HelpfulGardener.com

...native honeysuckle, Whorled milkweed (A. verticillata), Amsonia Bluestar, Carolina Allspice, wild blackberry...

Stunning blooms applestar! This is the first year my native honesuckle has taken off. Last year my trellis fell over and snapped off my baby vines, but they've recovered quickly. I can't wait for mine to fill in like yours! Do you find it draws hummingbirds?

I adore the carolina allspice and have been trying to find the right spot for one in my garden as well Beautiful!

That gate arbor trellis is a popular hangout for the local birds. It looks so lopsided because I never get to prune it when I should. A song sparrow serenaded from it every morning earlier in the spring, and mourning doves nested in it last year. There's a robins nest near the top now and I was careful to aim the Impact sprinkler to only water the base of the vine this morning.

I can see it from the bedroom window upstairs and yes, hummingbirds start visiting around 5:30am and regularly through the day until dusk.

Sometimes if I'm wearing brightly colored shirt, the hummer hovers outside the window and looks in to see if there is a new flower in bloom....

Nice blooms applestar, I like the blues mingling with the other blooms...very relaxing feel.

Did you mean for this thread to be for all to share their current blooms?

If so, here are my mountain laurels as of last week along with some welcome visitors (see the baby praying mantis
)! I saw at least 4 of these babies hanging out on the blooms.




Here's what it looked like a couple weeks ago. I think the buds are just about as pretty as the blooms!


I vote for a thread bump to get some more bloom shares

Yes Please do join in and post pictures of flowers blooming around your gardens.

I know I often post blog-ish monologue threads, but I actually welcome comments and also want to encourage community creative threads like this.

Doesn't anyone want to share their flowers?

My oakleaf hydrangea 'Alice' is blooming for the very first time since I planted it 2 years ago!


Here's my trumpet honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler'


So many evening primroses!


Hydrangea Arborescens 'Annabelle'


Applestar, what's blooming in your garden right now?

Haha I have to get my head out of the vegetable garden, take the time to smell the flowers and photograph them

Not sure what are in bloom ornamental-wise. I know strawberries, and peas are blooming and producing pods and fruits, and Kakai squash and clover have started blooming....

Asians in full bloom. These were all bloomed out and on sale for a dollar last year. Missy gobbled them up. We get a new surprise color ever couple days since most were not marked.

Orange


Pink


Red


Purple

Turk's Cap Lily

Rairdog, that purple lily is absolutely stunning!

Applestar, I wasn't familiar with that type of lily. Beautiful!

pinksand wrote:Rairdog, that purple lily is absolutely stunning! Thanks...it was a complete surprise...we were waiting for red and purple showed up

Applestar, I wasn't familiar with that type of lily. Beautiful! I agree

Coreopsis


Anise Hyssop is starting


Currants are ready for chutney


Buddelia is starting


Some viola in the shade is still putting out....and new colors too!

Very interesting & lovely peach-colored flower in one shot, but not a Buddleia.

GardeningCook wrote:Very interesting & lovely peach-colored flower in one shot, but not a Buddleia.

They come in all colors. I have purple also.


First Nasturtium

Ahhh - sorry. It wasn't the color I was looking at, but the shape. All the Buddleia around here have relatively long (like around 6"+) elongated blooms that are pointed at the end. Have never seen one simply round like that.

Elderflowers!

I started taking pictures and as I looked for best vantage shots to show off their flowers, I realized I probably might have enough for at least 1/2 batch of an elderflower syrup recipe.

Here are the two in mostly shaded, sheltered area next to the shed and kids clubhouse/playequipment.
They don't get any care from me and this area gets no additional irrigation, but they grow bigger and taller each year. You can see how tall the one behind the clubhouse is. -- there are flower clusters near the top -right corner of the bottom-right photo.


These next two are out in the open and at the lowest end of swales. The one in bloom is at the entrance to the Spiral Garden -- it has been sending out long rhizomes and I rip them out and chop them off. The other one is youngest. It's always the last to bloom.


The biggest flower cluster was from the Spiral Garden one. (11"/28cm colander) Another biggest blossom from one of the other shrubs also had the purplish stem. (Sunlight?)


But as you can see in the next collage, most had solid green stems. I ended up with 27 variously sized flower clusters and about 1/4 of 2 gal bucket of loose (bucket thunked down to settle) de-stemmed flowers:

Common milkweed, Swamp milkweed, Butterfly flower/weed Monarda "Jacob Cline", Monarda "Coral Reef", Echinacea (thank you @SusanW )

Common Milkweed here is in full bloom, but our wild Butterfly Weed (which blooms neon orange) & our wild Swamp Milkweed are still just in the baby bud stage.

Coneflower pallida. About 4 ft tall. Similar to regular purple but bigger!

My butterfly weed had been blooming for the past couple of weeks. I walked outside the other day to find it bare... not quite sure what happened My bee balm is pretty much done as well. Your photos make me miss them!

I'd really like to plant some common milkweed!

Do you want seeds @pinksand? If you do, give me a heads up and I will collect them and label/keep them separately. I can collect seeds from any of the ones I have except the Purple Milkweed which for some reason will not make seeds.

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is almost starting to bloom.

I don't know if these are unusual, but I have two different foliage colors with some that are in-between/not as purple:

This photo is from part of the New Kitchen Garden. I love the color contrast/combination of Monarda 'Jacob Cline' blossoms against the Purple Peacock sprouting broccoli and regular broccoli (I think 'Solstice'). The little white puff ball is an onion. The frosty lacy leaves are Southernwood herb foliage.
Here are three different colored Summer/Garden Phlox blossoms:

Monarda


Purple Cones


Red Cones


Speaking of weird cool weather...my mums are blooming


Agastache


Shasta's


Uhh...I forget. It was supposed to be done after spring but the cool weather made it come back.

Beautiful, I love the last one.

Butterflies and nectar lovers must be in frenzy there. Gorgeous!

...is the last one anemone or windflower?

I love the red Coneflowers - do they have a variety name?

I was intrigued by that red one, too!

Is this it?
https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/ ... profile=0&

Echinacea purpurea 'Balsomsed' SOMBRERO SALSA RED - Plant Finder

SALSA RED is a single-type, orange-red (salsa) coneflower in the SOMBRERO series of Echinacea cultivars introduced by Darwin Perennials. It is the result of a cross-pollination of one proprietary Echinacea hybrid selection (female) with a bulk pollen mix of seven Echinacea hybrid selections (male) which occurred in a controlled breeding program conducted in Elburn, Illinois in 2007. U. S. Plant Patent PP23,105 was issued on October 9, 2012 under the cultivar name of 'Balsomsed'.

...yours look more scarlet -- I like that color red

I think you may be correct Applestar. I looked up the red "Sombrero" variety, & while some photos did seem a tiny bit more orangey, quite a few resembled the photo here. Will definitely have to look into these.

The last flower looks a lot like Lemon Symphony African Daisy, which is an annual for me in zone 7a. It's such a cheery flower!

How crazy the mums are already blooming! Mine aren't quite there yet but I have noticed a lot of late summer/fall bloomers getting an early start this year.

I'd love some seeds if it's not too late applestar! I'll PM you!

Nearly all my mums always start blooming early here in VA - like end of July/early August. I always find it bizarre compared to my mum experience back in NY. In fact, in just a couple of weeks the nurseries & big-box stores around here will have mums in bud & bloom for sale. Just in time to coincide with the uber-early Halloween displays.

FWIW, mums should be pinched by now, then they grow new buds for fall bloom. Some say mid July here, but I go back to 1st July.

Yup - I do the pinching. Starting when they have at least 6" of new growth in the Spring. But the little devils still insist on early blooming.

Just went an looked. The red cone is SOMBRERO SALSA RED. It was a bit more orange last year but it struggled to make it. It is a hybrid so I doubt seeds would grow true?

We lost the tag for the Daisy. It was a zone 7 African if I remember. Missy liked it so I thought maybe I could OW indoors. It started dying form them time we brought it home so I figured it was doomed and stuck it in the ground. It came back. I'm not sure I want to dig it up but I might get some seeds.

I guess we need to pinch the mums? I was surprised the made it through winter and floods as a fall transplant. They look completely dead this spring and I almost pulled them.

AS, I found a neighbor with the Jacob Cline. I will be getting some seeds. They are supposed to be more PM resistant if I remember? The pollinators are having a field day. My bee swarm from first hive swarmed again. I chased a big cloud down the street but they were on a mission to be free. Hopefully to the woods and not someone's house.

Thanks for the verification - very nice red coneflower.

pinksand wrote:The last flower looks a lot like Lemon Symphony African Daisy, which is an annual for me in zone 7a. It's such a cheery flower!

How crazy the mums are already blooming! Mine aren't quite there yet but I have noticed a lot of late summer/fall bloomers getting an early start this year.

I'd love some seeds if it's not too late applestar! I'll PM you!

After some searching, I think it's a Blue-eyed.
https://parkseed.com/blue-eyed-beauty-af ... 7888-PK-6/

Rairdog, from my scant research a couple weeks ago on Monarda Jacob Cline, can't grow from seed (never say never!). It is a natural cultivar, usually spread by division or cuttings. Now I wouldn't suggest some midnight shopping in your neighbors flower bed.......Perhaps better to ask if it is spreading, would like a piece of it. I would do that in the spring when more shows up from spreading roots.

Rairdog wrote: After some searching, I think it's a Blue-eyed.
https://parkseed.com/blue-eyed-beauty-af ... 7888-PK-6/

That looks like a better match! Such a pretty flower

Passiflora 'Incense'


I have this in a large pot on my deck since I was too nervous to put it in the ground reading about how aggressive it can be. I'd also been wanting a vine to cascade down the boring ugly deck post so I figured it was worth a try.

Nice! I'm thinking of getting the blue and white MayPop pair from Logee's -- at least they are on my wishlist ....

Joe Pye Weed is in full bloom now: