia lasianthus in 2003. It’s a relatively small tree with absolutely gorgeous camellia-like flowers.
It’s begun flowering now and should continue through September…
Another special item for us this year is the Princess Flower. I started this from a small 4 inch pot from Putnam Hill Nursery last year and it didn’t flower. So I carried it over in the greenhouse and repotted it at the beginning of the season. It has taken off over the last two months and it’s now 5 foot tall and still growing. In the meantime I found another specimen growing in a pot twice as big as mine and just coming into flower. Nonestop flowering is what it yields.
It will need to go into the greenhouse again but wow, what flowering!
Otherwise it’s pretty normal summer flowering for us.
The Allium are flowering in a couple of places
The Crepe Myrtle is finally in flower for the season
the Cestrum has recovered from its winter dieback
And the Crinum is showing its numerous hanging flowers
In the vegetable/cutting garden the Glads have yielded abundantly
and the Tithonia and Sunflowers are ten foot tall at least.
In the greenhouse there are multiple pots of Cyrtanthus in flower
as well as a particularly nice Sinningia
If we weren’t so busy picking fruits and vegetables I might actually finish weeding the greenhouse:)
Oh, I should mention that my excuse for missing last month’s posting was a trip to California where we relived our youth by driving down the California Coast.
It was a wonderful trip…
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day March 2022
It is two days late for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, but I need to keep up my records. There have been sooo many flowers and activities around our house that it’s hard to account for everything that is happening. The daffodils are off to a fine start and all of their friends and neighbors are coming too. I’ll focus on some of my favorites in the interest of getting this post out at least by St. Patricks Day. The Fritillary pictured above is a reminder that some Fritillaries are willing face the viewer rather than nodding toward the grass.
It’s hard not to focus on the Hellebores for this time of year. They are everywhere.
There is even a black one that I’ve forgotten the name of…
There are several unnamed seedlings to be found in our woods since they don’t seem to be fancied by the deer.
And in the yard and the woods we find a classic primrose
Out in the front yard the Edgeworthia is announcing the beginning of Spring.
And then there are the classic spring bulbs
And yet more out in the woods
A nice surprise for me was to discover this rock garden plant that I put in two years ago after a Yuzawa Engei order from Japan. It’s original home is in the high mountains of Morocco so I’m glad it has chosen to flower here.
I always feel good when little Saxifrages are willing to flower in our garden troughs.
You can just barely see the little piece of tufa that Wrightman’s Alpines provides.
Another first time flowering for me is this little Clivia that I got from seed via the Pacific Bulb Society back in 2013.
It has a few years to go to catch up with our normal Clivia. But I’m more than willing to watch it try.
And since I began the last GBBD post with the first Adonis image of the year, I thought it only fair to end this post with another Adonis posting, this time of the very special orange one (even though this image is from three weeks ago).
I was afraid last year that I had lost this planting it was down to just two flowers, but it came back strongly this year — and I intend to take some seeds.
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day October 2021
It’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day as we move securely into the Fall. The leaves are changing but we see no signs of lower temperatures in Maryland as yet.
The Amarine above is a first time bloomer for me, but comes with a little background. I bought it just this Fall from Quackin’ Grass Nursery and then as it was coming into bloom I discovered that I had another one that I had bought from the same place this Spring. No sooner did I put those two in the ground but I then found that I had bought a smaller bulb of that plant from Rare Plants back in 2017 and it too was now coming into bloom (for the first time). So apparently this plant is consistently appealing to me. It is a hybrid between Amaryllis belladonna and Nerine bowdenii. It’s somewhat questionable whether it will be hardy for me here in zone 7 (Nerines would not normally be hardy here), but I have planted two of them and we shall see.
Since it’s related I should mention that Nerine sarniensis (from the Greenhouse) is also flowering now bearing out my continuing interest in Nerines.
The above picture is from the kitchen and right nearby is a bowl full of vegetables showing the wonderful bounty from this year.
We’ve also had a lot of pears that we are still enjoying for dinners and desserts. And the raspberries are still making their appearance.
The flowers outside still have a lot of the same participants that we’ve had for the past few months.
In addition there are a few new faces on the Fall horizon
In addition I thought it was interesting to note that I completely missed the start of flowering for the fall camellias.
There are lots of buds on these and other Camellias so I need to pay more attention. And similarly I’ll end by paying attention to the many oxalis showing up in the greenhouse now.
Finally all summer long we’ve a beautiful showing of flowers from the potted plectranthus.
I’ll need to find a place in the greenhouse for a part of this plant over the winter.