Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 15, 2010

Gaillardias and Yarrow, south of the house, planted last summer.

Things are a bit late this year due to the unusually cool, wet spring. To further complicate our gardening, it jumped from freezing to 100 degrees with dry winds in a very short time which stressed transplants that hadn't had time to grow deep roots. I still have lots of planting and transplanting to do because of this. Some friends tell me that they haven't managed to get any gardening done due to the weird weather conditions.

Serious gardeners in Colorado learn to go with the flow and succeed in having attractive gardens when they learn to grow plants that stand the conditions without coddling or using too much water, which is getting scarcer as more people move here and try to grow giant size blue grass lawns. I love my native Blue Gramma Grass that takes much less water and doesn't have to cut often and grows well in our sandy river bottom soil. I've become a missionary to spread the word about xeriscape gardening, and I don't mean only hot rocks and gravel.

Ozark Yellow Evening Primroses that grow beside the Lilliaputian Prairie Pond.

Volunteer Coropsis that moved from prairie border to the herb garden, probably with the help of one of the birds that flock in the Locust Tree, next to the bird feeders, behind the herb garden.

Closeup of Yellow Yarrow planted south of the house last summer.

Gaillardias planted with Yarrow last year. Notice that I don't even try to grow plants like beautiful Delphiniums that don't do well in our hot, dry climate gardens.

Feverfew in the dooryard patio garden with the California Poppies and Lavender.

Violas and California Poppies in the dooryard patio garden.

Honeysuckle Vine behind the herb garden.

ChoCho checking out the newly planted Catnip, which has to be protected by a metal basket to keep the cats from rolling in it and eating it down to the roots. Our historic patch didn't make it thru this tough winter, but there are volunteers coming up in all kinds of places they shouldn't be.

Pretty yellow blooms on unknown herb which I planted last year and can't find the label this spring. Any suggestions on what it is are welcomed.

This Caroway Thyme smells exactly like Caroway. It's been here since planted in 2004 when it began as a tiny plant.

This Cilantro is working on becoming Coriander seeds. Everything tastes better with Cilantro, well... Mexican dishes do.

Yellow Prickley Pear peeking out from the edge of the Cholla that is trying to take over the mini prairie garden. These PPs are blooming all over the prairie right now also. I hope to add a Claret Cup PP to the prairie garden. There are some of them growing on certain prairie hills around here, but they bloom a bit later. I am trying to figure out how to armor myself to prune down this overgrown Cholla, which has wickedly painful loooong spines that hurt, and they reach out and grab you if you come too near. I'm thinking I need a long handled lopper and very heavy leather gloves and a long handled grabber of some kind. Joe tells me I need to use the flame thrower on it, but I'm afraid of that thing. Note the bindweed that I am reluctant to try to pull out of those small spaces between predatory spines.

Pink Chintz Creeping Thyme by the front gate. I had a brilliant idea several years ago to plant a Creeping Thyme lawn on this side of the small front yard. The weedy grasses, dandelions and bindweed that had had free rein here for decades pretty much crowded the thymes out. I should have sterilized the soil before planting the thymes here, like I did before planting the prairie and veggie gardens in the side yard. The first summer we lived here I spread heavy black plastic sheeting all over that area and weighted it down with concrete pavers and the huge potted plants I had moved here from my previous roof top garden. The heat sterilizes most weed seeds.

Some of my beloved volunteer Bachelor Buttons along the front fence. These have been favorites of mine since I was a small child. They look good next to the Blaze Climbing Roses.

This is the Blaze Climbing Rose I plated on the front fence last year. I may decide to put them all along the fence.

Check out what is blooming all over the world, on May Dreams Gardens, each month on the 15th day.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day May 15, 2010

Happy springtime, fellow gardners and bloggers. We've had the coldest, wettest spring in ages here in Southeastern Colorado, interspersed with a few sunny, quite hot days. It is a big difference from the decade of serious drought that we just lived through. You can see how the Bleeding Hearts and Pansies were beaded with raindrops this late afternoon. Even on such a cold, dark, rainy day there are reasons to celebrate life. The cold and rain have not bugged me as much as the continuous high winds we have suffered through for a couple of months. On the warm, sunny days that hot, dry wind sucks up a lot of the moisture in the Toad Haven gardens as well as on the prairie surrounding us.

The pansies look especially fresh with the raindrops shining on them.

This is the first year I've had lots of blooms on this Lilac Bush. When we moved in seven years ago, it was quite small and suffering from years of neglect. I've babied it with water and fertilizer and tried to overcome the damage caused by a plague of grasshoppers and late freezes. This year I received my reward for my nurturing and was even able to take a large bouquet of Lilacs and Purple Iris to my mom on Mother's Day.

I love the color of this clump of Violets by the front porch.

These tiny Jonquils bloomed later this year than they usually do.

Old fashioned purple Bearded Iris, which were here when we moved in, are blooming along the front fence and in front of the garden shed in back.

My heart is so much lighter when the world begins to green up and flower. I'm also having a great time photographing the wild prairie flowers that are popping up in thanksgiving for the rains. The prairie grasses are so green and luxuriant this spring, also. Goodbye, drought! Not sorry to see you go.

For what's blooming around the world today, check out May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2010

Spring is finally springing! Warm days and sun, but lots of wind and dust also. This Aloe Vera, on the sunporch is blooming. It will go out onto the dooryard patio once the danger of frost is past. The first time this big Aloe bloomed I was amazed, didn't even know that they got blooms.

This Phalenopsis orchid in the dining room is still blooming beautifully. It is wonderful to have blossoms that last so long.

Out at the front corner of the house I have a few Scillas blooming. They are such a clear blue that they really show up inspite of being so small and so few.

The Violas in the dooryard patio garden are now blooming in bunches.

The Vinca under the Russian Olive next to the mini prairie is making quite a show. There is a lot of dead annual grass in that bed that needs to be grubbed out.

All the garden blooms tend to be in the blue/violet color range. For some reason my yellow daffodils haven't made a show this year. I hope something didn't eat all the bulbs. I see that I need to put in more daffodils and tulips this fall for early color. Ought to try some crocus as well. Even my ancient batch of Grape Hyacinths have been absent this spring, except for one self sown straggler in the Gramma Grass. The small Blue Grass lawn, in front, is beginning to turn green with attendent dandelions, but the Gramma Grass is a warm weather grass and won't get green until later in the spring.

I wish I could find flowers for my garden that were as prolific as the dandelions. While blooming, they put on a nice show, but look awful when they go to seed. My late, previous, husband, Lou, who was a plant ecologist and into natural plant medicines, wouldn't spray the dandelions because he believed that tea from the roots was very good for the kidneys. I've also tasted delicious homemade dandelion wine but don't know how to make it.


To see what is blooming around the world check May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2010

Welcome to Toad Haven Gardens on March 15. Some of yesterdays snow still covers the flower bed next to the front porch, on the north. Later there will be Daffodils, Creeping Phlox, and gorgeous Violets in this area.

Here are new green shoots from the Yarrow planted on the south side of the house last summer. Only dried flower heads are blossoming here.

This is in the same corner of the dooryard patio garden that I showed, looking so dead, in February, with the first Viola to bloom this spring. I love the Johnnie-Jump-Ups that seed themselves all over the garden. Some winters they manage to bloom through the season, but definitely not this year.

In between the March snows we are getting lovely, sunny days with up to low 60s temps so I will soon feel that it is safe to remove the dead stalks and dry leaves that I leave over the winter to protect the plants and for seed heads to feed the winter birds. My fingers are just itching to get out there and do the spring cleaning.

Indoors, the Orchid, that I recently posted photos of, is still in full bloom.

See what's blooming all over the world, today, at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day February 2010

This is why February is the worst month of the year for me. Everything is brown, dry and dead; if I hadn't seen the miracle of Spring for 71 years, I would find it difficult to hope or have faith in live, green, growing, blossoming plants.

Usually, I have a few pansies and violas that manage to bloom through the winter, but this year even the pansies haven't been able to survive.

But indoors I manage to have a few blossoms. This is the lovely, tiny blossom on a hanging succulent that my mother started for me several years ago. If anyone knows what it is, I'd love to know the name. This hangs in the window over my kitchen sink. Since mother is in assisted living, I have her huge mother plant hanging in the sunporch.

A couple of blossoms are on the mini Hoya in the dining room south window. I think Hoyas have some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen; they look like they are made of glass. These are petite compared to the regular size Hoya on the sunporch. This plant started from three tiny sprigs from a sweet lady in senior housing in Lyons, when I was working for the Boulder County Housing Authority in the 70s. My oldest daughter also has a house full of these now in Wheatridge.

This is the final gasp of the Christmas Poinsettia in the dining room.

This is from the final stalk of Amaryllis blooms from the dish of three huge bulbs my daughter-in-law Robyn gave me at Thanksgiving. It's bloomed for three months and cheered us up during the sleeping garden season.

Finally, one of the Orchids (P. Mount Beauty x Stope New Candy) is getting ready to bloom again soon, in the south dining room window. I've been amazed at how faithfully these Orchids bloom year after year, and how long the blooms last. I have finally learned to only try to grow plants that don't take a lot of coddling, both indoors and out.

To see what is blooming around the world, today, check out the list at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day December

Poinsettia blooming behind the huge Amaryllis bulbs that Robyn gave me at Thanksgiving. This is how much they had grown by December 7.

Detail of throat of one of the Amaryllis blooms.

Large quantity of Amaryllis blooms by Christmas.

Detail of actual small yellow green blossoms of Poinsettia with the bright red bracts surrounding.

I didn't post about what flowers I had blooming on the 15th; the weather was so miserable and cold and the garden so dead, even my back door potted pansies froze. But my indoor flowers are going blooming like mad and brightening my holidays, so I thought I would do a late post for December. If we can't have flowers outdoors in the depth of winter, at least we can have them blooming indoors. I even have a flower stalk beginning to come up on one of the orchid plants.

Check out other Garden Bloggers Bloom Day reports for December at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, November 2009

Hi All, I've been ill and in the hospital and am still weak and shaky, but I'm here for
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Here is what is blooming outside today; snow blossoms. But it is wet snow and we are always thankful for that in this climate. This is the Dooryard Garden and Patio just outside the sliding glass door from the sunporch.

This Lily blossom just popped out of the bud overnight, in a dining room bouquet. I didn't know what color to expect and this is sunny and cheerful!

These Lipstick Vine blooms brighten the sunporch where we go in and out through the back sliding glass door. I am so glad that I found this plant at a local greenhouse several years ago after seeing one somewhere, I can't even remember where I first saw one, but love the way that the lipstick grows out of the tube as they bloom. This plant has done so well in this south window.

When I look out at the snow, I know that underneath are still blooming the Pansys and Violas.
On Thursday I picked a gorgeous orange one for my Mom, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, on the way home from her doctor appointment. They will appear as the snow melts and usually I find blooms all winter long, here in Colorado's Banana Belt.

May you all have blossoms and blooms in your life, today.

What's Blooming?

For reasons beyond my control, I forgot about Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th (see last post). When I realized this omission, I went out and took some garden photos. [That's ChoCho visiting the veggie garden with Zinnias and mini Pumpkins in front, Patty Pan Squash, Zuchinni, Eggplants, Peppers, and Tomatoes behind him] The perennials are pretty well shredded and battered from the hail storm, but the annuals in the new vegetable garden bed are doing well; they were too small to be ruined by the hail and have recuperated well. The Pumpkins and squash leaves were beaten into the soil, but sent up new leaves, blossoms and fruit. Does anyone want some Zuchinni; we have tons from just one hill of plants. I've made one big batch of zuchinni bread and plan to make and freeze more bread as well as casseroles, from my Granny's recipe, for winter holiday meals. There are still ripening tomatoes on the vines that look awful but kept on producing. I don't grow huge amounts of vegetables for canning and freezing; just enough to keep us in fresh produce and some to give away.

Overall photo of the new garden bed, with annual flowers, herbs, mini pumpkins, and corn. Although shredded, the corn was young enough to continue growing, set tassels and now the kernels are beginning to develop on the ears. This bed wasn't built until late in spring so I knew the corn was a gamble, but since I had never grown any I wanted to try and see what would develop. This year's crop will probably be for the raccoons, squirrels, and birds rather than people.

I love these sky blue Borage blossoms and grow them for that reason rather than to use as food seasoning. What does one flavor with Borage? I guess I need to taste it and see what it would enhance.

Closeups of the Borage, Zinnias, Cosmos, and Marigolds in the new veggie garden bed.

These Bells of Ireland were seeded in front of the Sugar Snap Peas that didn't survive the hail. I have a thing for green flowers, I also have green Zinnias.

Zinnias and Violas (Johnny Jump Ups) in the Dooryard Patio Garden. The California Poppies are mostly through blooming now, and the Lavender, Gaillardias, and Ornamental Oregano plants were beaten down by the hail.

To see what was blooming around the world on the 15th check out May Dreams Gardens. In October, I'll try not to get distracted and post on the 15th. As far as I know, we have no other great grandchildren expected to take my attention from garden blogging.