Each Little World

Screaming yellow zonkers: GBBD 4.15.2012

If you are of a certain age you may remember Screaming Yellow Zonkers, a kind of sugary carmel corn packaged in a black box. I am always reminded of the name at this season of blooms of brightest yellow.

Here are some yellows for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  To see more visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens who hosts GBBD on the 15th of each month.

Shrub: Kerria japonica (detail and full view in the first two photos)

Bog plant: Detail and full view of Caltha palustris / Marsh marigold 

The last flowers of a huge shrub of Forsythia 'Beatrix Farrand'

Erythronium 'Pagoda' / Dog tooth violet or Trout lily

Shrub: Kerria japonica 'Pale Moon' is a more subtle version of the first plant pictured.

An Epimedium with large flowers that self-seeds: Epimedium grandiflorum ssp. koreana 'La Rocaille'

Another floriforous Epimedium: E. perralchicum 'Frohnleiten'

No description needed. This sunny little flower is blooming everywhere in the garden.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 03.15.2012

In March of 2011, I noted that the snowdrops had arrived just in time for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. This year, the snowdrops have been blooming for almost a month. With rain on Monday, followed by a record high of 79 degrees F. yesterday, the garden is exploding.

The Hellebores are up, the woodland peonies are visible, as are Trilliums and primroses. But it's still only March and even though lots of plants have suddenly made an early appearance, the same is not true for their blooms. Still, this is much more of a show than we usually see on March 15th.

Double snowdrops:

Snowdrop 'Straffan':

Giant snowdrop (note leaf size):

Crocus 'Snow Bunting':

Yellow primrose (unnamed variety):

Assorted hybrid Hellebores:

Thanksgiving Hellebore from Seneca Hill: Every time the snow melts, this Hellebore perks up. It's been doing that since it began to bloom in December:

To see what's blooming in gardens around the world on the 15th of each month, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens. She hosts this monthly Bloom Day for Garden Bloggers.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 02.15.2012

Even though we've had what is certainly a mild winter, it's still too cold and too early for anything to be blooming outdoors in the garden. I'm hoping snowdrops will appear in time for GBBD next month. In the meantime, we've been getting a floral boost with a trio of Rex Begonias that were growing in pots on the deck last summer. I brought them all indoors, repotted them and they are suddenly puting on a growth spurt with the lengthening days. No flowers but the leaves are so ornamental that blossoms aren't really required. Alas the plant tags are long gone so I don't know the exact cultivar names.

To see what's blooming in other gardens in other climates, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens who hosts this monthly meme. 

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 01.15.2012

Even though these two Hellebores are now buried under snow, they were blooming all through January until the snow arrived on the 12th. Whether flowers blooming in my Wisconsin garden is the beginning of the new state of affairs as global climate change occurs is hard to determine. But I decided to take advantage of these rare January flowers as my monthly contribuation to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. Visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what's in bloom today in gardens around the world. 

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 12.15.2011

This year, I am happy to report that we are not buried under snow here in southern Wisconsin; something that's pretty much been the case the last few years. That doesn't mean, however, that there are flowers blooming outdoors in the garden — except for a few hardy streamers of Witch Hazel and errant Hellebore buds. But we are not without flowers for the monthly celebration of Garden Blogger's Bloom Day as this arrangement of all the silvery, glittery, girly items massed on my bathroom vanity demonstrates!

 

 

 

 

 

The Art Nourveau silver mirror, hair brushes etc. belonged to my maternal grandmother, then my mother and now they've come to me. 

To see what's blooming indoors and out, in gardens near and far, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens who hosts this monthly botanical adventure.

GBBD: 11.15.11

After a hard frost and the first snow of the season, only the native witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is still putting on a flower show. In fact, it just began; but it's taken a good ten years for this shrub to get big enough and old enough to produce flowers of a size and quantity to have an impact. We'll get another show when H. vernalis blooms in March. 

To see what's blooming in gardens in the Midwest, around the nation and the world, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens and celebrate Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 10.15.2011

The asters and anemones are finished, the sedums have moved into their subdued phase and the stars of my late fall garden — the toad lilies — seem  confused by our bout of warm weather. Of the varitieties that are fall bloomers, only about half of them are actually open and blooming. The rest are still in bud as though they had all the time in the world to flower. Maybe they know something I don't.

You can see what's blooming in gardens around the world by visiting Carol at May Dreams Gardens who hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, this monthly round-up of what's in flower in each of our gardens mid-month.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 09.15.2011

Our Wisconsin garden is looking lovely after some early September rain and warm sunny days. But possible frost tonight and tomorrow may spell the end for some of the plants pictured here. September Bloom Day offerings include a bucketful of flower heads clipped from Sedum 'Matrona' that I was transplanting; two varieties of pink Pelargoniums blooming their heads off in the Traffic Island; two versions of the seedheads of "Doll's Eyes" (Actaea pachypoda rubrocarpa and the more typical white A. pachypoda) which are as pretty as any flower; two Cimicifuga racemosa: 'Pink Spike' and 'Brunette'. Then there's the aptly named Anemone japonica 'September Charm', an unknown aster, a newly purchased Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Blue Myth', Hosta 'Spritzer' still flowering as it begins to get buried in falling leaves, Aster divaricatus (Raiche form), Tricyrtis hirta 'Tojen' (all my other toad lilies are still setting buds), Kirengeshoma palmata koreana group and the last of the water lilies (Nymphae odorata 'Sulphurea').

To see what's blooming in gardens here and around the world on this day, visit May Dreams Gardens. As always, a shout-out to Carol who hosts this monthly floral review known as Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 08.15.2011

August in the Midwest is all about the bright hues of Echinaceas and Rudbeckias and statuesque prairie plants dominating the landscape. But not in my garden — except for Echinacea 'Sundown' out in the traffic island in the street in front of the house (below).

In the rest of the garden it's cool, shady and there's even a bit of moisture after yesterday's .46" of rain. What's missing are the blooms; most things are just ending or barely beginning — one final or one first flower. I've got a self-sown Queen Anne's lace, a yellow water lily with water baby's breath past its prime, Kirengeshoma koreana, Geranium phaeum 'Little Boy', Geranium renardi, and Allium cernum (in front of Forest Pansy redbud). Toad lilies, Cimicifuga, Japanese Anemones, sedums and asters are all offstage waiting until next month for their big show.

To see what's blooming in gardens everywhere, visit Carol who hosts the monthly Garden Bloggers Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 07.15.2011

This is the time when our garden transitions into a green oasis. The only color is at the periphery and not really visible from anywhere but the front curb. The garden that borders the street and the one literally out in the street in the traffic island are both ablaze with lilies and daylilies in yellows, oranges and reds. Most of these daylilies are minis and came from our very small prior garden. These are our Garden Bloggers Bloom Day offerings for July. To see what's blooming in other gardens, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens. 

Hemerocallis flava (Lemon lily, above)

H. 'Golden Chimes'

H. 'Cricket'

H. 'Gold Dust'

H. 'Red Magic'

H. 'Lady Inora'

H. 'Melon Ball'

H. 'Petite Sioux'

H. 'Little Grapette'

H. 'Yellow Bouquet'

Lilium longiflorum 'Golden Tycoon (above and below)

The minis just beginning to open in the streetside slope.