Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Peruvian Verbena, Echium Gentianoides, Iris "Change of Pace"

First blooms of 2011 in the past couple of days on Peruvian verbena, Echium gentianoides,  and the iris called "Change of Pace," which every year is the first of the irises to bloom. The iris started blooming on the 21st. "Change of Pace" bloomed on April 10 in 2009 and April 5 in 2011, so this is somewhat late. The plant has thus calculated years of 360 days and 381 days.

The Peruvian verbena (Verbena bonariensis)--a very tall, upright variety, started blooming on the 22nd (pictured above). It bloomed on May 11 in 2010, so this seems early. The plant calculated a year of only 346 days. The Echium--a pure blue variety--started blooming yesterday, the 23rd. I don't have a 2010 record for this Echium, but it bloomed on March 31 in 2009. I didn't get around to photographing any of the plants until today.