Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 2014

Thanks for dropping in on my Bloom Day post from the new address of my garden blog. No, I haven't moved my garden. It is still located in zone 9a just north of Houston, but regular readers will know that I recently combined my blogs and, although I'm no longer posting on the Gardening With Nature blog, I will have regular posts about my garden here. If you followed me on the other blog, I hope you will now follow me here - or even if you didn't follow me on the other blog!

Unfortunately, I still don't have much to show you in the way of blooms from my own garden. Spring continues to creep slowly into my garden, like Chicago's fog, "on little cat's feet." In the middle of February, I thought spring had arrived for good, and so did many of my plants.

The shrubs, like this yellow cestrum, started putting out new tender leaves.

Perennials were putting up new growth.

Everything seemed benevolent for new life. Then, in early March, we had another spell of extremely cold weather and all that new growth got bitten back. Suddenly, spring seemed far away.

The plants have not yet recovered from the freezing weather, but now we are less than a week away from the official beginning of spring and all seems pleasant once again. Do we dare hope there will be no more cold spells until next January? We do dare hope. As gardeners, we are eternal optimists.

Since I don't have blooms of my own to show you, I thought I would share with you some blooms I enjoyed on a recent trip to the South Texas Botanical Garden at Corpus Christi. They didn't have an abundance of blooms either, but while there, we visited the orchid house and there we found plenty of blooming beauties. Though the plants were not labeled with their variety names, that doesn't detract from their lush loveliness.












Away from the botanical garden, along the beaches, we found the beginnings of the spring wildflower season.

 I'm not sure of the name of these delicate little flowers but they seemed to thrive in the sand of the beaches.


Even the blanket flowers were beginning to put on a show - soon to be followed by bluebonnets, poppies, Indian paintbrush, coreopsis, and so many others. Spring wildflower season along the roads and byways of Texas is truly a glorious thing.

Thanks to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for once again hosting this monthly meme. I look forward to visiting the other participating blogs.

Happy Bloom Day to all!

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