Plants I'm Growing: The Garden in April (April 29, 2013)

The garden is full of flowers at the moment. For about four years I kept a detailed record of the first date of bloom of each flower species in the garden (2009 to 2012). Somehow I didn't have the energy to keep up this year. So, here I note simply that much is in bloom now.

The Wisteria has just finished. The climbing roses are all in full bloom, with "Flutterby" having started first, the old-fashioned pink climber on the back fence--the laggard among them--just coming into bloom now. "Altissimo" and "Sally Holmes" are at peak. The bush roses "Cocktail" and "Easy Livin'" are in full bloom. Most of the Ceanothus varieties are finishing. The neglected German iris (they need to be lifted, replanted, and fertilized--I can never remember what time of year to do that, and so they languish) are blooming sporadically but could do much better.

Candytuft is fading, but the Rhododenron called "Noyo Dream" is coming into bloom and the large white Rhododendron with a name like "King George" has bloomed convincingly this year for the first time. Rhododendrons are also blooming at the front of the house, under the bamboo. Echium gentianoides is in full flower (pictured). Salvia Chamaedryoides, a similar shade of blue, is just beginning to open, and a patch of garden sage I'd forgotten about behind the house is blooming as well. Most of the rock roses are in flower. Phlomis fruiticosa (Jerusalem Sage) is blooming, and the other Phlomis species are either just coming into bloom or will be covered with flowers soon. The Rosa chinensis mutabilis on the side of the house (a large, blousy, multi-colored, single-petaled rose) is beautiful this year. I wish I could remember the name of this little mallow-like flower (below) that has spread itself all around the shady parts of the garden.

Before long, the dry summer will rob us of much of the color, but it's all very pretty right now.

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Solomon's Seal, Rhododendron "Double Eagle," Wisteria, Echium Gentianoides (April 9-10, 2012)

A lot going on in the garden at the moment. In the past few days, Solomon's Seal, the rhododendron called "Double Eagle," the Wisteria at the back of the garden, and Echium gentianoides have all come into bloom. I've been very busy with work this week, so it's been hard to keep up with the flowers.

Double Eagle" starting blooming on April 9. The plant had no flowers last year after a spectacular 2010. It's spectacular again this year. The whole plant is covered with yellow flowers (pictured). Echium gentianoides, a rather open, delicate-looking, true blue Echium also started blooming on April 9. The Wisteria started blooming on April 10--but only a few flowers are open on one or two flower clusters. Solomon's Seal, a lovely little woodland wildflower that I feel nostalgic about because of childhood associations with the East, started blooming on April 10 as well (top photo).

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Wisteria (2011)

First blooms today on the wisteria behind the house. The plant is one of two that now grow over the structure that supports my hammock. There are two plants, one on either side of the uprights at either end. One is in a comparatively shaded area. It looks like it will bloom this year for the first time. The two plants were grown from seed we put in pots around 2004. The more shaded plant has taken this long to reach the top of the structure and find full sun. The parent was an amazing deep pink wisteria we came across in southern Japan, at the Imari pottery festival, and picked up seeds from. The bigger plant that has been blooming for several years now turned out to be a normal purple wisteria, not the deep pink: seeds often don't come true. I suspect the second one will be the standard purple wisteria color as well, not the deep pink. We'll know in a few days. Likely to be a disappointment, but still pretty.

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Wisteria

The first blooms opened on the wisteria today. As usual, only one or two have opened. It will be a week or so before the plant is in full bloom and the air is thick with the sweet, root beer-like scent of the flowers. They are a favorite of our big, very loud bumblebees. Lying in the hammock, reading in the early spring can be rather noisy. If it gets too noisy to concentrate, I just put down my book and go to sleep....

This wisteria was grown from a seed collected in Imari, Japan in 1999 or so. There is a plant on either side of the arbor that supports the hammock. So far, only one of the two has bloomed. I had hoped to see the color of the second one this time around, but it looks like I'll have to wait at least another year. The parent plant was a wonderful, deep pink. This one, while pretty, is closer to the usual purple color. I still cling to a hope that the other one will be pink. The wisteria bloomed on April 4 in 2009. A year according to this plant was thus 359 days.

Plants I'm growing: First Blooms--Halimiocistus and Wisteria

First blooms today on Halimiocistus and on the Wisteria over the hammock (the most important of  all garden tools). A few Wisteria buds were open yesterday or even the day before, but today the purple of the flowers is more evident (top photo). Ours is in its seventh year or so now. We grew it from a seed collected from a striking deep pink Wisteria we saw at Imari (of pottery fame), in Japan, but the seed doesn't have the pink of its parent. A second one on the other side of the arbor hasn't bloomed yet, so it's still not clear what color it will be. I hope it will be more like the pink one that dazzled us in Japan. Unfortunately, I've lost track of the species and variety names of the Halimiocistus (middle photo). First blooms today also on the "Point Sal Spreader" Salvia by the front of the house (Salvia leucophylla).