Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2017

And just like that, here we are in the "lusty month of May" already. It's the beginning of true summer for us here in zone 9a of Southeast Texas and blooms are busting out all over.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, of course, and hydrangeas are a traditional gift. My very non-traditional daughters decided to go with the flow for once and got me two of these magnificent 'Endless Summer' hydrangeas to anchor each side of one of my garden sitting areas.  

This is another hydrangea - the oakleaf variety. The yellow flowers in the background are wedelia.

May is sunflower season, of course.

Lots of sunflowers.

My cup runneth over with sunflowers!

All kinds of sunflowers.


Including sunflowers that are well on their way to being sunflower seeds.

Dahlias, salvia, daylilies, orange milkweed, and Blackfoot daisies

Lantana 'Peaches and Cream.'

'Dallas Red' lantana.

'Lady of Shalott' rose.

'Belinda's Dream.'

'Julia Child.'

'Darcy Bussell.' The big leaves are a split-leaf philodendron.

Pink Knockout roses.

Coreopsis tickseed.

Duranta erecta 'Golden Dewdrop,' just beginning its long bloom cycle.

Yellow milkweed.

Red milkweed.

In the herb garden, the borage is blooming. 

And so is the comfrey.

And the pineapple sage.

A few delphinium blossoms still linger.

White mistflower with Painted Lady butterfly.

Almond verbena. Its flowers aren't showy but they smell heavenly.

This is truly blue plumbago but I took the picture in bright sunlight which washes out the blue of the flowers.

Yellow cestrum in full bloom.

Dianthus 'Firewitch' on the left and 'Wood's Blue' aster on the right.

The portulaca in the patio table planter is beginning to bloom.

Bronze esperanza.

Mirabilis jalapa - Marvel of Peru or four o'clock.

Black-eyed Susan beginning to bloom in the wildflower bed.

Blackfoot daisies.

These were in a packet of mixed wildflower seeds and I'm not 100% sure of what they are but I believe they are sneezeweed. Funny name, lovely plant.

Last but hardly least, what would summer be without daylilies?


Thank you for dropping by my garden this month and thank you Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting us.

Happy Bloom Day and happy gardening to all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rude people

I spent some time in a doctor's office waiting room today waiting for my husband. During much of my hour-and-a-half there, the room was very crowded with strangers. I had brought my Kindle and was trying to read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. It's a novel of manners about the way people treat each other and about their expectations of each other. It reminds me somewhat of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series. It has the same gentle, meandering feel to it. Anyway, I was trying to concentrate on my book, but at some point, it just became impossible. On the opposite side of the room from me several rather elderly - that is to say older than me - people were seated, and, as always seems to happen in these circumstances, one of them, a woman, had a loud and abrasive voice and manner and she insisted on telling the others her life story and especially her medical history. A couple of other people there entered eagerly into the spirit of the...
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Citizen of Dark Times by Kim Stafford

This poem is from a collection of poetry written by Oregon poet Kim Stafford after the presidential election of 2016. It was his effort, he said in an interview, to find the "flavor of unity" in divisive times. It seems particularly appropriate at the moment. Citizen of Dark Times by Kim Stafford Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid. When things go wrong, do right. Set out by the half-light of the seeker. For the well-lit problem begins to heal. Learn tropism toward the difficult. We have not arrived to explain, but to sing. Young idealism ripens into an ethical life. Prune back regret to let faith grow. When you hit rock bottom, dig farther down. Grief is the seed of singing, shame the seed of song. Keep seeing what you are not saying. Plunder your reticence. Songbird guards a twig, its only weapon a song.
Read more

My new Kindle

I love books. I love the feel of books, the smell of books, the heft of books, the look of books - their perfect symmetry. I am, as the phrase goes, an "avid reader." I've always got at least one book going and several waiting on my "to be read" shelf, so I consume a lot of books in a year's time. I am a fairly eclectric reader, although my favorite genre is mysteries, and specifically, historical mysteries, but I read a lot of other stuff as well, both fiction and nonfiction. My devotion to the printed page has been unwavering and I've never even considered getting an ebook reader. Until earlier this year. I got a Kindle for my husband, the technogeek, for his birthday, and after watching him use it and seeing his enthusiasm for it, I decided that maybe I should try it, even though I'm decidedly NOT a technogeek. I did try it and I was hooked. So, Santa, that jolly old elf, knowing that I had been seduced by the Kindle, stuffed my Christmas sto...
Read more