Spring-Summer flowers? What are your favorites?

After the tulips have done their thing and iris are in the wings, what joy comes to mind as the flower of your eye?

Sonny

Pasqueflower always seems to bloom right when I'm in dire straits.... love it!

I want some of those - don't they come before the tulips though?.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2010 11:04 PM

Let me think...I believe I remember photographing these last year around the middle of May. I think the tulips and reticulated iris were out before that. I'll pay better attention this year - but right now the tulips leaves are up and the pasqueflower hasn't sent anything up yet.

I have tulip leaves coming up too. I was just at Denver Botanic Gardens though & their Pasque flowers are blooming, but only a few tulips are starting to bloom - and those are the little species ones. Guess it depends on what type of tulips you have & probably also other conditions...

After seeing those tiny red tulips at DGB, I've decided I need some too! But as for what I love after the tulips & before the iris? I guess my answer is "whatever's in bloom"!

i love old fashioned peonies. at my old house they would bloom at the end of may. The ones I planted here have only bloomed once and silly me, I forgot to write down when it bloomed but it couldnt be that far off.

Here is one of the Pasque flowers at DBG:

And that really early red tulip:

I just don't understand how they do it...they shouldn't be THAT much further ahead of me....but they always are. Sigh. I have crocus and one muscari up right now as of yesterday and I love seeing their little blue flowers. Off topic I know, sorry.

I agree with lisabees... "whatever's blooming"! I love how the garden changes from day to day, and different plants bloom at different times. Right now I've got tulips, daffodils and muscari blooming, but also creeping phlox, perennial gazanias, candytuft, and creeping veronicas. And I have this wonderful low-growing sedum that gets tiny pink buds of new growth in spring -- looks like tiny rosebuds. The muscari is growing right next to it, makes a lovely combo. (So where's the camera? good question...)

Ooh Trisha, pink buds in spring on a sedum? Do you know which one it is?

Man I'm jealous! My tulips haven't even opened yet. Reticulated Iris are no where to be found for some reason this year. My muscari are blooming though, pasque flowers are still hairy, growing lumps in the garden, and the only other things I have blooming are some Iceland poppies and snapdragons I bought last week ;-P

The glory of the snow are done & the crocus are fading, but the first of the daffs are finally blooming. The tulip folliage is going strong & the border lillies are bursting out all over the place along with the daylillies. No forsythia to be seen, but the apricots are out which makes the bees happy. Yea!

I am going to put up some Mason Bee nests this year. I will make them out of 4X4 scraps.

The garden is evolving from a dirt wasteland.

Sonny

Artngarden, remember I commented & posted pics of Pasque flower from DBG from a couple weeks ago? Well, I found one in my garden that I thought was gone (I had moved it last year because it never bloomed or even really grew where it was). It looks just like you describe yours, a hairy lump, but growing & healthy!

As for the rest: Iris reticulata, crocus & chionodoxa are pretty much done, muscari, scilla are blooming (I've decided that scilla & angelina sedum are a great combo) & the daffs are starting to take off as well as some of the earlier tulips. Basket of gold (alyssum montanum) & pulmonaria are flowering and there are so many other signs of plant life everywhere - it's so exciting!

It's a bit basic but, Johnny Jump-Ups. They explode all over my yard and flower beds and they have such cheery bright colors to contrast all the dead brown still on the ground.

I looked up the sedum with the pink "buds", it's Sedum spurium 'Tricolor'. In spring and fall it shows more pink, and in summer it's cream and green. A nice little creeping GC.

My old-fashioned Dicentra (bleeding heart) is quite robust this year, and just starting to bloom. I found another species of Dicentra with more ferny leaves and pink tubular flowers and had to get it. I was told it "blooms all summer" so we'll see.

I like Johnny-Jump-ups, too - but I haven't had them volunteer in my yard yet, I still have to plant them.
I like Rocky Mountain penstemon (P. strictus). I started growing it at first because of the nearly evergreen foliage - it doesn't look like a low-water plant. My new reason to like it is that it also attracts Ladybugs and Lacewings. It has spread & volunteered around the yard, and puts on a nice show of blue (its not blooming yet - the photo was taken last year in early June)

Beautiful!

I will definately plant some p. strictus on the outskirts of the garden. Thanks pollengarden!

Pollengarden, I really like your RM Penstemons, they're beautiful. Especially mixed into the grass there like that.

Tricolor sedum! I'm familiar with that one - I like it but don't have it. I have thought about adding it, now I think I will!

I do have the fern-leaf bleeding heart. Here it is a week ago just starting to bloom. Last year was the first year I had it, but I think it did bloom pretty much all summer!

Nice penstemon, Pollengarden! Here's one I have and love: P. virgatus 'Blue Buckle'. I didn't realize when planted it that it has evergreen foliage too - which turns RED! This pic is from June 1st last year.

Here's what the foliage looked like a month ago.

Thanks for sharing Lisabees. I agree, it's nice to have some plants around in the winter that add some interest.

Thanks for showing us your beautiful penstemons, lisabees and pollengarden. I am adding these to my wish list, for sure.

And lisabees, thanks for the photo of the fern-leaf bleeding heart, that's a lovely scene. My shade garden is getting a bit of an overhaul this year. I'm tearing out the vinca and the mint, and adding the bleeding heart and a cranesbill (Geranium sanguinum), and I'll be looking for a bergenia and a brunnera. I currently have a red-twig dogwood, Geum, an old-fashioned bleeding heart, Plumeria (getting smothered by vinca), Anemone sylvestris (about to bloom), Liriope, Geranium 'Biokovo', Waldsteinia, wooly thyme, Lamium, and some spring bulbs. And some sweet woodruff along the path, all of this in the shade of a large apple tree, which is about to bloom. I'm going to put in drip irrigation, so this area is watered more consistently. I tend to let it get too dry.

I tend to favor my shade gardens the most. In addition to some you listed I also like Lenten Rose, Jacobs Ladder and a few more shade loving Campanulas. Because I'm sure you don't have more than enough ideas already.

Lisabees, that fern leaf bleeding heart is beautiful! Trisha, you are growing a plumeria? I had some in AZ, but even there they got frozen to death. Do you bring it in in the winter?

I had to put in a good word for fruit trees. The little one in the foreground is an apple I planted last year. Behind it is the neighbor's crab-apple.

Luvly combo pollengarden!

Mis-identification alert! Terribly sorry, they're not plumeria but prunella. An old-fashioned herb sometimes called self-heal.
I attribute my lapse to allergy side effects ;-)

Bummer about the allergies TrishaG :(

I can so relate to the allergy thing! Too bad, though... I wish I could grow plumeria. I guess I could if I had a greenhouse, or if I wanted to move them in and out. Hope you're feeling better!

Brenda

I wish I could grow a Plumeria. Does it overwinter well indoors? I assume it's pretty much hopeless because of our lack of humidity?

You might give plumeria a try as an indor plant. We grew them outside in Anaheim, CA where it usually was pretty dry. Try a large pot, set on a basin of pebbles with water in it for added humidity. Drainage is probably more important than humidity.

Our plumerias grew under a massive avocado tree, next to a wall. The soil was largely quartz sand with a little clay. When I left years ago, the plumeria were 8-10 feet tall.

Sonny

Sounds like a interesting project for the future. I have my hands full with the kiddos' carnivorous plant terrarium and learning bonsai at moment. But I love Plumerias, so I'd love to try it some time in the future, thanks for the info.

Just wanted to say that my pasqueflower is just NOW opening its first bloom. So for me it does come after tulips...not normal right?

Mine is at the same time art_n_garden.

Lots of my friends in AZ grow plumerias in pots. And there is no humidity there, LOL! Mine did really well in the ground until a big freeze. They weren't really difficult or particular, they did like full sun (and that is AZ full sun). I think I'm talking myself into trying them as houseplants...

Art n Garden, what's "not normal" is DBG :o)