Garden bloggers' Bloom Day April 2009

Once again, it is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Although I'm supposedly in the same zone as Carol, spring is coming more slowly here in Toronto though unlike last month, I do have a few blooms to post today.

The Siberian squill (Scilla siberica), which the landlords' kids and I rescued from a garden down the street last year, are in their glory now.

Unfortunately, I found out long after the kids and I rescued them that Siberian squill is an invasive species in southern Ontario according to Invasive Exotic Species Ranking for Southern Ontario. I need to learn more about how the things spread; hopefully I can control them, since the landlords' eldest will be very unhappy if I rip out his squill.

Only one of my reticulated irises (Iris reticulata 'Cantab') is still in bloom. This picture came out badly but I didn't have time to take another because I had to catch a train—I'm posting this from my mom's apartment in eastern Ontario. Fortunately I got a prettier picture a couple of weeks ago.

This early stardrift, still in bud, (Puschkinia libanotica) is another rescue from the garden down the street. (Here's a photo of the gorgeous masses of early stardrift in that garden before the new owner attempted to replace it with sod. I say "attempted" because a number of puschkinia have popped up through the lawn this year despite his efforts.)

All of the flowers out today are blue, but we did have some bright yellow winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis, see photo) which bloomed at the end of March, managing to avoid both the March and April Bloom Days. There are also hyacinths and tulips in bud, and lots of growth on the daffodills, columbines, and beebalm. Lots to look forward to!

I couldn't resist including the Easter decorations the landlords' kids put up, which add lots of gay colour even though they aren't technically blooms. I think that decorating Easter trees is a Czech tradition.

Iris reticulata 'Cantab': blooms

I wasn't expecting to see these reticulated irises in bloom (the buds showed only a few days ago), but here they are!

Iris reticulata 'Cantab': flowers

Iris reticulata, known in English as reticulated iris, dwarf wild iris, and rockgarden iris, and in French as iris réticulé, is a dwarf perennial native to southern Russia, Iran, and Turkey. The flowers appear very early in the spring, about 10 cm from the ground; later long thin leaves grow to 20-30 cm before the plant goes dormant at the end of spring.

This light blue cultivar is 'Cantab', which I bought at Veseys; different cultivars include blues and violets, as well as white.