Flowers in bloom now

[applestar]

Looking forward to seeing your pictures! I took some, too.



LEFT: ALternating-leaf Dogwood, Native Azalea, Carolina Allspice
CENTER: Trumpet Honeysuckle
RIGHT: Hawthorn, Highbush Cranberry, Aquilegia

[MiddleNameGrace]

Taken just this morning!

Anybody know this one?

I wish I knew what this is!

Pink plumeria

Periwinkle

[Lindsaylew82]

I think #1 is astilbe
#2 I think is Mexican petunia
#4 I guess is know as just plain annual vinca here. Periwinkle is know here to be vinca minor. It's a purple perennial groundcover. Same family though.

I am SO JELLY of that plumeria! It's one of my favorite perfumes!

[rainbowgardener]

Astilbe usually keeps its flower spikes upright, not drooping, and the leaves are serrate:

astilbe


#1 is possibly love-lies-bleeding (?)

[Lindsaylew82]

Oooooooo yeah! I like your answer better!

[MiddleNameGrace]

I think you're right! *scurries off to the Internet to find out everything I can*

[Lindsaylew82]

We literally can NOT get rid of Mexican petunias here in SC!

[pinksand]

Clematis - does anyone know the variety?

[rainbowgardener]

Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. Since I started this spring with absolutely a blank slate, there is still not very much...

Annuals: salvias, petunias, marigolds, nasturtium just opening, zinnias just opening, chamomile

Perennials: spiderwort has been blooming and blooming for six weeks already!, lavender, coreopsis, viburnum, veronica speedwell, bee balm has buds, will bloom pretty soon.

I harvested the chamomile for the third time today, picked about 250 little flowers off it.

[LIcenter]

It seems Long Island, NY is having an exceptional year for Viburnums. I have three varieties, and all are doing great. Here's a pic of my hobblebush viburnum (V. alnifolium, also known as V. lantanoides) It's a real shade lover, and even though mine sits in dappled sun it's doing just fine.

[rainbowgardener]

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in my viburnum. I don't know what V. species I had in Cincinnati,* but when it bloomed it would perfume the whole yard. What I have now is V. nudum var. Winterthur. Nudum is native to the eastern and southeastern US; I got it from a local native plant nursery. But the flowers are only very lightly fragrant, only when you get close to them and the fragrance is not as sweet. The flowers aren't as pretty either, being flat topped umbrels of tiny florets.

V. nudum


*[It may have been a V. burkwoodii var. Mohawk that I got from the Wayside Garden catalog before I was as committed to native plantings]

[applestar]

Whirled Milkweed Asclepias verticillata
Amsonia tabernaemontana blue star
Erigeron (fleabane?) -- I'm actually allergic to these, but DH must have thought they were pretty -- you can see he mowed all around it and left it standing in the grass near the shed He will also almost always leave flowers in the lawn unmowed, especially if there are bees working them.

[applestar]

I have Sisynchium (Blue-eyed grass) that I discovered I had when I let all the lawn grasses grow out and bloom to find out what kinds of grass we had, and to see -when allowed to grow naturally- just how tall these lawn grasses grow.

When I find one growing (easily recognizable by the flat fan-like growth) it gets a free pass, so here's one forming a rather unsettlingly large clump in the Spiral Garden.

They are often described as preferring/able to grow in poor, wet soils. I'm guessing mine are S. atlanticum.
Note that they actually belong to Iris family.

Sisyrinchium atlanticum (Eastern blue-eyed grass) | NPIN

Eastern blue-eyed grass
Iridaceae (Iris Family)
Synonym(s): Sisyrinchium apiculatum, Sisyrinchium mucronatum var. atlanticum
USDA Symbol: SIAT
USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)
A grass-like, clumped perennial, to 20 in. high, with pale-green foliage and flattened flowering stems terminating in loose clusters of pale-blue, six-petaled, yellow-centered flowers.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result ... plant=SIAT

The other possibility, I suppose, is that they are
Sisyrinchium angustifolium

[Susan W]

Monarda, Jacob Cline. Quasi native.

[Susan W]

Anise hyssop, coneflower pallida, natives. Bumble bee on hyssop along with tiny native bees.

[applestar]

Whorled Milkweed Asclepias verticillata
Amsonia tabernaemontana blue star
Erigeron (fleabane?) -- I'm actually allergic to these, but DH must have thought they were pretty -- you can see he mowed all around it and left it standing in the grass near the shed He will also almost always leave flowers in the lawn unmowed, especially if there are bees working them.

Yellow Baptista has joined the party

I thought I'd lost this plant. It hadn't shown up for the last couple of years -- well almost ...LAST year, I saw the round leaves and thought "wait a minute, could this possibly be...?" But it didn't bloom last year. NOW the three plants I planted together for this color effect are in synch.

...it's kind of funny -- in this photo, the yucca flower stalks are not up yet, right? I can't see them. But just today, looking out of the window, I saw that they are up and already about 3 feet tall -- I've no idea when they showed up.

[Lindsaylew82]

Gardenias and Hydrangias










And a poor picture of the cilantro. Was pretty breezy last night! (Of course AFTER I ran!)

[HoneyBerry]

[applestar]

- Arrowwood Viburnum
- last of the Carolina Allspice blossoms with Arrowwood Viburnum in the background
(I've been WAITING to take this shot )
- Iris verrsicolor (Blue Flag Iris)

[rainbowgardener]

zinnias are blooming, bee balm and anise hyssop just starting. And I came back from being out of town between Thurs am and Sun night to find this;

it is a volunteer from the bird seed. There are more like it (one of them almost twice the size!) that will be blooming soon.

oh and the new england aster has started to boom, even though it seems very early for it. I'll get a picture some time.

[Lindsaylew82]

[HoneyBerry]

Here is how my beautiful perrennial looks now:

[applestar]

Beautiful and intriguing, isn't it? I had to cut/remove it because it was too close to a struggling Kamo eggplant and I was afraid this was taking up space and competing and was contributing to its stress


I have a couple/few more, so it's OK.

[applestar]

Asclepias purpuria (purple milkweed). SusanW if you are reading this, I'm hoping they will set seeds now that I have a second plant blooming, though they are genetically identical so if the requirement is for cross pollinization rather than more than one flower cluster open at a time, then we still might not get any seeds....

[pinksand]

Gorgeous applestar! I haven't seen the purple variety before. Very showy!

[applestar]

Yep. I really like it and have been trying to collect seeds so I can grow more, not just vegetatively (though it IS starting to spread with a third stalk coming up) but so far this one hasn't formed any seed pods -- and if you grow any species of milkweed, you know that's not normal. I wonder if I'm misidentifying it and it's actually some kind of a hybrid? But I'm pretty sure I got this one at a native plant sale.


...I took another picture today, with some visitors

[LIcenter]

Asclepias purpurascens - Purple Milkweed
According to this site, it takes a good three years to get them established due to no rhizomes. Might have to add this to my gardens because of it being able to handle part shade. I am very limited on full sun, and this just might fit the bill. A lovely plant applestar!

http://monarchbutterflygarden.net/milkw ... -milkweed/

[HoneyBerry]

[Susan W]

My curiosity perked with the lovely Purple Milkweed. It's reported to be native to the Eastern US, a good thing. Seeds? another issue! I followed the dots to a source for the seeds. EBay, $1/seed. (that's bulk price for 15 seeds).

[applestar]

Well, it's good to know they do make seeds. Sorry I haven't able to supply them Susan -- I meant to give you some as return for your generous gift.

[Lindsaylew82]

[LIcenter]

Lindsay, is that a swallowtail chrysalis on the left stem of that plant, or is it part of something else?

[Lindsaylew82]

Lindsay, is that a swallowtail chrysalis on the left stem of that plant, or is it part of something else?

No, I think it's just the edge of a cucumber leaf contrasting against the shaded area below. Big Kid would LOVE it if we had swallowtails!

I'm not really sure what's going on this year with butterflies and moths. I usually have a fair amount of them swarming my Lantana and marigolds. I'm not seeing them at all. We have their hosts! I'm starting to think this drought is affecting them... (I'm not complaining about the lack of hornworms though...)

[LIcenter]

Same here on the lack of butterfly's. The hummer population is also very low this year.

[applestar]

I can't say about hummer "population" since we generally only have ones and twos visiting at a time this time of the year, and there WERE two chasing each other day before yesterday.

Butterflies -- hmm -- I'm starting to see our regulars ... Red Admiral, Fritillary, Hairstreaks, Silver Spotter Skippers, Tiger Swallowtails, ... I *might* have seen a Monarch the other day -- it was flying too fast to ID for sure which is usually a sign of the first scouts. They might be a little later than usual. Fireflies are finally starting to gather in numbers, and I'm sure they should have started their light show by late (3rd week) June.

Do you know if your local municipality might have sprayed for one of the pest moths? -- Gypsy moth, Tent caterpillar, etc.? I cringe every time people band together and clamor for the city to spray.

[Lindsaylew82]

I would hope that they would send out notification of that first! Wow that would really tick me off if I found that to be true...

We've been seeing bumblebee moths, SSS, and TONS of cabbage moths.... Going after the radishes (but bypassing the nasturtiums that are tucked down below the huge squash and zucchini canopies, blooming ferociously!)

Big Kid got to stay up late Friday night as a treat, and we caught 12 lightening bugs in 15 minutes! We released them around the garden. It was so much fun!

We have never seen Monarch here, but we get swallowtails usually. Not seeing them....

Not really seeing many squash bugs this year either...(DEFINITELY NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT THAT EITHER!!!)

[LIcenter]

Do you know if your local municipality might have sprayed for one of the pest moths? -- Gypsy moth, Tent caterpillar, etc.? I cringe every time people band together and clamor for the city to spray.

Our town does not do any spraying with the exception of mosquitos in the boggy areas. The private sprayers are using garlic juice on the Gypsy moth cats, which is very effective. Not too many Tent cats this year in my local area.

[applestar]

Astilbe are starting to bloom. I have an upright kind and the drooping kind with staggered blooming time to extend the season. I think the drooping kind is the Ostrich Plume, but I can't remember the name of the upright kind. I got them both from White Flower Farm ages ago, I think. Maybe they still list it....

[Lindsaylew82]

Since I posted that about the swallowtails, I have since seen two, on the lantana! I don't blame them for steering clear of the big garden! If I saw that buzzing mess of foliage, I'd be scared too!

[applestar]

Subject: Spring

Yep. The mini's and jonquils come up first. The minis are fragrant, too, and were holding up their heads better after heavy rain when I took the photo a couple of days ago. My minis were originally a little Easter gift flower in a 4" pot -- I planted them after Easter and they have spread.



My volunteer yellow peach is already blooming -- the grafted cultivar peach is only just starting to show pinkness in the buds (I took photos but they aren't much to look at )

This is one of the European plum trees DH keeps saying he wants to cut down....