Fertilizer Friday - April 30

Not only can't I believe the week is over, I can't believe the month is over! I'm looking forward to the month of May in the garden, that's when a lot of flowers in my front yard should start blooming. This time of year it doesn't take much to get me excited though. For example finding I didn't kill the Astrania that I accidentally dug into twice in the last month, a single leaf has come up again and this time I'll remember it's there. I was also happy to realize that both Autumn Sage (Salvia gregii) and Salvia 'Black and Blue' (Salvia guarantica) are coming back, both are borderline tender perennials here. I was disappointed that Echinacea 'Tiki Torch', Geranium 'Rozanne' and Clematis 'Henryii' didn't survive the winter. They should all have been hardy here and those were three that I really hoped would have returned, especially since none of them were cheap! The Salvias were inexpensive and in fact were both sold as annuals in the nursery I bought them from. Oh well, guess that's just part of the gamble we take as gardeners.

Getting back to things that made me excited was this Uvularia grandiflora finally, after about 5 years, bloomed! It's not quite as spectacular as I imagined, but still the fact that it bloomed at all makes me happy. I'm wondering if it was marked wrong and is a different type of Uvularia - any ideas?

Clematis 'Nelly Moser' seems to be up to her usual tricks. Just as I thought it was doing so well in its new spot, the vine is beginning to dry and the leaves turn yellow. This happens every year, although this year it has far more buds than usual. After reading about Nelly on other blogs I'm beginning to think it's a touchy Clematis that's disease prone.

Something interesting I found were these supposed Iris reticulata. The rest of the Iris reticulata bloomed in early Spring, these just sent up foliage. Now it seems as if a flower bud may be coming up. I planted these ones last Fall and they are all doing the same thing now.

Meadow Rue (Thalictrum) is still blooming. The Meadow Rue in the shade still just has buds.

Geranium endressii 'Wargrave Pink' has just begun blooming. This one reseeds everywhere, and seems to love the dry shade. It's hard to complain about a pretty flower that will grow in dry shade, so I usually let several of the seedlings grow.

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) is a native perennial ground cover here. It dies all the way back in Fall and then in Spring comes up with these pretty white flowers.

Columbine (Aquilegia) is another reseeder that I would never complain about. I love how they are all different in my yard.

This Columbine popped up through the Hellebores.

Fertilizer Friday is hosted by Tootsie Time each Friday. Visit Tootsie to join in or to see who else is "flaunting their flowers."

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.