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 Primroses on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day The Texas sun seemed to be shining on these glowing golden primroses on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. The garden had hardly any blooms when we left for Texas on May but our return on May 8 was astounding. I am going to give a thorough pictorial record of our May 15 blooms.
 Creamy primroses I’m behind on my spring clean up and weeding so you’ll likely see plenty of weeds. These primroses are increasing nicely. The tall Japanese primroses will be along soon.
 Iris reticulata These are the first irises to bloom in the garden.
 Dicentra, bleeding heart This white bleeding heart was recently given to me in full bloom. Fortunately it adjusted to its new site comfortably.
 Grape hyacinths I don’t remember planting these grape hyacinths last fall. I’m glad I waited for a while before pulling up the first shoots.
 Geum This geum is a wonderful plant. I love the color of the blooms and it is in bloom for a very long season. It also increases at a slow rate and occasionally sends a baby plant off to the side.
 Fairy Bells, Disporum flavens These Fairy Bells throw out shoots at the same time as Solomon’s Seal, followed by the yellow bells. The bells will last for a couple of weeks, and the foliage will look handsome all season. These are native to Korea, but they like damp woodlands – which describes their position in the garden.
 Wood poppy Stylophorum diphyllum Also called Celandine poppy. It looks very like, only larger, a weed that grows next to my house. More research needed.
 Zizia? Golden Alexanders? These plants are growing riotously next to the wood poppies. I thought I was planting Golden Alexanders, but one knowledgeable friend said this was not accurate. Does anyone have any ideas?
 Waldsteinia or barren strawberry I planted barren strawberry plants along the top of the stone wall, and in front of the rhododendrons. They have done just what I hope for – covering the ground with a dense mat that does a great job of keeping down the weeds. It will only bloom for a while and the very low foliage looks great all season.
 Jacob’s ladder
I just moved two clumps of Jacob’s ladder out from under the yellow twig dogwood which has achieved an amazing spread. They have adjusted nicely to their place in the sun. Well, a little more sun than they had.
 Fringed bleeding heart  Gold Heart Dicentra Now I have three different Dicentras: white, fringed and Gold Heart. I love them all.
 Leucojum aestivum or Summer snowflake Hard to know why these are called Summer Snowflakes when then bloom so early in the spring – but they are later than the snowdrops.
 Fothergilla The Fothergilla looks great – just like the one on the Bridge of Flowers.
 Korean Spice Bush, Viburnum carlesii Korean Spice bush is famous for its fragrance.
I thank Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Go on over and see what is in bloom over our great land.
 Rain Flood Ice Bloom Day is here, but there are no blooms outdoors.
 Amaryllis But for the first time in a couple of years I have blooms in January. The amaryllis that is opening was an early Christmas present and it grew rapidly. The amaryllis with buds about to open spent the summer out in my garden and is giving me great gratification Two other amaryllis bulbs that spent the summer in the ground are coming along – slowly. I have hopes.
I thank Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day.
 Sheffield daisies Will my garden be blooming on November 15. the official Garden Bloggers Bloom Day? Maybe not. Therefore, I went around the garden today taking photos of the flowers blooming this very unusually warm November day. We have yet to have a hard frost although some plants were bitten and succumbed. This is what’s left on this gloomy day with a temperature of 50 degrees at 4 in the afternoon
 Knockout red rose still budding  Thomas Affleck rose in a languorous pose  ” one of three hydrangeas blooming  Annual nasturtium still sending out new blossoms  Proven Winner Butterfly still blooming  Toad lilies – Tricyrtis  Winterberry – holiday color if not a bloom  English holly right by the front steps Daylight savings left, Eastern Standard time arrived and so did the 5 o’clock dark. But winter is not here yet so I celebrate this bloom day.
 Coreopsis At the moment I am celebrating Garden Bloggers Bloom Day with a burst of heat – after rain storms and night temperatures that went down to 35 degrees. But many plants are hitting their stride, like this coreopsis – one of several.
 Cardinal flowers It turns out the cardinal flowers I planted last year – are a different color than the cardinal flowers I planted this year. But no matter. My mentor, Elsa Bakalar, assured me all shades of red go together.
 Perennial ageratum and veronica The perennial ageratum and veronica are carrying on an autumnal love affair with lots of hugs.
 Firelight hydrangea The Firelight hydrangea is also being embraced by a nameless white aster and the bright pink Alma Potchke aster who just started to bloom.
 Honeysuckle The honeysuckle clasps the fence in a tight hold while its bloom are entwined with a few Grandpa Ott morning glories.
 Japanese anemone The Japanese anemone is less robust, but next year I think she’ll be more enthusiastic.
 Neon sedum This “Neon” sedum attracts bees by the dozen.
 Rudbeckia These rudbeckias were given me by a neighbor in the spring. Next spring I am going to be looking for another neighbor who needs rudbeckia, loved by pollinators
 Marigolds and nasturtiums This pot by my back door is a riot of color. Makes me so happy in my coming and going.
Click on over to May Dreams Gardens where Carol gives us a chance share our seasonal bloom. Thank you, Carol!
 Hellstrip with many pollinator flowers on Bloom Day Here is the August Bloom Day report. The summer of 2017 has been relatively cool, with only a few days that went over 89 degrees. We also had rain – almost sufficient to my desires. The hellstrip in front of the house is full of bloom – daylilies, bee balm, yarrow, coneflowers, and marigolds. Weeds and fallen sycamore bark as well.
 Folksinger rose Several of the roses are blooming again. Folksinger, a Griffith Buck rose, is the most enthusiastic.
 Thomas Affleck rose Thomas Affleck was a great rose for me in Heath, and it remains a great rose in Greenfield. I will let these two roses stand in for Purple Rain, The Fairy, Polar Express, Red Kockout, Peach Drift and Paprika.
 Clethra alnifolia with bee balm and thalictrum in background The clethra is gaining stature and so is the bee balm. That is a rain-bowed thalictrum in the background. There will have to be substantial dividing and rearranging in the fall.
 Honeysuckle and Grandpa Ott morning glory The honeysuckle has a substantial but hidden trellis while the Grandpa Ott morning glory is hanging on to a couple of stakes and the fence.
 Rudbeckia When my friend gave me some small divisions this spring I misunderstood the gift. These rudbeckias look great this year, but I think I will have to find someone in the spring to share with myself.
 Monarda fistulosa Monarda fistulosa is a wonderful pollinator plant. I have two other bee balms, one is Colrain Red, and the other is a darker, more winey red.
 Culver’s Root Culver’s Root is another plant chosen because it is a pollinator magnet, as are two types of mountain mint, still bloom and feeding pollinators.
 Asclepias tuberosa The Asclepias area is filling out, but the season is starting to go by.
 Limelight hydrangea Three hydrangeas are a major part of the South Border. The most easterly is Limelight. This is the third summer for all three.
 Angel’s Blush hydrangea Angel’s Blush is just beginning to show shades of pink, that don’t really show in this photo.
 Firelight hydrangea You can see the blooming sedums on the ground and an aster clump that will be blooming next month.
 Asters These tall asters with sprays of very small flowers are the first to bloom.
This has been the third summer for our garden. We began planting the South Border in June of 2015. We are so happy to see everything making the show we hoped for and look forward to rearranging in the fall ans 2018 spring to do a bit of simplifying.
I thank Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day. Go and visit and see what else is blooming over all our great land.
 South hellstrip On this July Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day in Massachusettss my blooms are quite spread out, although I am looking forward to clusters of blooming daylilies very soon. On our divided hellstrip we have several daylilies. I got lucky in this section with congenial wine-y colors on the bee balm, daylily and echinacea. There are daylilies in several places in the garden, but I can guarantee I don’t remember many of their names.
 North hellstrip In between the South and North Hellstrips is a strip of grass – designed to allow people onto the walkway to the house without trampling the flowers. A very wise and useful design element. Both flowery sides include some of the same plants, and all have survived winter snows, plows, salt, and dogs quite well.
 Crocosmia The crocosmia was the big surprise. I planted bulbs from American Meadows last spring and it didn’t seem as though much had happened which I blamed on my own poor planting. I was in a hurry. I was sure, even if there was some life in the bulbs, it would have been done in by the winter – and yet here it is. I will take better care of it this winter with good mulching to protect it.
 Firelight hydrangea This Firelight hydrangea doesn’t look very fiery, but it is the first of my three hydrangeas to start blooming. Limelight and Angel Blush aren’t too far behind.
 Honeysuckle This honeysuckle, planted last year, is doing so well that I have been willing to prune it in the front, and I am a very nervous pruner.
 Physostegia, obedient plant Physostegia or obedient plant didn’t do much last year, but she has made a substantial clump this year.
 The Fairy rose The Fairy is the main rose at the moment although the red Knock Out has a few blooms. I do expect a second flush – or hope for that second flush – in August
 Buttonbush My strategy for my new low maintenance, water tolerant, pollinator friendly garden has focused on large shrubs. This Buttonbush has more than tripled in size since it was planted in the summer of 2015. It is in one of the wettest spots of the garden and is blissfully happy. Pollinators love the funny little flowers.
Other large shrubs include the three dogwoods, but they are no longer in bloom, but the two elderberry bushes are blooming. These blooms are not very exciting but the result will be berries for the birds, after the pollinators have done their work.
Other plants in bloom right now are: Veronica Mountain mint Blanket flower Marguerite daisies Blue Paradise phlox Coreopsis.
Carol of May Dreams Gardens is the host of this wonderful – and useful meme. Click here and go see what else is blooming over our great land.
 OSO Easy Paprika rose On this June Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day the rose have burst into bloom. It has been a cold and wet spring, but our last couple of days have been in the 90s. The weather gods show just how unpredictable they can be. For me, this spring is is the first really floriferous June we have had. All the roses but one are new plants and they are really showing off.
 Drift Rose – Peach This peach Drift rose blooms right next to Paprika. Both of them are low growing landscape roses and require very little care.
 Purple Rain – a Kordes rose Kordes started hybridizing disease resistant roses over 30 years ago. No herbicides needed. This is another low growing rose.
 Folksinger – Griffith Buck rose I had a Folksinger rose up in Heath, but it never looked this good.
 Polar Express – another Kordes rose This is an elegant icy white rose. I love all the Kordes roses.
 Knockout Red rose Knockout Red supplies the red red rose, that’s newly sprung in June.
 Alchemyst Rose By the time you are looking at all these roses I am sure that Fantin-Latour,and Lion’s Fairy Tale will also be in full bloom. I think I have to wait a little longer for The Fairy and Purington Pink to bloom. But of course, there are other bloomers in June.
 Alchemyst rose I’m adding this closeup because the rose is so lovely – and just now in full bloom.
 White delphinium This delphinium has already lost one blooming stem in a storm, but it looked very pretty on our dinner table.
 Japanese primroses It is amazing that the Japanese primroses are still showing bloom – but it has been very wet.
 Siberian white iris I have three lovely clumps of white Siberians. And friends waiting for a piece of this dependable beauty.
 Blue Siberian iris I have three big clumps of blue Siberians, but these are coming up in a clump of weeds in the North Border. They will not give up. Of course, this is another very wet spot.
Thank you Carol for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Visit May Dreams Gardens and see what else is blooming over our great land.
 Wood poppy This is my first Bloom Day post in quite a while. Here in my corner of western Massachusetts we are having quite a wet spring. Yesterday over 2 inches of rain fell, causing about the worst flooding in the backyard that we have had so far. Even so, blooms are surviving. The wood poppy is growing on our hugel so it is not flooded but has plenty of water to drink.
 Barren strawberry or waldensteinia There is quite a golden look to the garden right now. Barren strawberry is a great ground cover and is making a great border at the edge of the hugel’s stone wall.
 Trollius laxa Trollius laxa is a paler gold. I am wondering if I planted Trollius europeanus which is a taller, more golden globeflower. I used to have it in my old garden.
 Doronicum or leopard’s bane This is the single survivor of a little patch I planted last spring. More gold.
 Golden alexandaers Golden alexanders even have gold in their name. I planted two clumps last year and they are spreading nicely on the bank of the hugel.
 Geum I am not sure which geum this is, but it bloomed all summer last year and well into the fall. What a plant!
 Geum trifolium Geum trifolium is also called Prairie Smoke. The little blossoms will soon be surrounded by delicate haze of smoke – somewhat like the cotina smokebush but on a more delicate and linear scale. Photos will follow in season.
 Fringed bleeding hearts also called Dutchman’s Breeches These were left by the previous owners of our house, but after cleaning out the bed they have thrived. I found a small clump of white fringed bleeding hearts which I think came in on the root of a purchased dappled willow.
 columbine Columbine is beginning to bloom.
 Tiarella or foam flower The tiarella is enjoying a long slow season of bloom this cool wet spring.
 Aronia, black chokeberry This aronia, black chokeberry, is coming along very slowly, but I wanted to include it because I am trying to keep track of bloom times.
 Japanese primrose Bloom is just starting, but there is a good spread of these beautiful flowers in the wettest part of the garden. They were planted last year – gifts from friends – and are thriving. Thank heaven for friends with different plants in their garden.
 little irises – nameless These nameless little irises are doing fine, even in all the wet. You can see the flood just behind the irises and I can tell you that I sink into the lawn when I come near. Because our garden is so wet I have a number of clumps of Siberian and Japanese irises.
 Spring flood tide When you look at the photo of the little irises you can see water behind them, but this is a view of the major part of the garden. Our garden is very wet for a variety of reasons. Yards on either side of ours are paved and at a slightly higher level which means some water drains into our garden. Our soil is heavy clay and drains very slowly. The garden beds are all slightly raised to provide better soil as well as a lift from standing water. There is also an underground stream that flows the length of our street. The water can take several days to infiltrate. You can see why I have included so many water loving/tolerant plants.
Thank you Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for giving us Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and the ability to see what is blooming all over our great land.
 Pink Chrysanthemums on November Bloom Day On this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day in Greenfield, Mass, still boasting only a Zone 5 rating, my very late blooming pink chrysanthemums are still blooming. We have had frost, and some rain and wind, but these dependable beauties are still going. They are the only thing blooming outside.We are still not having freezing night temperatures as a regular thing, though it does get down below 40 degrees.
 Prostrate rosemary in bloom This prostrate rosemary was taken out of a pot and put into Greenfield soil this summer, and has seemed to tolerate the move into another pot for the winter. So far she has been able to live on the enclosed side porch. I admit you have to look pretty close to see those few tiny blue blooms.
 Red Thanksgiving cactus This Thanksgiving cactus never seems to do much. Probably needs repotting. However she always blooms on schedule.
 Thanksgiving cactus in a pale shade In the guest room window a pretty pale pink Thanksgiving cactus is just starting to come into bloom. I bought her last Thanksgiving and she is doing pretty well. You can at least one of my holdover amaryllis will actually bloom again. This might be the first time I have managed a second year’s bloom. Although I never tried very hard before.
And so ends Bloom Day. I am barely getting in under the wire.
Thank you Carol for hosting Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day on May Dreams Gardens which allows us to see all the blooms across the the nation by clicking here.
 Montauk daisy on Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day I am a day late with Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, but yesterday was spent moving the last big items from Heath to our new house and garden in Greenfield. This post records what little is in bloom in Heath on my last Heath bloom day and what is in bloom in my very unfinished garden in Heath.
Heath Garden
 Colchium atumnale These autumn crocus still blooming in all their weedy glory. They are in a bad spot for display – but I never got around to moving them.
 Sedum ‘Neon’ Sedum ‘Neon’ is looking very healthy. I did take a piece down to Greenfield where it blooms in the hellstrip.
 Thomas Affleck rose Thomas Affleck is not quite the last rose of summer. We are still enjoying a few Fairy roses as well.
 Sheffield daisies Sheffies, Sheffield daisies are very late bloomers. I thought I brought some down to Greenfield, but alas no. Maybe there is still time.
 Hydrangea ‘Limelight’ The Heath hydrangeas are doing very well this year. Mothlight is as huge as ever, Limelight doesn’t look too lime-y, but looks great next to Pinky Winky.
Greenfield Garden
 Nameless hydrangea This hydrangea came with the house. I don’t know anything about it so far, except that the former owners cut it down to the ground last fall. And look at it now. I guess it is time to cut it back again. The new hydrangeas that I planted, Angel Blush, Limelight and Firelight seem to be doing OK, but they are not really photo-worthy right now.
 Dahlia ‘Firepot’ This dahlia came from the Bridge of Flowers and I think it is ‘Firepot.’ I also have a wonderful purple dahlia from the Bridge. I plan to have more dahlias next year.
 Gazania It took a while but this gazania finally took hold after our dry summer. I did try to keep watering.
 Joe Pye Weed I planted Joe Pye Weed because it is tolerant of wet sites, but once we began our dry summer it only had one chance, after 5 inches of rain one day, to show that it was happy in the wet.
 Perennial ageratum A few divisions of this perennial ageratum, sometimes called mist flower, was given to me by a friend. I had to cut them back substantially when I planted them in August, but I still got bloom. I have been told to expect a good increase next year.
 Chrysanthemum I can’t think how I acquired this floriferous late blooming chrysanthemum, but I love it. I have some growing in the hellstrip, but with only a bloom or two, although lots of buds, because it is so shady.
 Chelone or turtlehead I cut back the chelone before I moved it down to Greenfield but here is one bold blossom.
 Woods blue aster I brought a few low growing woods blue aster to Greenfield because it is such a good spreader and late bloomer.
 Tricyrtis or toad lily At the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale we sold a lot of tiny Tricyrtis, or toad lily plants, but we had many left. I have been growing them on and you can expect to see these hardy and very interesting plants at the Plant Sale next May.
 Pink Drift rose This pink Drift is not quite the last rose of summer either. Again The Fairy in Greenfield still has a few blooms.
And that is my first Bloom Day in Greenfield. A hard frost is predicted for the next couple of days. And maybe even snow!
Many thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting Bloom Day!
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