Category Archives: perennials

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2019

backyard bed, bloom day, bulbs, front bed, gate bed, loki bed, perennials, southwest bed, spring, the Lot

It has been awhile since I participated in Bloom Day over at May Dreams Gardens. But the weather was slightly overcast the other morning, so I brought the camera out into the garden with that goal in mind. This Spring on the Lot seems to be running behind previous years. When I attended a bare roots class the other weekend, our instructor commented we are about 2 weeks behind last year. Looking back at the blog at previous Spring blooms for May, that does indeed seem to be the case.

Out front in the south bed of the Lot, those classic red tulips are blooming. These bulbs were in the bed when we moved into the home. There are many not blooming beside and behind the overgrown yew which also was there on move-in day. I’m determined this year to mark area with popsicle sticks and dig them up in the fall and relocate them. The bi-color tulips are newer.

In this southwest bed are new tulips as well. The creeping phlox (Phlox subulata) is also blooming. I’d like to divide it after it is done blooming and distribute it more evenly through the south and southwest bed.

Pro Tip: To get a discount on creeping phlox for your garden, visit the nursery after the phlox’s bloom time. The nursery will have sheered off the spent blooms, so it is harder for them to sell to the public. If you know what you’re looking for, you often get a bargain!

And then I got momentarily distracted by these less-than-perfect looking tulip blooms. I do enjoy a good quirky, bug nibbled flower.

It also had rained the night before, so there were droplets of rainwater still on the plants. Okay, onward!

Here the barrenwort (Epimedium) is in bloom in the east bed. I LOVE, love, love this plant. It is so magical…like foam flower (Tiarella) magical. Those little flowers look like they are floating, and check out the foliage! This is a rockstar for dry shade or morning sun areas in the garden.

In the back garden of the Lot, the bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) is displaying its stalks of suspended blooms. I have a lot of seedlings from this plant to give away in a neighborhood plant exchange this year!

Here is a service berry shrub in bloom. This shrub is a favorite of any robins nesting nearby. They absolutely love the fruit.

A closeup of the shrub. I really enjoy white blooms in the spring. Whenever we have rainy days and overcast skies, the white blooms of this shrub seem to glow. It’s a nice reminder when looking out the kitchen window that spring is indeed in progress.

This Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’) colony, pictured to the left of St. Francis, began with transplants from Loki’s bed thanks to my gardening buddy Ms. A. I feel it’s filled in rather nice.

In the very back of the backyard garden, this barren strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides) is nestled between the rain barrels. Again, the lighter color bloom brightens up this area on cloudy days. It’s often grown as a groundcover, though it has been slow to spread in this spot. I think I’m going to grab a few more of these during this year’s nursery crawl.

Gah, I love this plant SO much!!! It’s prairie smoke geum (Geum triflorum). There are geum cultivars available, but I’ve never found any of them as interesting as this native gem. I feel this could be one of those magical plants as well. That’s a scientific classification, right?

A closeup shot of the flowers. So fuzzy!!!

And finally in Loki’s bed, the very first lenten rose (Helleborus) to grace the Lot is in full bloom with new grow on the way. It gets larger and more beautiful every season.

But Wait, There’s More

There are more plants blooming on the Lot I haven’t pictured above. A whole bunch of grape hyacinth bulbs (Muscari) and violets are adding purple dots of color. Cranesbill (Geranium) and more lenten rose (Helleborus) are also in bloom. A few primrose (Primula vulgaris) are still blooming. The brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’), lungwort (Pulmonaria), and rock cress ((Arabis sturii) are all beginning to bloom.

Another Seed Starting Attempt

annuals, perennials, seeds, spring

When I am able to plunk seeds outside, directly into the ground, Mother Nature does the majority of the work and the attempt is often successful. There have been many times I’ve tried to start seeds indoors without grow lights or any other special equipment and horribly failed.

How to Fail at Starting Seeds Indoors

  • Forget to water the seeds.
  • The seeds do not get enough light, causing the seedlings to be ‘leggy’.
  • Cats knock over the seed trays, scattering the contents.
  • Smash the seedlings when removing them from the tray to pot them up into a larger container.
  • Put the seedlings outside to ‘harden them off,’ and promptly forget they are outside.

What I need to do is get a copy of Julie Thompson’s book Starting & Saving Seeds!

Starting Flowers from Seeds… Again

All kidding aside, the Other Half and I purchased a small collapsible greenhouse this season for the sole purpose of starting seeds outdoors. The Lot is very small, so this 3 tier structure had to break down easy to be stored for 8-9 months out of the year.

Flowers I’m Trying to Start

Here’s what is planted in seed starting mix and small cell trays I kept from past nursery purchases.

  • Tithonia ‘Torch Mexican Sunflower’ – annual
  • Datura metel ‘Angel’s Trumpet’ – annual
  • Heliotropium arborescens ‘ Dwarf Marine’ – annual
  • Nicotiana langsdorffii ‘Langsdorff’s Tobacco’ – annual
  • Penstemon babatus ‘Dazzler Blend’ – perennial
  • Gaillardia aristata ‘Burgundy’ – perennial
  • Rudbeckia hirta ‘Irish Eyes’ – perennial
  • Asclepias tuberosa – perennial
  • Berlandiera lyrata (Chocolate Flower) – perennial?
  • Bipinnatus picotee (Cosmos) ‘Sensation Picotee’ – annual
  • Papver somniferum (Poppy) ‘Black Swan’ – annual
  • Ipomoea x multifida (Cardinal Climber) – annual
  • Ipomoea purpurea (Morning Glory) ‘Picotee Blue’ – annual
  • Ipomoea alba (Moonflower Vine) – annual
  • Tropaeolum majus (Nasturtium) ‘Whirlybird Mix’ – annual
  • Phaseolus vulgaris (Scarlet Runner Bean) – annual
  • Zinnia elegans ‘Northern Lights Blend’ – annual

The Giant Kind of Visitor

native plants, perennials, pollinators, the Lot

Another day on the Lot brought yet another opportunity to ID a new insect. This is the first time I noticed this type of butterfly visiting the garden. It was checking out the swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). It was quite large and reminded me of tiger swallowtail butterfly, probably because of the pale yellow and brown coloring.

Giant Swallowtail on Swamp Milkweed

I began my search with swallowtails in a Michigan Butterflies book I’d received at a conference this past March. Soon I found Papilio cresphontes, or the Giant Swallowtail.I believe this may be the type of butterfly pictured here. The features separating this butterfly from the other swallowtails is the large area of brown and diagonal bands of yellow spots on upper side of the wings.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

The guide did not list the swamp milkweed as a food source, but did list a favored nectar source as butterfly bush (Buddleja) as well as joe pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum). Both of those plants are on the same side of the garden as the milkweed plant it was investigating.

I wish I would have gotten a better shot of the back edges of the wings to be sure. The flight time is supposed to be from end of April to beginning of October. Hopefully I will see one again and can get better pictures to make sure my shot at ID’ing it is correct.