Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – May 15, 2023

  • Post published:05/15/2023
  • Post comments:6 Comments
Trollius

On this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day I open with shining gold, but there is more to it.

Golden Bleeding Heart

Our garden began five years ago. We moved into our house in winter and our ‘yard’ had no plants!  Our planting began, but it was hard to say we had a garden. That has changed. This wonderfully expansive Golden Bleeding Heart has increased for five years now.  There is another beautiful Bleeding Heart, but with no gold.

Quince

This quince has grown rapidly over 4 years.  There are no fruits, but the flowers are lovely and bright.

Red Peonies

This beautiful Peony has other blossoms, but if they don’t live long, they will meet up with five more peonies very soon. For me the surprise was that peonies are so different in their form, not just their colors.

Jacob’s Ladder

I found this interesting information about the name of this spring plant. “The ladder denotes a ‘bridge’ between the earth and heaven, therefore, symbolizes a connection between God and the Jews. Coming to the symbolic meaning of the plant, it signified ‘coming down.” Jacob’s Ladder is a lovely plant.

Tiny iris

This iris is very low, and it has arranged itself in a circle. It is the smallest iris in my garden (so far) but I do have some slightly larger, and someday I might get large dramatic Iris.

Scarlet Columbine

This columbine was a surprise to me, but I should be more familiar with the other columbines that have shown up in my garden. It’s a mystery, but I love these columbines which do come in slightly different forms or colors.

Barren Strawberries

Now I will come near the end of this May story.  This low growing plant, with lots of golden flowers, for a short period,  is called barren strawberries because of its appearance.  Our barren strawberries cover a great part of our hugel which involves lots of soil.  With one odd name, we decided to plant May Apples as well.

May Apple

The only part of this plant with it flowers is that it blooms in May. Like the barren strawberries this plant has a pretty flower, and it will have an inedible fruit.  Large leaves make it hard to admire the flowers or the fruit.  It also grows and increases every spring. We had to cut back some of these earlier this spring, and I’m already worrying about the growth next spring.  I’ll have to consider what next instead of worrying.

Our Garden

Our garden is not very large. There is little room on both sides of the house, but that gives us a very pleasant private garden that requires very little lawn mowing  – although our first son stops by to take care of the lawn, so we don’t have a lot of work to do.

Now I am off to visit Carol J. Michel and all the beautiful gardens there are so see.

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Beth@PlantPostings

    Oh, beautiful additions, Pat! Don’t you just love the Mayapples? 🙂

  2. Pat

    Beth – I do enjoy the Mayapples – but I do have to keep them under control. Wait til you see June for more beauty.

  3. Robin Ruff Leja

    I’ve had good luck with scattering various columbine seeds, and now I have a wide combination of colors. Jacob’s Ladder doesn’t grow for me, but yours are lovely.

  4. Yvonne

    I was pleasantly surprised to discover that you had commented on my April garden post. Your orange columbine looks like the common native columbine of the east. During my years of working in a state park in Tennessee, Mayapples grew in large patches under the canapy of shade trees, in the damp areas of the park. It was a lovely groundcover until it would disappear in the summer, as it is a spring ephemeral. My yard is small, so I thought lots about planting it, but eventually gave up the thought. You have such a beautiful array of plants, and I’m glad they are doing well for you.

  5. Pat

    Robin – I’m glad you liked Jacob’s Ladder. It is one of my favorites. I have been surprised by all the columbines showing up in my garden – and with different colors. Most mysterious – I don’t remember buying those plants.

  6. Pat

    Yvonne – You had a wonderful array of May flowers. I was interested in your comment on the Mayapples, which I am now cutting many off. That is an amazing plant and I do not have any space for them.

Leave a Reply