Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Monkey Flower, "Sungold" Butterfly Bush, More Roses (May 2, 2012)

First blooms of 2012 on a number of new plants in the past couple of days. The azalea-flowered monkey flower bloomed yesterday as did the butterfly bush (Buddleia) with the odd round flower clusters called "Sungold." The single pink rose by the deck called "Nearly Wild" started blooming the day before.

The monkey flower bloomed on May 3 in 2010. I can't find a record for 2011. "Sungold" bloomed on April 22 in 2011 and May 2 in 2010. "Nearly Wild" bloomed on April 18 in 2011 and April 9 in 2010, so this is rather late for this rose, although one or two mis-formed buds did open a couple of weeks ago.... Perhaps in earlier years, I've counted the outliers....