Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: April 2012

It's mid-spring in Central Texas, the drought has lessened, the temperatures are warming, and the gardens have exploded with life. Everything is green and blooming.

'Whale's Tongue' agave and wildflowers

'Bright Edge' yucca and flowers

Patriotic trio

Milkweed with monarch caterpillars

Larkspur

'Whale's Tongue" agave, grasses & flowers

Pink gaura

Globe mallow, salvia, 'Ruby Crystals' grass & larkspur

'Velvet Violet" salvia and blackfoot daisies

'Velvet Violet' salvia, 'Ruby Crystals' grass, bumblebee

Gopher plant

'The Fairy' rose

'Wedding Blush' sweet peas

Rogue poppy

Lantana

Spring flowers

Gulf Coast penstemon

'Blue Curls' wildflower

Bee intoxicated on pink evening primrose pollen

'Buff Beauty' rose

'Dame du Coeur' rose

'Dame du Coeur' rose

Dwarf pomegranate

Pomegranates

Bearss lime

Happiest of Bloom Days to you! Visit Carol's GBBD page at May Dreams Gardens to discover gardens in bloom around the world.


Words and photos © 2009-2012 Caroline Homer for "The Shovel-Ready Garden". Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Comments

  1. Beautiful! Lovely blog! I have just discovered you, and I'm a new follower!
    Best,
    Anne ♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome, Anne! I just paid your blog a visit! GBBD brings bloggers together.

      Delete
  2. What a happy, plentiful garden! Your color combos on the first photo are lovely, and that bee in the mallow (rock rose?) shot is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Amy! The bee is lying inside a pink evening primrose blossom (and she was completely intoxicated on pollen!). The photo's confusing because the primroses are intwined in a patch of rock rose, which is filled with buds but isn't blooming yet.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Thanks, Linda! I'm off to visit your blog now.

      Delete
  4. Your garden looks fabulous! What's that plant with the pale pink flowers on the cactus/succulent-like foliage? It's the pic right before the pic pink rose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida). That's what's left after the yellow flowers fade. Isn't it interesting? If you prune off the old stems too soon, you miss out on the pale pink display. (Which reminds me that I should have reserved this photo for Foliage Follow-Up, alas...)

      Delete
  5. Such pretty flowers for Bloom Day. It makes me happy just looking at the photos! I especially like seeing all of your larkspur in bloom. I'm still waiting on mine. And I loved seeing the photo of the caterpillar on what I think might be be Asclepias 'Butterfly Weed'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It makes me happy, too! You are correct about the Asclepias (curassivica, not tuberosa). If you look closely, you'll see two caterpillars in that photo. (I looked high and low on that plant and didn't see the second one until I was reviewing the pictures!). The larkspur are from seeds passed along from Melissa at Zanthan Gardens.

      Delete
  6. Wow! Everything is lovely! I especially love the shots with the little bees and the caterpillars. I just bought 6 more 4 inch pots of milkweed--the little dudes ate my others down. I'm thrilled that have that problem this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm thrilled too, Tina! I've grown milkweed for three years and this is the first year I've seen monarch caterpillars on it. The honeybee numbers are down this year but I have gobs of big fat bumblebees, carpenter bees and solitary osmia or leaf-cutter bees.

      Delete
  7. Oh Caroline your gardens sure have exploded! Do you save your Larkspur seed? I am most interested in the white. If you visit my post today you will see I am trying to collect all colors of the Larkspur and Cornflowers. I would love to share any seed or cuttings with you. I have a ton of the tall red breadseed poppy seeds collected and more on the way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Darla, I let the larkspur reseed direct into the ground. If I can catch them at the right time I'll try to gather some white seeds for you. I'd love to trade for breadseed poppies!

      Delete
  8. Lovely shots! Very nice plantings. I keep looking and looking, but I can't pick out a favorite! Love all the different textures, and the blooms are magnificent, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Things finally seem to be coming together out front. I still have some bare spots but less than any year since I started converting the lawn to a garden.

      Delete
  9. Lovely photos... are those limes growing? And pomegranites too? How I wish I had more garden space. Everything looks wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, and yes! The lime is a Bearss or Persian lime and the pomegranate is a dwarf variety, both under 5' tall. My house sits on an average urban lot sized 65' x 115'. I met a couple this weekend at the East Austin Garden Fair that have at least a dozen fruit trees on a similar sized lot.

      Delete
  10. You hit a home run with this post! The eclectic mix of plants is something, and of course seeing everything all green and the agave shots, is perfect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! I have a crazy mix of native and adapted plants, tropicals and succulents, with the agave ovatifolia as the centerpiece. I just plant what I like, and what survives is what I've got.

      Delete
  11. After looking at this post, I think the recovery from last summer, is complete. The garden looks fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Bob! I couldn't be happier. Things were looking really sad a few months ago.

      Delete
  12. Wow, Caroline, your yard must be a riot of color right now! Very very pretty. I have to know - was that a snail vine I saw in the midst of those pictures? I've killed two of those and never successfully gotten one to bloom, so if it is one, I want to know how you did it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just Googled "snail vine" and it sounds like it'd be quite a challenge to grow in Central Texas. What I have are 'Wedding Blush' sweet peas from Botanical Gardens. They've re-seeded two years in a row and they smell glorious.

      Delete
  13. You had me at that first photo~

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment