Hope Grows Day: May 2011
Last month on Hope Grows Day I envisaged irises, day lilies, lavender, coral bells and azaleas blooming at Southern Meadows. With steady rains this spring and some warm days in the upper 80F balanced by more spring like days in the mid-70F everything seems to be blooming early this year.
My azaleas have already come and gone. They were very prolific this year but all too short lived.
The purple bearded irises are in a sunny corner at the edge of the woodland garden. They have only put out a few blooms so far. Hopefully there is more to come. They are a pass-a-long plant from my mother's garden.
The yellow bearded irises are in full sun at the front of our house and have done very well in this location.
The Jack-in-the-Pulpit, which I thought I lost to the drought last year, thrilled me when it came up. These native woodland plants are tough!
Queen Anne's Lace is also beginning to flower. A plant that many consider a weed since it grows in ditches along side the road and open fields and can be invasive. But I really like this plant. Did you know that it is actually a wild carrot? The carrots we eat today were cultivated from this plant. (The large taproot is a carrot.) Most importantly, caterpillars of the black swallowtail butterfly like to eat its leaves.
The lavender which have struggled the past two years are producing a few blooms. I hope to add more of them to my garden this year in a newly created bed that I hope to complete this fall.
And the Daylilies are full of blooms ready to burst open.
A big surprise this month are the Carolina Jasmine. I planted two of them two years ago and they are blooming for the first time! I love their sunny blooms. And this is a native plant to the southeast which is fairly hardy.
So what can I expect next month? It will be hot, humid and dry. The spring blooms will be long gone and the summer heat will be in full force. I am looking forward to seeing Yarrow, Butterfly Bush, Salvia, and Guara kick off the summer season. I also hope to be able to show you a first harvest from the vegetable garden. See you next month! Please visit Sweet Bean Gardening to view other gardener's hopes.
My azaleas have already come and gone. They were very prolific this year but all too short lived.
The purple bearded irises are in a sunny corner at the edge of the woodland garden. They have only put out a few blooms so far. Hopefully there is more to come. They are a pass-a-long plant from my mother's garden.
The yellow bearded irises are in full sun at the front of our house and have done very well in this location.
The Jack-in-the-Pulpit, which I thought I lost to the drought last year, thrilled me when it came up. These native woodland plants are tough!
Queen Anne's Lace is also beginning to flower. A plant that many consider a weed since it grows in ditches along side the road and open fields and can be invasive. But I really like this plant. Did you know that it is actually a wild carrot? The carrots we eat today were cultivated from this plant. (The large taproot is a carrot.) Most importantly, caterpillars of the black swallowtail butterfly like to eat its leaves.
The lavender which have struggled the past two years are producing a few blooms. I hope to add more of them to my garden this year in a newly created bed that I hope to complete this fall.
And the Daylilies are full of blooms ready to burst open.
A big surprise this month are the Carolina Jasmine. I planted two of them two years ago and they are blooming for the first time! I love their sunny blooms. And this is a native plant to the southeast which is fairly hardy.
So what can I expect next month? It will be hot, humid and dry. The spring blooms will be long gone and the summer heat will be in full force. I am looking forward to seeing Yarrow, Butterfly Bush, Salvia, and Guara kick off the summer season. I also hope to be able to show you a first harvest from the vegetable garden. See you next month! Please visit Sweet Bean Gardening to view other gardener's hopes.
