April 2010 Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

It feels like Spring has now come to stay here. The weather has been beautiful with highs in the low 60's, perfect for gardening. With the longer days I've found myself out gardening until almost 7 p.m. a few days already. Each time I'm out it seems I'm discovering more good things; buds on the Alliums, lots of Hydrangea buds on all of the bushes, Clematises seem to grow overnight.
While we were driving home from my daughter's Lacrosse practice we started noticing that most of the trees either have leaves or are just leafing out. Every Spring that's one of my favorite parts, the trees almost seem to glow from the fresh new leaves. Right now the Crabapples seem to be the trees grabbing the attention for their blooms.
Here is some of what's blooming in my garden for this Bloom Day:

Forget-me-nots (Myosotis). When I was double checking the spelling of Myosotis I found that it means mouse's ear in Greek. I don't think I planted one of these, they've been reseeding in our garden probably since before we lived here.

Knautia (K. macedonia) has it's first flower open with lots more ready to bloom as well. This will bloom all summer and into the fall. It does self seed some too, but just enough for a few new plants to move around the garden.

Columbines (Aquilegia) I think are my very favorite Spring flower. They pop up everywhere and I let them grow pretty much anywhere they show up.

The Pink Ruffled ones are starting to bloom. They're all just a little different from each other, some have more ruffles, some bigger than others and all are a different shade of pink.

Meadow Rue (Thalictrum) was moved to a little more of a sunny spot last year and already seems to be doing much better. It's much taller than it ever was before.

Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum) is having it's best year ever. It's never had so many flowers or bloomed for so long.

One of my new favorites are the Epimediums I planted late fall/early winter. I had read they would tolerate dry shade, and they sure seem to. The new growth is very bright, the flowers on this are like mini suns. This one is supposed to be Epimeduim sulphureum. It doesn't really look like the pictures I've found on the internet, but I still love it.

Epimedium 'Rubrum' has the tiniest flowers. I don't know much else about Epimediums, but would love to try them in another place of my garden. I'd love to know how much they spread or if they are aggressive spreaders. Where they are now I hope they do spread lots.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens on the 15th of each month. Visit her to join in or to see what other gardeners around the world have in bloom.