Friday, April 15, 2011

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2011

The tax day addition.  Fortunately for my procrastinating self, taxes aren't due till Monday, and my first appt was a no-show, so I have time to blog a bit.

On my little patio/potted garden I have a couple things blooming, the first four Ca natives.  The biggest surprise were my western bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa).  They die back completely in the dry season, and I mean completely.  I was a little afraid they wouldn't come back, but a couple of weeks ago they started leafing out and today, blooming beautifully.

My redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) has been green continuously, but just started flowering for the first time in almost a year.  I like the second pic.  I looks like the one flower is incredibly shy.
The columbine (Aquilegia formosa) has also just started to flower.  It's also covered in these monstrous giant bugs.  Well they look that way with my macro lens.  Way to go macro lens.  Boo to the bugs.  They were actually pretty small, and have now met their doom.

The last of the Ribes sanguineum glutinosum.  It was actual beautiful last bloom day, but I wasn't around to blog about it.

And this volunteer oxalis in one of my pots.
Happy bloom day, and thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting bloom day.

10 comments:

  1. What pretty flowers..you must have a very colorful patio! I have never been able to grow bleeding heart in my central California garden, but perhaps I could grow 'dicentra formosa.' Thanks for posting the photos! Happy Blossom Day!

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  2. Always excellent to find another Norcal garden blogger. I swoon over Ribes and continue to ponder where I might put one.

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  3. Oh, I love the Western bleeding hearts! I've seen those in the wild but never in a garden. Same thing for the columbine. I'd like to try growing them myself, but I suspect they wouldn't like it here.

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  4. Be still my future bleeding hearts! I see a shopping trip in the near future....

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  5. I love how redwood sorrel blooms can look so variable. Much of ours here is blushed a pinkish purple, and I almost never see the flowers so pale...almost. Once in a while though we do see almost white flowers. Seriously jealous of the columbine though. I bought seed, but just didn't manage to get it planted in time for this spring. Maybe next year!

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  6. Not bad for a patio/potted garden. You have several of my very favorites, bleeding hearts, ribes, aquilegia, and shy little oxalis. I like how bleeding hearts wait to come out, but then they immediately put out their funky little flowers.

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  7. I love the bashful oxalis, but don't love the volunteer one. In an alternate universe it'd be a seriously cool plant--exploding seed pods and all that--but I swear it must have rained weedy oxalis seed during our weird storms. Enough, already. I think I have a perfect spot for the dicentra. Something to try for next season.

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  8. The dicentra is so lovely. I've tried growing them here in SoCal but they don't fare well with our summer heat. They look great in winter-spring, and then languish over the summer, never to reappear again the next season. Sigh...

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  9. It's end of June and my bleeding hearts are still blooming! Love em!

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  10. Those Western Bleeding Hearts have stolen my heart. They are just so lovely! All the blooms you've featured today are gorgeous.

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