Friday, April 15, 2022

April Garden Blogger's Bloomday

Hot on the heels of our April winter comes April Bloomday, I stepped out with my camera wondering; would I have any flowers to share? Yep, turns out I do. Damn but plants are resilient!

Rhododendron laramie had started to open it's flowers before the temperatures dropped, they might have been flattened by the snow if not for the fact the plant is tucked up next to some bamboo which kindly bent over and protected "laramie" from the weight of the snow. 

I wondered if these Lupinus rivularis buds would break open for this Bloomday, but the cold appears to have slowed down their progress.

Buds on my peony (Itoh peony, Paeonia 'Smith Opus') don't appear to be phased in the slightest by the cold, the foliage has mostly recovered too. 

Oh, and while it looks to be sunny and warm in these photos, it was actually 48 degrees and I was outside in between showers and hail storms. I guess I shouldn't complain though as the snow they said might return has not materialized.

Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Akebono’

Still going strong despite being flat on the ground Monday morning.

I looked and looked, sure that I could find a Magnolia laevifolia bud that had opened. Nope.

The Euphorbia amygdaloides var. Robbiae blooms are all at a jaunty 45 degree angle...

The Epimedium 'Amber Queen' blooms wisely waited until after the snow to open.

They're putting on quite the space invaders display.

Arisaema ringens is one tough character.

And freaky too!

I caught this moment a bit later in the day and it's too good not to share. That's Arisaema ringens surrounded by new growth on Epimendium wushanense 'Spiny Leaf Form'—lit by the sun.

Daphniphyllum macropodum

Seeds not blooms, but cool! Fatsia japonica 'Murakumo Nishiki'

There's something about the way the Nolina 'La Siberica' is folded around the Loropetalum chinense 'Sizzling Pink' that makes me think of an octopus.

Loropetalum chinense 'Sizzling Pink', close-up.

My second and third Daphniphyllum macropodum; solid green in the background, variegated in the fore. Interesting that with three plants I didn't appear to get any females as I've never had seeds set.

Stachyurus salicifolius...

Common name, willow leaf spiketail.

It's a good plant.

It's not blooming yet (obviously), but this fabulous whorl on the Echium wildpretii was worth sharing.

Asarum caudatum

Asarum europaeum

Out in the front garden now, Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow'.

Epimedium x rubrum

Hmmm... heather some something, I'm going with Calluna vulgaris 'I Wish I Could Remember'. Who knows, that's probably actually new growth not blooms anyway. Ha! To quote my friend Patricia, "what I don't know is a lot"...

Euphorbia rigida is in it's final days of glory.

It's all flopping post-snow, and the new growth in the center is coming on strong.

Daphne x houtteana

Poncirus trifoliata

The new growth of Mahonia gracilipes is bright enough to be a flower.

Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Harmony’

Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum 'Hindwarf'

The foliage is murky muddy ugh, but the blooms are bright and clear.

Just a couple more photos, the tiny tiny blooms of Pittosporum divaricatum.

And the big bright tropical bloom of Aporophyllum Shirley 'Sun Cactus'—blooming in the basement garden. Hopefully temperatures will return to spring-like soon and the basement garden will be liberated to the outdoors!

All material © 2009-2022 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

14 comments:

  1. Amazing how good it all looks after such trauma. The daphniphyllum leaves look pristine. And about that spiketail...this is the one I bought at Dancing Oaks, and is labeled salicifolius, but it came with no leaves, just leafing out now. I'm worried I might have the non-evergreen praecox -- which would be fine too, in fact, Jody at DO said she preferred praecox. If I ever get around to planting the north-facing front garden, there will be epimediums...

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    1. Well, that may have been some very creative cropping for those daphniphyllum leaves, at least the first one—which still has heat-dome damage to grow out of. Stachyurus praecox seems to be more widely available and perhaps more popular, but I love my S. salicifolius.

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  2. If we hadn't seen Wednesday's post, we would never know you had had bad weather. Those plants like Epimediums and Peonies that are winter hardy to Zone 4 and 5 usually survive nasty weather. I had some foliage problems on early Peonies last year from frost, but the buds were fine. Looking deceptively springlike in your garden.

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    1. Yes it wasn't really cold enough to do any damage to the plants, I was more concerned about the weight of the very heavy wet snow on the new growth. And it was spring just week before last! Ugh. Hoping it returns.

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  3. Given those heart-breaking photos of a snowy landscape I saw earlier this week, this post is a spectacular testimonial to the toughness of "delicate" flowers. I'm once again frustrated by the fact that I can't grow Epimedium and I'm giving second thoughts to the prospect of trying Loropetalum again after my prior failures with that plant. I'll note that I picked up 2 Echium wildpretii yesterday after seeing it once again at Sherman Gardens. In an odd admission from me, I don't really care if they bloom - I just hope they'll survive more than a month or two in my garden once the heat returns.

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    1. Yay for more Echium wildpretii! The foliage is reason enough to grow it.

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  4. You have a lot going on despite the snow storm. You are right, plants are resilient. I find myself being incredibly wowed and grateful that in my garden they bounced back a LOT more than I initially thought. Of course the jury's still out for damage to manifest down the line.

    I digress. Your blooms are fabulous, interesting, varied and healthy. Wonderful.

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    1. I am so glad to hear that you're seeing some rebounding plants!

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  5. I'm so envious of your beautiful Edgeworthia! I tried growing one here in my zone 6 garden in Virginia but sadly, it never made it past the first winter. So many other lovely plants in your garden, thank you for sharing!

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  6. I'm so in love with your Loropetalum chinense 'Sizzling Pink! My new and potted Loropetalum chinense (of some veriety) turned to a crips over winter. I may have asked this boefe: is Edgeworthia ‘Akebono’ atracting hummingbirds? It sure looks like it could.

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  7. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that you had freak storm like that!

    But your garden looks great. Better than great. You have so many unusual plants I've simply never seen down here!

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  8. Wow, I remember this weather event! It was my first spring in my Dallas Oregon garden, and the low that morning was 24.8F with several lesser freezes earlier in the week (25.3F on Thursday April 14). I documented moderate to major freeze damage to 15 different plants. That was a lot for me back then because the garden was so young, only 10 months old. We got a little snow on April 12 & 13 but the freezes on the 14th and 15th were devastating. I remember seeing a lot of damage when visiting nurseries all over the valley, especially on Ginkgos, everything had leafed out so far before the freeze.

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    1. Every bit of damage is felt so much more in a new garden. I can't believe you're already up to April of 2022...

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    2. Oh thats right, you had the same experience in your new garden...when your Phormiums and Cordys got smacked down!

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