Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, June 2009

It's time for another Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

I'm still feeling like not enough is in bloom yet. I was pleasantly surprised when I counted how many different kinds of blooms there actually are. Paeonia lactiflora has just started blooming in the front garden.

A recent acquisition for the front garden: Impatiens walleriana 'Accent Lavender Blue'.

The Primula hybrida that my landlord got as a potted plant early in the spring has started forgiving me for transplanting it for the garden. I wasn't expecting any more blooms until next year.

Last year's Allium roseum came back. I'm not sure what the pink buds in the background are. It looks like a snapdragon but if so I don't know where it could have come from.

The bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) is on its way out, alas.

This year my landlord chose a rainbow of Calibrachoa for the front urn.

I love pink(ish) pansies. This one is Viola x wittrockiana 'Delta Pure Rose'.

My landlord gets bright pink petunias every year. This year they share their basket with white verbena.

My landlord's son chose these pretty light pink petunias for the half barrel planter.

The light pink petunias share their planter with this pretty lavender variety... ('Saguna Lavender Vein')

...and these white petunias ('Famous New White'). I must remember to check if they're fragrant.

The marigolds I started from seed are thriving! (Tagetes tenuifolia 'Lulu'.)

I've been meaning to acquire this pretty native, Anemone canadensis, for a while. What a delight to find it volunteering in the garden!

The annual dianthus I started from seed has just started blooming. (Dianthus chinensis 'Double Gaiety Mix'.)

My son wanted this snapdragon because he loves making the flowers open their "mouths". (Antirrhinum majus 'Montego Scarlet'.)

The aquilegia is winding down. I'm looking forward to lots of seeds.

Another native volunteer just started blooming today! (Erigeron annuus).

I sowed a whole packet of phacelia seeds but I seem to have only one plant, which also bloomed for the first time today. (Phacelia parryi 'Royal Admiral'.)

I really lucked out with the volunteer violas this year; I love the colours.

This is the first time I've ever grown mignonette, a plant I had never seen in real life but which is supposed to be deliciously fragrant. It has started blooming, and I cannot smell it at all, nor can anyone else I've asked. Maybe it will acquire a scent when it's more mature? (Reseda odorata 'Mignon Finest Mix'.)

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day May 2009

Once again, it's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. This is not the best picture of my new barren strawberry (Waldsteinia fragaroides), which I got at the North American Native Plant Society's plant sale last weekend.

This pansy (Viola x wittrockiana 'Delta Pure Rose') led me to break my promise to myself not to buy plants I could have grown from seed if I had been more organized. There are so many interesting new varieties of pansies these days; I especially like the pink ones.

I think this little viola is the grandchild of the 'Sorbet Coconut Duet' violas I had two years ago. (The first generation of volunteers, last year, looked nothing like the original.)

I love it when plants volunteer, at least when they are pretty like this yellow viola.

Here is one of the 'Angelique' tulips I got for almost free from Brecks (they had a $25 off sale, no minimum purchase). Unfortunately only about half of them bloomed; at least I didn't have to pay much for them.

Some of the bulbs the landlords' kids and I rescued from a neighbour who was replacing the previous owner's garden with sod are blooming. We had no idea what would come up from these bulbs, of course, so I'm happy that they are so far all very pretty, like this pale pink tulip,

and this striking bicoloured dark pink and white one.

My landlords' pretty pale yellow tulips are back again this spring.

I don't know where this pink tulip in the front yard came from; a gift from the squirrels, perhaps?

The pear tree (Pyrus sp.) has just started blooming. So far we have never got edible fruit from it, but it still works as an ornamental.

My grape hyacinths (Muscari sp.) are behind the rest of Toronto, for some reason, even though they were one of the earliest plants up in our garden. This is the only one in bloom; the rest have just tiny undeveloped green buds.

My landlord just got these pretty yellow flowers, which I believe are Dahlia?

My daffodils are on their way out (Narcissus 'Cheerfulness' from Vesey's). I'm very pleased with the vigor of these plants.

Finally, the bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) is doing well. This was one of the first flowers I learned to recognize, for obvious reasons.

Thanks, Carol, for hosting Bloom Day!

Dicentra spectabilis: emerging foliage

Dicentra spectabilis, known in English as "bleeding heart" and in French as cœur de Marie, cœur-de-Jeannette or cœur-saignant, is a perennial native to east Asia and well-known for its distinctive heart-shaped pink flowers. Not only is it very pretty, but it's easy to grow and shade tolerant. Bleeding heart blooms in late spring and the foliage goes dormant some time in the summer.

I just discovered this lovely bleeding heart foliage emerging this week—it was hidden under some windblown trash which is all too prevalent in this neighbourhood for some reason (drives me nuts). I just bought this plant last spring; it's good to see that it survived the winter.