Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2010

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A few more things still flowering outside this fall Bloom Day. This may be the last outdoor Bloom Day until next March, but that will depend entirely on the weather. If it's like last year I may still have some plants flowering in mid-November but we've already had a few light frosts. We'll have to see how that goes though.

But this month... There's quite a bit that's still going. Sure there's a lot the same as I had flowering in September but it's still nice to have this much still going in the garden.



My Pink Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) is still going strong. I'd never even noticed the way it branches and flowers lower on the stems. I wouldn't have noticed either but I was chopping it back to make room for my Rhododendron. By the time the main flower stalk has finished though so have most of the side shoots. I think it's more "Oh that's interesting" than anything practical. The flowers are actually kind of ugly strange. There's not that much else that's as reliable for fall flowers though and the leaves are actually a very nice dark glossy green.


This little Pansy seedling has popped up on my patio and (other than being eaten by earwigs) is doing well. Of particular note is that this seedling is identical to its parent. I need to try to collect some seeds from it for next spring.


This volunteer Morning Glory comes from my neighbours yard and is growing through and around my Honeysuckle. The Honeysuckle's still flowering with lots of buds to open, and I know there's at least one open today (I can smell it) but couldn't see it for a picture today. It's nice though because by the time this has started to flower the Honeysuckle is mostly finished with only the odd bloom here and there.


And because I love it so much here's my Red Rose again, this time with the seeds of my Miscanthus 'Little Kitten' - the smallest Miscanthus I've ever heard of.

Also still flowering in my garden but not pictured is my Toadlily (Tricyrtis hirta 'Tojen', Sedum 'Lynda Windsor', there's one or two flowers on both my Clematis 'Rebecca' and my Hall's Honeysuckle and just missing Bloom Day are my Mystery Aloe (x Haworthia?) and Echeveria, both of which have moved inside the house for the winter. Plenty of African Violets and the like too, but maybe we'll be looking at more of those next month?

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - September 2010

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Lots flowering again this month. Many earlier flowering plants are repeating, and all of my fall flowering plants are going. And some have never really stopped.



Actaea (Cimicifuga) simplex 'James Compton' is one of my favourite plants. It is matched on the other side of the yard by the equally lovely 'Hillside Black Beauty'. It is rare for either of these to flower before September making them a real fall flowering plant. The buds start to form in mid summer so there's a lot of expectations on these once they open. A. simplex is faintly fragrant with a sweet candy like scent. Do not try to smell A. racemosa though!


Tricyrtis 'Tojen' is another star of the fall shade garden. I had a picture of the flower a million times better last month but this better shows the massive number of flowers this can get. At each axle the plant will produce a branched flower stalk with between 10-15 buds, which open over an extended period. It starts in August but will not stop flowering until snow. This year as well there were no lily beetles to ruin the look so it'll be looking its best all fall.


Lonicera japonica 'Halliana' is repeating in its corner. Apparently with a little more light it would be more of a continuous bloomer, which would be nice, but I'll take what I can get. My Clematis 'Rebecca' is reblooming as well. It was hit hard by the unprecedented heat waves of this summer and does not look too good in pictures right now!


Persicaria affinis started flowering in May and has not stopped. There's a better picture in the link but this shows the effect later in the season as the older flowers have darkened to a nice pink colour with more white flowers opening constantly.


My Bougainvillea is also still flowering well with little sign of stopping.


My NOID Red Rose. I can't say enough good things about this plant.

There's even more flowering inside but I imagine that soon enough I'll be posting those exclusively so for now enjoy the late season garden.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked seeing some of what I have flowering this month. And as always head over to May Dreams Gardens to see what's flowering for other Garden Bloggers.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, August 2010

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My garden is slow to get started in the spring, but as you can see on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day it definitely makes up for it now when most gardens are slowing down. Many of my favourite plants are actually those that flower in late summer.



Streptocarpus 'Laura'


Monarda 'Fireball' - to be honest I'm a little bit disapointed. I expected it to be red but it isn't. If I were going to be planting a pink Monarda there are nicer varieties, more compact varieties or frankly varieties that aren't even pink. Like 'Purple Rooster' or 'Raspberry Wine'. At least the colour matches my Clematis (The petals turn more pink/red as they age) and Bougainvillea.


Tricyrtis 'Tojen' will continue to flower for a long time, and will soon be joined by an even more hardcore fall flowering perennial, my Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua).


My Red Rose only has a few flowers on it right now, but many buds getting ready to open any day now. It's rambled its way up into my so called "dwarf" Banana (I'll post a picture once the rose starts to open - hint, it's gotten huge).

In the front yard my Hydrangea seems to be holding down the fort, while my Roses out front and my 'White Clips' Bellflower have a few flowers off and on.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you've enjoyed seeing some of the plants I have flowering this month.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, June 2010

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On the whole my garden sits waiting through the spring into June when it starts to take off. Here's a few quick shots of what's flowering for me on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Of note as well are the Iris & Ivory Silk Lilac which both managed to start and finish flowering between the May Bloom Day and today. Honestly the Lilac can't finish fast enough. The entire front garden is covered in a disgusting mulch of brown finished flowers, mimicking the same colour in the tree. It's much too large to try and deadhead so it will stay looking terrible for a little while longer. By the time it finishes flowering as well the strong fragrance becomes a little too strong and a little too much.



Calamint (Calamintha grandiflora) - The larger pink one is almost finished, the dwarf white one will soon start and go until a hard frost.


Hosta 'Tiny Tears' is a very cute dwarf hosta I've recently bought.


Siberian Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana) needs to get cut back hard and divided once it stops flowering, that won't be for a while though.


Dahlia 'Louisiania' is really starting to pick up. Maybe I will try keeping this one over the winter.


My NOID Red Rose will be stunning this year. Each stem has 25-30 buds on it. I'll replace this picture with one of it open in a little bit.


The 'Tumbler' Tomato - brought home an unhappy looking plant from work. May or may not make it but it's covered with unripe fruit. I imagine all it needs is a good amount of fertilizer and it should be fine.

And that's just a quick sampling of everything I have flowering outside this Bloom Day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, May 2010

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It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day again and after an extremely dry April things are starting to flower outside.




Dwarf Irises are putting on a good show this year. The taller Irises are still only in bud, ahead of schedule by about 2 weeks (they normally open around the first of June) but still not quite open yet.

Otherwise outside it a whole lot of buds and any day things will burst into bloom but maybe because of the very late spring showers a lot of things are only just starting to get under way. There's one special plant that will get its own post very soon because I've been absolutely amazed by it since I bought it last summer.


Trillium erectum



Inside there's even more to look at. Many plants from even as far back as February are still going.

I'd like to issue an apology to Saintpaulia 'Ma's Crime Scene' for things said in April - it has figured out how to hold its flowers up above the leaves and has not stopped flowering since it opened in February. There are approximately 18 Saintpaulia plants flowering in the house right now.

My Ludisia discolor that opened in March has moved onto its second spike but is still going and has been joined by my 'alba.' The Phal.s are still going though my Paph. has finished after almost three months open.



Streptocarpus 'Royal Grape 7122' re-posted.

Streptocarpus 'Royal Grape 7122' has also continued to impress. It took a few days (less than a week) off in April but has started to flower again since then.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll just leave you with two plants that have only just started flowering this month.



Saintpaulia cv.


Streptocarpus 'Lemon Frills'

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, April 2010

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Honestly I would have expected a little more for April's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day this month. It was apparently not meant to be.



Daffodils. You've seen this picture here before. You've seen Daffodils before. Nothing overly exciting here.

There are many things still flowering that were flowering in March and actually everything I posted in February is either still flowering or is flowering again.



Pansy. I've got the tag somewhere still with the name. Not overly important though I'd say. I do like this one though and it will probably end up in my summer containers too.

My Paphiopedilum and both Phalaenopsis and that have been flowering for the past two months have not changed even a little bit. Each and every flower is still holding on, still looking as perfect as they did when they had just opened.

I've fallen a little bit out of love with Saintpaulia 'Ma's Crime Scene.' The flowers are a fantastic colour and the leaves are perfect but they flowers are thick, and heavy. Individual flowers last over three weeks but they are not held strongly over the plant and that ruins the overall effect.



Another Pansy.

Daffodils and Pansies are all that are blooming outside. Crocus came and went, too late for March, too early for April. My Euphorbia myrsinites is so close to flowering, some stems are just starting to open up at the tips but it will likely be another week before it's putting on its best show. By May there should be a few more things, a very large patch of Dwarf Iris that will be shrinking this summer should be flowering. Can't say there will actually be too much more than that, I think I've got my garden geared towards a strong June that doesn't let up until snow falls rather than have too much space devoted to spring plants.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, March 2010

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My second Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Spring is still not quite here in spite of some fantastically warm weather so once again I can only show you what's flowering inside my house right now. It's nice to be able to note that every single plant I posted last month is still flowering (with the exception of the Saintpaulia NOID which had already been flowering a pretty long time).


And this month you get more of the same - Orchids and African Violets. Enjoy!



Phalaenopsis NOID - I think there's a point where on orchid becomes so boring it becomes beautiful again.


Ludisia discolor - About all I'm going to get out of it. The bottom flowers are starting to close.


Saintpaulia "NOID 0022" - The flower's not in the greatest shape but this is the best focus I've gotten in an African Violet picture yet - Check it out at full size.


Saintpaulia "NOID 0010" - This one's nice.


Saintpaulia 'Ness' Orange Pekoe' - Interesting colour, doesn't do much for me otherwise though.


Saintpaulia "NOID 0011" - It took me a while to notice those blue spots on the petals. I think this could become one of my favourites if I can bring out those spots more in the future.


Saintpaulia "NOID 27"


Saintpaulia "NOID 0027"

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, February 2010

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This is my first Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Lots to post pictures of though!

My Phalaenopsis NOID continues to flower its strange recently green flowers:



Phalaenopsis NOID

This plant is on my mom's plant stand with some of her African Violets, Streptocarpus, and Chirita. There's always something flowering on this stand. (Did you go out and buy yourself an African Violet?)



Saintpaulia 'Ma's Crime Scene' - Fantastic colour on a refreshingly simple flower. The thin white chalk line around the leaves is the perfect finishing touch on this well named variety. This one's a personal favourite.


Streptocarpus 'Royal Grape 7122' - this is the best performing Strep we have, this plant has been in bloom continually since December. I wish I could say that about all Streps but no luck. This one's 100% a keeper.



Saintpaulia NOID - I've posted this plant before but this time around it's even better.

My Paphiopedlium is still going strong downstairs by the big south window (space on this table is at a premium) on the big plant table with still more African Violets and the like.



Paphiopedilum NOID - When I "finished" my photoshoot with this guy earlier in the month I lucked out - the sun was shining right on the plant table and filling the room with light. I pulled out my camera and took a few shots of it backlit by the sun. Here you can really see the beautiful stripes on the dorsal sepal which are my favourite detail on these flowers.

There's more Gesneriads flowering around the house - there always are. This morning I counted 7 African Violets, 1 Streptocarpus, 1 Chirita 'Stardust' and a Streptocarpella all in bloom right now. Relatively speaking this is a smallish number compared to the size of the collection but it's still a good amount of colour to have around on a February day.

And of course, if you're looking for flowers look no further than you local orchid show.