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| Tulipa batalinii ‘Apricot Jewel’ |
Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for April 2012.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden, it’s crazy, it’s mixed up. It’s different. It’s early.
These blooms don’t belong to this time. They belong to May. But since March grabbed April’s blooms, I guess April can grab May’s blooms.
Instead of the first of the tulips, we are enjoying the last of the tulips, a species tulip, Tulipa batalinii ‘Apricot Jewel’, which started blooming a week ago.
Right by the back door step, I have a little planter with some tiny Ajuga ‘Dixie Chip’ planted in it. It’s truly that blue.
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| Ajuga ‘Dixie Chip’ |
I’ll take that blue in the garden any day, even if it is weeks earlier than usual.
Along the edge of the patio, I planted Dianthus last year, several varieties, to provide a little continuity of bloom and soften the edge.
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| Dianthus sp. |
I bought these last May when they were in full flower. After this first flush of blooms, they will have a few blooms on them all the way until fall.
Another plant blooming early that will bloom from now until fall is Rosa ‘Radsunny’.
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| Rosa ‘Radsunny’ |
It is a Knock Out® rose. If you’ve been avoiding roses in your garden because you think they are just a big mess of blackspotted leaves, you should try this one. Clear, green foliage, all the way until fall.
If you also think lilacs are great big shrubs, try Syringa x meyeri, which in my garden stays below four feet.
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| Syringa x meyeri |
It normally blooms in early to mid May, but here it is in April, blooming.
It’s crazy, it’s mixed up, but it’s what we have in April so we’ll take it as we move closer and closer to May.
What’s blooming in your garden today? Are the blooms early?
We welcome everyone to join us for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day whether this is your first time or your 51st time, whether you have a garden blog or some other kind of blog.
It’s easy to join in. Just post on your own blog about what’s blooming in your garden right now, outdoors or indoors. You can include pictures, lists, common names, botanical names, whatever you’d like to do to showcase your blooms.
Then leave a comment and put your name and a link back to your bloom day post in the Mr. Linky widget below, so we know where to find your blog and can visit you virtually and read about your bloom day blooms.
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Love the Dianthus :)Thanks for hosting GBBD!
So many beautiful early bloomers. I had a rather late blooming Hemerocallis, which was a great surprise this year. That's why we so love gardening I guess. You just never know what the year is going to be like.
Love your Dianthus edged patio area. That is really pretty. The blue of your Ajuga 'Dixie Chip' is simply gorgeous. I also adored your stunning Knock Out Rose as well.
Wow, you really have an early spring this year! Here in London spring is just about right, we even got some April showers finally! I really liked your cream-golden tulips, and your lilac looks lovely – mine has yet to open its flowers. Enjoy the spring and Happy GBB Day!
Happy Bloom Day to all and thank you to our wonderful hostess, Carol.
Yes, we are early, too. I like your adjuga in the pot. I have some gooseneck loosestrife in one that I'm pleased is growing again. Of course, this winter wasn't a true test to know if it will live in a tub over the winter. I like your row of dianthus, too.
'Dixie Chick' is such a cutie, Carol! We have 'Chocolate Chip, and I wish it bloomed as well as yours does. Maybe I need to move it.
Radsunny is such a nice rose. Amazing that it, and so much else, is blooming so early this year.
Happy Bloom Day, and thank you for hosting!
We are early as well. It has been a crazy spring with everything ahead of schedule. Your blooms are looking beautiful…May Dreams in April! Happy GBBD!
The dianthus is lovely. My lavender near my front door has died (mostly) and that might make a great replacement. Blooms definitely early this year. So many that I decided to pick and choose the ones to post. That doesn't usually happen till May/June.
Nice to join in again this month. Your spring blooms are lovely, what a nice early start to the season!
Thanks for hosting, Carol! You're just a bit ahead of me. My Syringa Meyeri is just about to bloom. But everything here is ahead of schedule. Happy GBBD!
happy bloom day, carol! i have chocolate chip ajuga blooming for the first time (planted last fall) and was thrilled with it. it has already finished, but the blue was beautiful and i couldn't believe the number of flower spikes.
Out California way, my garden isn't especially early this year–definitely nothing on the order of yours. All your earliness makes me wonder what happens in the summer. Will there be an extra-long midsummer lull this year? In the meantime, enjoy what you've got. It all looks like a pleasant early surprise. Happy Bloomday!
Goodness me, everything is very advanced in your garden. We, too, have experienced odd swings in the weather and a few weeks ago it was almost like the height of Summer. We are now back to cold days and frosty nights. Nothing in my garden is as advanced as yours, indeed there is a lot that is behind although some other plants have romped ahead.
I love the Dianthus edging to your path, Carol, I imagine its perfume is wonderful as you walk by. Lovely too that May Dreams has become April Dreams this year. I thought things were late here but in fact it is much as last year. Thanks for hosting again. Christina
Here's my link http://myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/gbbd-april-spring-green/
*sigh*
Nothing blooms early in my garden. It takes absolute ages for the heavy, damp clay soil to warm up, so I'm normally a couple of weeks behind the gardens just up the road where the soil is different. Ah, well; I'll enjoy your early blooms and then look forward to my own bloom later on.
Morning Carol! April's the month when our gardens have similar blooms. I've focused on tulips for today as the weird weather we've had seems to be giving lots of people stumpy tulips! I also have a mystery to solve as some of mine have changed colour 😮
Happy Blooms Day everyone!
Yes Carol even here in Scotland we've had mixed up weather – warmer than Cyprus which encouraged early flowers ………..and then we got winter back again with snow.
Beautiful silver spikey patio edging and those Dianthus have certainly bulked up since last year.
It's been a bizarre spring here in Pennsylvania too. The shrubs and trees are 3 to 4 weeks ahead of schedule, and the perennials and bulbs are now about 2 weeks ahead, slowed down by the returning cold and lack of rain. So, we're pretty much where you are, though we're definitely not at rose stage yet. Happy Bloom Day, Carol!
Beautiful tulips!
Thanks for hosting GBBD!
Lea
Lea's Menagerie
I love these GBBDs. This is my first time taking part. Here in 5b/6a Nova Scotia, my plants are a bit ahead of schedule, but nothing like what you have. As a new blog reader, I find the multitude of images online of gardens that are ahead of mine very inspiring, but they turn me green with envy. Also… I might have almost had some tulips in bloom here, but the deer took care of them!
Happy Blogger's Bloom Day! It's a lovely time of year! Kelli, Northern Ireland.
Carol – Your Dixie Chip catches my eye, I'm always looking for blue flowers. Happy GBBD!
It is crazy and mixed up here in my garden too. Not one tulip now and my climbing rose is blooming. It doesn't usually bloom until the END of May. Geez. What will the rest of the summer bring us? Your edging of dianthus is pretty. I love the smell. Happy GBBD.
Much is early all over, but the flowers are welcome anytime. Maybe they last a little longer this Spring too.
In the southern hemisphere our mediterranean climate garden had good rain over the Easter weekend, then a heatwave warning, today is chilly.
Everything is blooming all at once in my garden as well, and in a couple of weeks I will only be able to show green. My strategy is to plant lots of annuals this year, long-blooming ones that can take heat. Thanks again for another Bloom Day and happy spring to you.
Yes, things are early – the dogwoods should be coming out now, but they have come and gone. Ajuga is incredible this year.
-Ray
I love blue, pink, and yellow in the garden. I see you do too. : ) I have not paid attention to when flowers bloomed in previous years. For tulips and daffodils, I plant early, mid, and late bloomers so I can flowers throughout Spring. I'll look back on your blog to previous years and see what was blooming when.
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Crazy year yes. I saw catmint blooming yesterday…in Minnesota!
Things are mixed up in the mid-Atlantic too. My post features different kinds of native phlox blooming in my garden.
Beautiful rose! But so crazy to see a rose blooming in April in the Midwest.
Thanks for hosting Carol!
Julie in PA
Maybe I brought your warmer Indianapolis weather back to Chicago last year from the Garden Writers Association meeting. And with my new 'old' camera I've got lovely pictures of the early blooms. I've never had a better spring bloom.
Hi Carol
The 'Apricot Jewel' tulips are the most delicate shade of yellow – so lovely! Many of your other blooms are ahead of ours but we finally have a few substantial ones. Thanks so much for hosting Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!
Astrid
We're having a similar kind of mixed-up spring: our lilacs are in full bloom now too! Your post was a bit comforting – nice to know we're not the only ones…
This is going to be a huge GBBD! I will have my post up tomorrow! xogail
Wow, you have dianthus already! This is such an early spring – but I'm glad things have slowed down a bit around here in MD. Late daffodils hanging around for once!
Sorry my post has only an azalea, but I have been too busy to photograph all the stuff that's in bloom.
Hi Carol!
I hope this Garden Blogger's Bloom Day finds you doing well. Have a great day!
Debbie
Your blooms are so pretty! Love the dianthus lined along the walkway. And that ajuga is a beautiful color! Things are a little mixed up here – instead of one big rose flush, they are all blooming sporadically. Makes things a little more interesting. Thanks for hosting!
As always thanks for being such a wonderful host! Blue is my favorite color and I never have enough in my garden.
Yes, it's May in my garden, too, Carol. But I don't have roses blooming yet–I love 'Radsunny,' too! Thanks for hosting another GBBD, Carol.
Everything has been early here as well by about three weeks. Periods of relatively cold weather have slowed the blooms down a bit, so perhaps the date and the garden will eventually agree again. I love all your flowers that simply crisp here even in winter. There is advantage (sometimes) to a colder zone.
The dianthus are gorgeous! And, yes, my garden is an entire month ahead as well down here in Central Texas.
This is my first time joining this linky party. Thanks for the fun!
Happy Blooms day to all. Down here it is hot hot hot with no rain. Lots of colour and lots of falling dried leaves. Love those dianthus!
Wow you have roses already….so pretty. Thanks for hosting this.
Your buttery yellow tulips are so pretty! Happy GBBD! Cheers, Jenni
Happy bloom day. It's always nice to see all the pretty flower!
"it's crazy, it's mixed up. It's different"…this is exactly how I'm feeling! Only it's not necessarily early in the cold PNW…
Hi Carol! A very happy GBBD to you. I love the Ajuga 'Dixie Chip'. I believe every garden can always need a little more blue. Thanks for hosting!
Here March and April seemed to have swapped places. It seems to be getting colder rather than warmer but some plants are further ahead of what they should be. I do like the soft colour of your tulip. Thanks as ever for hosting Carol.
My lilacs are in bloom now too – going crazy actually – which is nice to see as I had thought out mild Mid-Atlantic winter would not turn out well for some of the cold-loving plants.
Yummy photos look like dreams of May (hmmmm…..). We're at once fascinated yet horrified at suc crazy bloom timing. This roller coaster ride of a springtime is just one more example of how gardening is not for sissies!
No rain today, so it will be bloom day in the garden–the weeds await .
Sorry for being tardy with my comment. Lilacs are the shrub that I would grow if there was enough cold here to cause blooms. You have a good spring representation in your post, lovely. Thank you for hosting this fun meme.
I love your Knock Out rose. The only ones I see here are a kind of faded out red and they just don't appeal to me, but yours is gorgeous.
Happy April bloom day garden party.
It's been crazy and mixed up here in zone 8B, too. Everything's blooming early. Love your 'Radsunny' rose.
Never saw Ajuga before– very nice. I think I'll lie and say that's what all my creeping charlie is. (They're minty cousins afterall).
Here in Chicago, the warmth that gave us an unusually rich March Bloom Day was followed by seasonal cool temperatures and almost no rain, so things are looking a bit ragged.
One nice thing was the extremely long bloom on the lilacs (3 weeks!) and ornamental fruit trees. I think it might be the near absence of pollinators (just now seeing spring queen bumblebees) that caused this.
Lovely lilac. They're something we never really get around here. They can grow, but only as a shadow of what the cold-climate gardeners can do. And they're so nice. Thanks for hosting bloom day.
Oh, dear, you would have to post a shot of Tulipa batalinii. I had thought they were apricot, but a soft yellow? I must have!! Roses in April just seems wrong.
A little twist on the usual scan this month: The mandala scan: http://ellishollow.remarc.com/?p=1500
Here in upstate New York, we are also very ahead of our normal blooming schedule. After April and May weather in March we had March weather in April but tomorrow the warmth is supposed to return. We're finally getting some rain, too. And I've seen a couple of lilacs and a rose bush starting to bloom. Pinching myself….is this real?
yep, we are early here as well, although no lilacs yet !
You are a little ahead of my zone 4/5 garden, but it has been a crazy spring for sure!
Love that Dianthus edging! I used to have a sprawling patch of Cottage Pinks and the scent would waft in through the windows and permeate the house … I must try to achieve that again in this garden! I'll take early blooms. I think we are about on schedule. We had a spell of unusually warm weather but then it cooled right back down. If anything we have lost some of our blooms due to the crazy weather.
gorgeous! thanks for hosting.
Carol, I know what you mean about the early blooms — it's beautiful, but also weird. I've been thinking of the current season in my zone 6b Pennsylvania garden as "Maypril." -Jean
I am totally stealing your dianthus idea- it softens the edge really nicely. The weather gods are giving us rain, which we really need, but that may turn into snow, so all of our early blooming stuff will get crunched. Sigh.
Roses?
Roses in April?
The world is going crazy.
Meanwhile, a tulip festival in Albany, NY will start on May 7. The city planted more than 100,000 bulbs but many of them are already in bloom.
The dianthus edge is beautiful! I've had one in a pot for a year and have only got one bloom; lovely to see what they can do when set free. Happy bloom day!
Thank you for hosting this. My first GBBD, it's not only given me a wonderful insight into what's in bloom all over the world, but it's also shown me how little is in bloom in my garden now, so I can rectify it for next year! 🙂
And those Dianthus along your path are really beautiful.
It looks as though you are in for a long colorful summer if your April garden is anything to go by. Love that border of dianthus, and tulips don't grow here so I will have to just enjoy photos of yours. Thanks for hosting GBBD! and a happy spring to you!
Oh shoot I forgot all about my Dixie Chick, planted some last year in the front so hope it spreads like crazy this year!
so many blooms so little time!
Gosh Carol… what an advanced garden you have there! This weather has been weird this year. We had a a warm spell in March too but then a burst of snoe covering everything up again.
Love that tulip and can't beleive you have dianthus in flower! Thanks for hosting again, wishing you a Happy GBBD and a great week ahead 🙂
i love that hedge of dianthus most of all, it doesn't grow and bloom very well here in the hot tropics.
It's glorious weather for the weekend this Bloom Day here in Portland. I have camellias ending and Ceanothus beginning. Lots of shade-loving Northwest natives fill in the blanks. I love your dianthus, Carol -That spicy sweet flower is lovely. Thank you for hosting Bloom Day!
Beautiful flowers as always (even if they are a month early)!
I can't believe your dianthus are blooming already! Then again, given that I have coreopsis and (almost) gaillardia, maybe I can.
Thanks for hosting. What a great time of year! Flowers are everywhere!
Spring came early here in Texas, and what a spring it is! Rain, flowers, warm temperatures. We're truly blessed.
Oh Carol, why, why, why does everything have to be early this year? I scheduled a Fling specifically around what would be blooming in the third week of May. Now I am afraid we will be in that lull between late spring and the start of summer. Oh why this year?
So many folks have such gorgeous blooms already! My yard is just coming out of hibernation, kicking and screaming.
I couldn't agree more about that blue – that what heavenly means!
Happy Bloom Day, Carol! Thank you as always for hosting.
Our Zone 5b/6a is ahead of schedule as well. We had such a warm start in March, all the plants took off early. Temps dropped back to normal this past week (causing us to cover some veggie sprouts at night), but the lilacs are still blooming. Crazy-time!
Happy bloom day, Carol!
So jealous of all the lovely things you can grow up north! Love the dianthus edging. Happy GBBD!
Not surprised to see that "early" is a theme on this Bloom Day! My post is a bit different this time; it includes a video of scenes from my neighborhood.
As always: thank you, Carol, for hosting.
That edging of dianthus is wonderful. Great idea. Happy April Bloom Day, Carol.
All the blooms are so lovely…wish we have them here, too!
We're also ahead here, – but not quite as much now as a couple of weeks ago, – no Dianthus on show here, – but the Tulips are a lot further out than normal.-
Blooms are mixed up Carol…still have hyacinths and daffs blooming with creeping phlox and wildflowers that normally bloom at the end of April.
Your Ajuga is lovely, Carol. I won't see them blooming for a few weeks, your flowers are way ahead of mine. For blue I mainly have scattered Muscari now, mostly pinks, reds, whites, and yellows. Thanks for hosting!
Everything is blooming early in Western Massachusetts too! I can't say that I mind too much. I love the colors and smells of spring. Everytime I look at these springtime bloom day posts, it reminds me that I need to plant more bulbs in the fall (hopefully I will remember come November!).
Dianthus is amazing!
Definitely lots of early bloomers here in midAtlantic zone 7.
Yup, early here, too. I have a new trillium this year.
It took me half a day just to scroll down and leave a comment. lol. thanks for the meme as always. Yes everything is way early, but with the cool weather the blooms are hanging on longer. go figure.
Carol, I though we were early! I can't believe you already have dianthus and lilac. So strange. May blooms for sure. (This keeps up and you'll have to think about changing the name of your blog!)Thanks as always for hosting.
My garden blooms are early as well. It has been interesting to see how things have changed due to the weather. Now, we are having a dry spell, but I do hope that does not last long.
Happy bloom day! Thanks for hosting . . .
Fun to see your April/May. I didn't link to Bloom Day since I'm late, and my post isn't much about the month of blooms themselves. Hugs from Oklahoma.~~Dee
What a pretty selection you have for April. I love the dianthus and the syringa especially.
Dear Carol, Your blooms are lovely. Mine are early, too. Seems like there is a new surprise every day. Thanks for hosting GBBD! P. x
I'm late, I'm late! But the blooms are great! Thanks, Carol!!
So lovely to see all the spring blooms appearing. Of course, here in the tropics, I can't get this kind of loveliness, so I had to go look for spring in the temperate zones. Here's what I found. Oh and there's a giveaway in my post that I hope some of you ladies might want to participate in.
Rosie
Always a pleasure to participte. Thanks for a fun idea.
I'm a little late with my link, but thank you as always for hosting Carol!!
What pretty tulips! I'm a little late to the party, but thanks for hosting!
Hi, Carol! I wanted to let you know that I wrote a post about your blog on my blog that I started for science teachers. I thought that school teachers could use the data from Garden Bloggers Bloom Day to learn about the different types of plants all over the world and how location impacts when something blooms. It seemed especially appropriate given the crazy blooming we've had here in Indianapolis lately! I can't believe all of my bulbs came and went before April 1. Really unbelieveable.
I hope some teachers come and visit your blog! I think they will really like it over here. 🙂
Julie O.
http://everydaysciencefun.blogspot.com/
Such beautiful blooms. I can hardly believe you have roses blooming already there in Indy. My tulips are in full bloom, but the roses are only sending out some shoots.
Happy Spring!!
Yael
May flowers in April is disconcerting, Carol – but at least you have tulips & lilacs & ajuga! And your whole garden is really looking good.
Late as usual, with a GBBD post at The Transplantable Rose, and more photos with the complete list at Annie's Addendum.
Happy Spring!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Always a pleasure to visit your lovely garden, and the other beautiful gardens linked here!
My blooms are very early, my post is very late. Thank you for hosting!
Hi Carol,
I have been enjoying your GBBD campaign for months and finally feel ready to join! Thank you for organizing such a wonderful collaboration!
El at Adventures in Nesting