April Showers

The rains yesterday and today have definitely brought more blooms into the garden. I'm impatiently waiting for the bearded iris to begin blooming.  I've already had the "Easter Bonnet" iris going (white with blue center), which is a dwarf variety and a prolific early bloomer.  It's been blooming for a week and a half.  I also have a dwarf variety blooming called "Angel Heart" that is white with orange beards.

Last year, the iris crop was a bust.  I got about two blooms out of the whole yard.  In years past, I've had so many blooms that I've been able to cut and bring them inside and place them in large vases.  They actually make great cut flowers.  You have to snap off the faded flowers each morning, but they will continue to bloom in the vase.  This is especially a good option for iris that have fallen victim to April storms and would otherwise be eating mud.

This is a new plant I've discovered and added three of to my garden this year.  It's called Lithodora "Heavenly Blue" and the photo shows true color.  It's almost an electric cobalt blue and I can see the halo of color from my kitchen.  I picked it up from The Home Depot.  I've never seen heard of it before or seen anything like it.  Fantastic flowers that have been blooming for three weeks and it has foliage very similar to lavender or rosemary.

In the fall, I picked up three named varieties of Coral Bells.  The foliage was great; it had thick veining in two shades of green.  I didn't know the flowers would also be so showy.  They're so hard to capture on film because they're wispy, but from a distance it looks like a floating cloud of hot pink.  Each plant has 5+ stems.

This is a variegated Jacob's Ladder.  I bought 3 of them in the fall.  1.5 of them lived.  It has wonderful delicate foliage and pale blue flowers.  A nice treat to see it blooming now, considering the one I have that is native to Missouri (solid green foliage, same blue flowers) has already finished blooming.

Dr. Ruppel clematis is blooming like crazy.  This is only 1/2 the plant on one side of the trellis.

Ajuga paired with variegated hosta and hosta "Guacamole".  The ajuga has a wonderful purple color this year, and the patch has spread so much that it's a real jolt of color for my shady dry creek garden.

The pansies on the front porch.  Planted in October, $5 for two pots, still blooming... you do the math.

Tyler couldn't resist the mud.  He's proudly showing off dirty fingers.

By the time he was done playing, he was pretty well covered.

This is a side shot of the garden by the street that I created last year in the middle of the worst heat.  I've almost filled this garden with mail order plants and great sale finds from Lowe's and Home Depot.  It's home to fruit, veggies, herbs, and flowers.