Saturday, May 15, 2010

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day-May 2010

Happy May, everybody!  It's the 15th of the month, which means Carol over at May Dreams Gardens is hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  It's the place to go to show off what's blooming in your garden today and to see what everybody else has blooming in theirs!

The last couple months have been a little slow for me, garden-wise, so I  was very happy to get out into my garden today and see lots of things blooming.

As I step out my front door, I can't overlook my night-blooming jasmine.  While the flowers aren't much to look at, they fill the night air with an amazing scent.  Mmmmmmmmm!



I haven't had much luck with geraniums in the past, but this new arrival is doing well so far.  Hopefully, it will continue to thrive.


Something odd is happening here.  My previously-purple, now-white agapanthus is preparing to bloom, but the weird part is, there are flowers appearing about half-way up the stem.  What's going on there??



The color of my lobelia continues to thrill me, and today I decided it would make a nice backdrop for my orchid (Onc. Papilio x Kalihi).



I don't know what kind of daylily this is, but it smells great!



I just repotted four strawberry plants, and I'm glad to see they are all in bloom!



This is another new acquisition, Cuphea llavea.  So far, it has all the brilliant color of a fuchsia with none of the tendency to die immediately upon coming into my care.  



For some reason, I always forget to get a picture of my canna when it's in bloom.  Not today!  I even got a few pictures of how it looks as it's preparing to bloom.



I love the little fringe of yellow peeking out, like the edge of a flamenco dancer's skirt preparing to unfurl.



As the yellow matures to orange, the canna is almost ready to open.



This is a blooming first in my yard.  My bird of paradise put on its first show, just in time for my family's visit last week!



I love seeing my bleeding heart, Clerodendrum thomsonae, bloom because it happens so rarely.  This plant has always been planted in less-than-ideal locations, so flowering has been rare.  I think this is the first time it has bloomed since it was dug up out of my front yard and replanted in a pot a year-and-a-half ago.  



You can see how the flowers start out as tiny white droplets...



And then mature into bright red and white beauties.



My miniature rose opened up today, just in time for GBBD.



As always, Den. Pam Tajima (altroviolaceum 'Pygmy' x eximium) has something going on.  Thanks to  Bybee's comment on last month's GBBD post, I now think of these as my Braille flowers! 



Also, still holding it's own from last month, is this pretty pink/lavender mystery orchid.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have lots of beautiful things going on in your garden today!

11 comments:

Larry said...

Lovely plants and lovely photos... thank you! Larry

teresa said...

You have amazing flowers. Your photos are great but my most favorite of all is the bleeding heart. I love the white and red. I haven't ever seen those before. Usually they are pink or white. Just gorgeous

joco said...

Hiya DreamyB

Lovely post written in such a nice style.
What a difference from our (UK) plants out now. Red seems to predominate in your garden and what a sparkling red it is.
Over here our heart bleeds for Dicentra spectabilis, which in my garden is a bloodless white. You use the name for Clerodendrium, very exotic plant. What's that about Agapanthus changing colour from purple to white?? Never heard that before.
Thanks for an enjoyable visit.

Dreamybee said...

LC-Thanks Larry!

teresa-Thank you. I love that white and red combination too-such perfect shades of each IMHO.

joco-I know the bleeding hearts you are talking about, and the name seems much more appropriate for yours than for mine, but the name seems to have been co-opted nonetheless. I don't know what's going on w/ the agapanthus-the flowers used to be purple. After the first one or two times it bloomed, they started coming up white. Not sure if it's a genetic thing or some kind of nutrition/pH issue...?

joco said...

You've got mail!

Marie said...

I love stopping by your blog to see your tropical blooms. Clerodendrum thomsonae is new to me. What a stiking bloom! All the blooms are beautiful and make me dream of a return to Hawaii.

Anna said...

Beautiful! I wish I could grow flowers, but I can't even keep a spider plant alive. LOL

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric

Dreamybee said...

joco-Yay! I love mail!

Marie-Thanks for the kind words. I didn't realize until I was writing this post that my bleeding heart was a Clerodendrum. I have another kind in my yard that I knew about, but I had no idea the two were related this whole time!

Anna-Thank you! To be fair, I have killed my fair share of plants, but it's much harder to do here than it is in a lot of other climates. Also, I think I've made my way through a lot of the "won't thrive under my care" plants and now have a bunch of hardy survivors that can take a lot of abuse! I'm sure there's something out there that will thrive under your particular brand of care. ;)

Kathy said...

you have some exquisite flowers! I miss the Bird of Paradise. Makes me think of my dad. We had one in our garden while living in California.
Doesn't make it here in the mid-south.
Kathy

Wendy said...

wow. THis is just gorgeous. I love the lobelia/orchid combo. I also love love love that bird of paradise. i only recently discoved that color combo - always thought they were all orange. I love that blue/white.

Dreamybee said...

Kathy-I would think a BoP would do OK in the summers-could you do a potted version?

Wendy-I don't know if I'm as crazy about this version of the BoP as the orange variety, but the colors on it are cool when you examine them individually. I saw a variety at the botanic garden last week that had the standard orange flowers, but the leaves had a pink vein running down the middle-very pretty!