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Welcome to my zone 9a habitat garden near Houston, Texas.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - April 2012

April in my Southeast Texas garden means roses and daylilies.

The old 'Dortmund' rose rested through much of last year's horrible drought, but it has been making up for lost time this year.

One of the plants that I added to the garden this past winter was this David Austin rose, 'Molineux.' It features these luscious yellow blossoms that have just a touch of salmon or orange when first open.

 And speaking of yellow roses, the floribunda 'Monkey Business' has been very happy in its new location next to the fish pond and it has shown it with a shower of wonderful blossoms.

Another David Austin rose is the beautiful 'Litchfield Angel' with its creamy white blooms that have just the faintest blush of pink.

And yet another Austin rose is 'Darcy Bussell' which was also added during the winter.

Unfortunately, most of the variety names of my daylilies have been long-since lost in the mists of time, but with or without their names, they are lovely and they brighten the April garden.

This one is pretty in pink. (That may actually be its name.)

This miniature I do happen to know is 'Stella d'Oro' and indeed when it is in bloom, it does look like tiny golden stars have fallen to earth.

I'm very fond of this simple, old-fashioned mahogany and gold daylily.

There are a few other things blooming in the garden besides daylilies and roses.

In the wildflower garden, the blanket flowers are beginning to bloom.

The pretty yellow Texas primrose has been in bloom for several weeks.

White yarrow glows in the shade of a tree.

The milkweed is in bloom and has had a steady stream of Monarch butterfly visitors.

The Monarchs visit other flowers as well. Here, the 'Red Lion' amaryllis tempts a passerby.

And on a nearby milkweed leaf, one of the next generation of Monarchs munches his way through all the phases of growth until he's ready to pupate and become a beautiful butterfly. This one is almost there.

An old heirloom buddleia that had its origins in the garden of a friend's grandmother is the first of my buddleias to bloom this year.

Another heirloom, a species canna that came long ago from another friend and neighbor's garden, is the first of the cannas to bloom. These plants bloom all the way from now until first frost in December.

The oakleaf hydrangeas are almost in full bloom now.

  I love the sweet little flowers of the 'Blue Daze' plant.

The red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) plant is not really a true yucca. It is a member of the Agavaceae, or century-plant, family and is one of the tough native plants of Texas and the Southwest. It comes in several colors, the most common of which is a coral red, but there is also a yellow variation as you see here. I have both the red and yellow varieties in my garden, but so far only the yellow has bloomed this year. These blooms last for months.

The Southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, usually blooms for us in May, but it, like many other plants, is somewhat confused about the seasons this year and so it started blooming more than a week ago in early April. The beautiful white blossoms almost make up for the mess of the shedding leaves.

The peak of our bloom season will be arriving over the next several weeks. It is a rewarding time to be a gardener as every day brings a new surprise, a new beauty. Come to think of it, every day and every season in the garden is like that.

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my garden this month. Don't forget to stop by Carol's May Dreams Gardens and see who else is showing off his/her blooms. Happy Bloom Day! 

29 comments:

  1. You've got such a lot going on in your garden. The Roses are simply beautiful. 'Molineux' and 'Litchfield Angel' are so lovely. Loved your Hemerocallis as well. The Milkweed and Yarrow have great blooms, and the Magnolia flower is just stunning. It was an absolute pleasure dropping by on this bloom day.

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    1. I've become very enamoured of David Austin's roses, Bernie, and I added four of them to the garden during the winter. They've been an absolute delight. Thank you for visiting.

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  2. What a lovely display of spring flowers! Here in London we are a bit behind you, although we had a brief warm spell in March it didn’t last very long and my garden is just about right on time now. Love your David Austin roses, I have a few myself although they are barely in bud yet as I cut them down in late February every year. The mahogany and gold daylily day lily is splendid too!

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    1. That old daylily is a stunner, isn't it? I look forward to visiting your London garden, Helene!

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  3. Everything looks great, but that canna - wow!!

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    1. The canna is a particular favorite of mine because of its history of having been passed along to me by a very dear neighbor, Wendy. I don't know its real name but I always think of it as "Mrs. Lui" after my neighbor.

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  4. You have some wonderful flowers. I particularly like that first photo of the old fashion rose and your heirloom canna.

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    1. The single blossom 'Dortmund' is a terrific rose, Missy. After it blooms, if it isn't deadheaded, it creates wonderful big orange rose-hips. I like to leave some on at the end of the season for winter interest.

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  5. I am a fan of David Austin roses as well. And I really like native wildflowers. Thank you for feeding the Monarchs

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    1. I am a habitat gardener, Mary, and feeding butterflies and their caterpillars is a big part of what I do. It is a great joy to watch them grow - as they completely devastate my plants! But the plants always come back.

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  6. Yes i truly enjoyed your colors, most especially your daylilies which we cannot grow here because of our hot temperature. We only have the amaryllis which can tolerate that.

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    1. Ah, but you have so many other beautiful plants in the Philippines, Andrea, that I'm sure you hardly miss daylilies! But we're very fortunate to have them here.

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  7. So many beautiful blooms! You are about a month ahead of my garden. I haven't seen any Monarchs yet but that may be a good thing since my milkweed has a little more time to grow and provide more food. I didn't know there was a white yarrow. I must get some for my white & blue garden!

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    1. The white yarrow was new to me when I saw it in a friend's garden and admired it a couple of years ago, Karin. Of course, she immediately gave me a start of it and it has grown exponentially since then and is providing many wonderful blooms this year.

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    2. I have a white yarrow too - it was a pass-along from Ursula and loves it's corner of the garden underneath the vitex tree.

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    3. Ursula was the source of my white yarrow, too, Jayne. She's such a generous gardener.

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  8. Hello, I just found your blog at GBBD. So many lovely things blooming in your garden now! You are way ahead of me in Wisconsin. I just love your collection of Austin roses. Hope to add some to my garden, but I'm not sure how well they'll do in the north...

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    1. I'm so glad you found me, spurge, and I look forward to visiting your garden. I suspect the Austin roses would be perfectly happy in Wisconsin. They are very tough guys. I find that it usually takes them one year to get really comfortable and then they just explode with flowers in their second year.

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  9. Wow - you have such a variety of blooms. My daylilies aren't even thinking about blooming yet, nor is my buddliea. My vitex is getting buds though, it won't be long for that.
    Love your roses. I gave up with them after battling black spot and other horrors at my old home.

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    1. Try antique roses or the Austin roses, Jayne. They seem to be impervious to black spot and other fungal diseases that are so rampant here.

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  10. very nice blooms there. Love the milkweeds.

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    1. The milkweeds have bloomed gloriously this spring, greggo, waving an offer they can't refuse to passing Monarch butterflies.

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  11. Oh, your flower garden is way ahead of mine! Love the magnolia blooms, I'll be glad when ours bloom. Your roses are lovely too!

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    1. Many of the blooms in my garden are ahead of schedule this year, Dorothy. Possibly a reaction to the more than year long drought we suffered combined with the fact that we had a very wet beginning to this year. The extremely mild winter no doubt played a part, too.

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  12. You are somewhat ahead of us. My daylilies are not blooming yet. And my roses are just now beginning to bloom. Your roses are beautiful. The colors are amazing.

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    1. I am truly enamored of the Austin roses, SB. Those big, squashy blooms, much like old cabbage roses, are just my idea of what real roses look like.

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  13. I guess when it comes to a double daylily like your first one
    Siloam Double Classic comes to mind. Lovely flowers, most are well ahead of mine. Daylilies and roses don't bloom here until the end of May or into June.

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    1. I believe that one is one of the Siloams, Hannah. I just couldn't tell you which one, but I like it anyway.

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  14. Hello! I just found your blog. I'm trying to create the garden of my dreams and I think oakleaf hydrangeas will find their way into it. Your garden is so beautiful!

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