April Bloom Day

The 15th of every month is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Many garden bloggers participate, creating blog posts specifically highlighting what is blooming in their gardens that day, thereby contributing to the splash of color that inevitably comes from flowers. It's a blast! Check out her website for inspiration and roll-call lists of bloggers participating each month. Since I publish blog posts on Thursdays, the odds of it landing on a Bloom Day, i.e., the 15th of the month, is . . . . well - what, mathematicians? One in 28? Don't judge my math skills. At any rate, today is both Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and Thursday so here is my contribution to spring color.

First up is Tulipa praestans 'Shogun', a gift from dear friends of ours in The Netherlands. We think of them every spring when these beauties bloom. I prefer species tulips because they don't pitter out like other fancier hybrids, are smaller and seem to naturalize. 

Brunnera macrophylla 'Garden Candy Sea Heart' is a brunnera with an odd name (does anyone know its origins?) and gorgeous foliage and flowers. I really like that critters leave this alone.

Fritlillaria melegris, winner of the "best patterned petals" award.

Pachyphragma macrophilla is a plant we sell at the nursery and it is said to be weedy by some. For me it popped up several years ago, coming in as a hitchhiker on some plant or another and I allowed it to stay. I am glad I did, it handles dry shade with aplomb. Plus, it's one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the garden. 

Uvularia perfoliata commonly known as merrybells are native to the East Coast. This little woodland perennial is a favorite, I hope it spreads.

Pulmonaria seedling, from a nearby clump of P. 'Benediction'.

One of three flowering cherries on the property. These are a full three weeks later blooming than they were last year.

From a broader view, the pink popcorn tree. I will say this about them - they do catch the light and brighten up the garden. The rest of the year after flowering they are of no interest to me, but we keep them all the same.

Euphorbia rigida next to Agave bracteosa 'Calamar' 

Clematis cirrhosa ‘Wisley Cream’ has been blooming since January.

Polygala chamaebuxus commonly known as shrubby milkwort is a new-to-me low growing evergreen subshrub I recently got from work.

 From the Missouri Botanical Garden's website:

Polygala chamaebuxus, commonly called shrubby milkwort or box-leaved milkwort, is a dense, suckering, alpine, dwarf evergreen shrublet that grows to only 6-8” tall but eventually spreads to as much as 24” wide usually forming an impenetrable mat. It is native to sunny alpine regions, primarily in areas of wooded slopes, rocky ridges and higher elevation pastures in west-central Europe south to Italy and the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Arctostaphylos x densiflora 'Harmony'. Most of the arctos are still blooming in my garden. Here are a couple.

Arctostaphylos x densiflora 'Sentinel' is wrapping it up but still blooming.

Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart' is a perennial I want to hate but it makes this area of the shade garden wake up a little. It was a throw-away from work a few years ago. Every year I am charmed by its chartreuse foliage. Dicentra has been reclassified as Lamprocapnos and I have yet to get on that bandwagon. 

Cardamine trifolia is a charming evergreen, small-scale groundcover for shady locales. Each spring it gets even better with clean white flower spikes at the edge of the shade garden.

Pulmonaria 'Benediction' is one of the best blues around. This photo doesn't do it justice and gives it a purple cast when in reality it's quite pure azure blue.

Epimedium × warleyense  is one of my favorite epimediums.

Epimedium versicolor 'Sulfureum' is a decent spreader with charming pale yellow flowers.

Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' is in its third year and is growing nicely. The scent, as you all know, can be detected from quite a distance.

Erythronium revolutum, our native trout lily. I'm excited to have this little charmer in the garden, it's new as of last year. 

Pulmonaria 'White Echo' from Joy Creek Nursery. I do love white flowers in the shade garden.

Beesia deltophylla is only just getting ready to bloom, but there are flowers present so I include it here. This is of course an evergreen shade plant native to Tibet that is one of only two species in its genus, the other being B. calthifolia

Veronica 'Georgia Blue' is one of my top 10 favorite plants ever for its ease of cultivation, its blue flowers, its usefulness in the garden and its evergreen-ness.

And finally, a buddy in the garden, a reminder why I garden. These trees, the flowering cherries also remind us why we garden for they are alive with the sounds of many bees, both honeybees and bumble bees. The hummingbirds have claimed them, too. The sound of the bees is audible from about 10' away, it's pretty amazing.

This is a good snapshot overall of the flowers in the garden right now, but to be honest when I went to take photos I wasn't specifically considering Bloom Day so I'm sure many were missed. That's ok, we'll save them for another post. I also realize that many of these plants are blooming much later than they have in the past. We've had a chilly spring and nature is reluctant to show off her blooms, but I think we're out of the chilly spell and into full-blown spring.

One last housekeeping item, if you subscribe to this blog by receiving emails in your inbox, that function will no longer be supported by Blogger. Booooo! That means you will have to manually go to chickadeegardens.com weekly or so to check out new posts. So sorry. Technology - it's a wonderful thing until it isn't. **side note** I do have a Chickadee Gardens Facebook page where I link new posts. That can be found here. 

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always thank you so much for reading and commenting, we love hearing from you! Happy gardening, happy bloom day one and all.