Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Cistus, Phlomis, Salvia, Convolvulus (April 11, 2011)

It's that time of year again. With warmer weather and the end of rain for the season--a lull, at least--every day brings new flowers into bloom in the garden. Today I note the first blooms of 2011 on six plants: Phlomis fruiticosa (Jerusalem sage, pictured abowe); Cistus salivfolius, Salvia "Point Sal Spreader," the white rose behind the house, the pink Cistus by the hammock (pictured below), and the silver-leafed bush Convolvulus mauritanicus, a relative of the morning glories.

Phlomis fruiticosa bloomed on April 10 in 2009 and on April 24 in 2010, thus calculating botanical years of 379 days and 352 days, which average to 365.5 days--very close to an actual year.