May Bloom Day 2009

Welcome to the big shebang known as Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens and famous magazine writer. (See Horticulture June/July 2009 page 16). May brings a multitude of blooms. We begin with Salvia pratensis ‘Eveline’.On Mother’s Day morning I was greeted by this sight out on the deck. The Financier had been reading my mind it seems, for he had gone plant shopping at my favorite local nursery, Mouse Creek. He had chosen plants that I truly wanted, but had not told anyone about. The new Salvia is a selection from my hero Piet Oudolf even! The daylily is a very early bloomer with a tag of Lemon Lily, Hemerocallis lilio-asphodelus.There are doubts about the identity though, for a google search revealed a similar early yellow bloomer, H. dumortieri, that had the reddish backing to the petals. This daylily does not smell even remotely like lemon, either. The scent is sort of yucky, in fact. Does anyone recognize this daylily as either name?The recent rains have given a bloom boost to the roses. Another Mother’s Day gift, this one from last year from offspring Brokenbeat, Rosa ‘Carefree Sunshine’. The Carefree series is similar to the Knockouts in shrub like form and easy care season long blooms. We were lucky to find it at a nice nursery in Asheville, North Carolina, B.B.Barnes Jesse Israel. It was moved this winter to a better, sunnier location and is covered in blooms and buds.We love the antique roses in the hybrid musk class. They are long blooming and very easy to care for. The colors we grow are all pale pastel fading to white. We have R. ‘Penelope’, ‘Danae’ and ‘Jeanne D’Arc’, among others, that have gotten mixed up as they were moved about the garden trying to find the ideal location.Thorny, another antique rose, is in full out full blown bloom right now and will remain so most of the warmer months.Real name, R. ‘Grootendorst Supreme’, Rugosa class. Thorny used to be pruned to try to keep him in bounds in the center driveway bed. That hopeless enterprise has been abandoned, and Thorny is growing there with wild abandon. Bad luck if a stray baseball or frisbee lands in there while the offspring of offspring are playing in the driveway, he is not called Thorny for nothing.Residing here for a couple of years but rarely mentioned is Scabiosa columbaria ‘Butterfly Blue’.Newly added this spring is S. ‘Pink Mist’. Shown in situ, there is very little difference between the two. The pink is in the foreground. Still lovely, both of them.A definite must have plant, Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’ is coming into bloom. Most seedlings of the original one plant have shown a lavender outer petal rather than the white of the named culitvar. We like it.Speaking of Digitalis, the foxglove community of self sowns is opening shop. This looks like a D. purpurea offspring.One lone Allium schubertii blooms each year in this bed. Five were originally planted but the others seem to have disappeared. We have found some types of Alliums do that sort of thing. The annual poppies, Papaver somniferum are just beginning to open.Cosmos sulphureus ‘Ladybird Scarlet’ is one of the successes of the indoor germination attempt. It is tiny but blooming. The failure rate was about fifty/fifty for those efforts. Starting too early is to blame, with things getting too large for the lights and being put outdoors in the cold frame too soon. Next year we will try to remember to wait, not a strong suit here. Closing the show is the final of the deciduous azaleas, Rhododendron ‘Strawberry Ice’. The grand cascade of azalea blooming was dampened by torrential rains for many days. The petals were detached from the stamens, hanging like chandeliers. Then came ninety degree temps to finish them off. But time moves forward and the next pretty thing will delight the eye. And the next, and the next….
Frances