Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.
April 2011
The drought continues. The pink evening primrose and Engelmann daisy seem to prefer this drier weather and are the stars of the day. The dry weather hurries summer along. Many flowers that are usually in bloom in April have already finished. Others that don’t usually start blooming until later have already begun. Even semi-weedy plants like baby blue eyes are relatively sparse and the plants are tiny and shrivelled. Austin’s ubiquitous bluebonnets are short and faded.
Nigella damascena. Love-in-a-mist. Doubles. A passalong from Jenny.
Dianthus chinensis. Pinks
Phlox pilosa. Prairie Phlox. A passalong from Julie.
Callirhoe involucrata. Winecup
My larkspur plans have gone awry. I dug two beds along the front path several years ago. Larkspur was supposed to line the path and the lawn. The lawn died. I didn’t get the larkspur planted this year. The last two years it self sowed where the lawn was. This year I didn’t get my beds planted so the self-sown larkspur is all I have. Without water or thinning the resultant plants are only about one to two feet tall rather than three or four feet tall. The front yard now looks a bit like the back yard used to. The meadow in the back yard is almost completely devoid of larkspur. After ten years, what was once the meadow is almost completely in shade by the time the wildflowers want to bloom.
Between GBBDs
Flowers that bloomed between March 15, 2011 and April 15, 2011 and so did not appear in either list.
- Allium neapolitanum
These use to flower in abundance in the meadow but creeping shade and this year’s drought resulted in only one bulb blooming. - Datura inoxia
One flush of flowers already, just none open today.
Incomplete List for April, 2011
I always have to double-check some things but it’s 10PM. So there you are.
- amaryllis ‘Dancing Queen’ (2010, 2011–last day)
- Antirrhinum majus (2010, 2011–just barely)
- Aristolochia fimbriata (2011)
- Callirhoe involucrata (2011)
- Centaurea cyanus Black Magic (2011)
- Commelinantia anomala (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Consolida ambigua (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Coriandrum sativum (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Dianthus chinensis (2011)
- Diospyros kaki ‘Eureka’ (Japanese persimmon) (2007, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Echinacea purpurea (2011)
- Engelmannia peristenia/pinnatifida (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Hesperaloe parviflora (2011)
- Hippeastrum x johnsonii (St. Joseph’s lily) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Iris flavescens (?) yellow heirloom (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- iris ‘Full Eclipse’ (2011)
- iris ‘Incantation’ (2010, 2011–last day)
- Lonicera japonica (2011)
- Lupinus texensis (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Nigella damascena (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Oenothera speciosa (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Oxalis crassipis (hot pink) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Oxalis stricta (yellow flowering weed) (2010, 2011)
- Oxalis triangularis (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Papaver somniferum “Dorothy Cavanaugh” (2010, 2011)
- Parkinsonia aculeata, retama (2009, 2011–first day)
- Polanisia dodecandra (2011)
- Phlomis lanata (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Phlox pilosa (2011)
- Rhaphiolepis indica (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011–last day)
- rose ‘Blush Noisette’ (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- rose ‘New Dawn’ (2011)
- rose ‘Red Cascade’ (2011)
- Ruellia (2011)
- Sedum album (2011?)
- Solanum jasminoides (potato vine) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011-fading)
- Spiraea bridal wreath (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Trachelospermum jasminoides (2011)
- Tradescantia (spiderwort) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
- Verbena canadensis (lavender wilding) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Vicia sativa (common vetch) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Zexmenia hispida (2009, 2011)
