Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for April 2024.
Here in my USDA hardiness zone 6b garden in central Indiana, we are in the season of violets!
The wild violets, primarily Viola soraria, are blooming here and there throughout the garden, and I am happy to see them.
I am pro-violets!
I let them grow and bloom and set seed and spread themselves throughout the garden. Some gardeners might think I’m crazy to do that, but I’m fine with that, too.
I have several other violets for bloom day, including the first blooms on Viola soraria ‘Freckles’, which I grew from seeds I got from Hayefield Seeds last year.
I also have another lighter blue violet which has the common name Confederate violet.
I dug these up from a patch of grass next to the parking lot at my favorite greenhouse, Court’sYard and Greenhouse.
I also have a little yellow violet , probably Viola pubescens, that I dug up at Soule’s Garden.
That’s not a great picture. Yes, both owners of those great places to buy plants gave me a little side-eye because with all the plants they had for sale, I spotted wild violets I wanted to dig up and take home.
But I don’t just dig up wild violets in my quest to have more violets, I also buy violets, like this Viola pedata ‘Eco Artist Palette’ which is blooming now.
At this point, if you’ve read this far, you are probably wondering if this is a bloom day post or a post of violets?
Yes, there are other flowers blooming in my garden including tulips, common lilacs, crabapples, viburnums, flowering quince, pearl bush, and pawpaws.
Those pawpaw blooms are hard to take a good picture of! But I am hoping there are enough of them on this tree and another tree to get good cross-pollination and fruit set so that I’ll get some pawpaws to pick and eat in early fall.
Closer to the ground, I have some other lovely wildflowers blooming including the trout lilies, Erythronium americanum.
Trying to get into the picture are some grape hyacinths, Muscari sp., and summer snowflake, Leucojum sp. Near that spot is another little spring ephemeral, spring beauties, Claytonia virginica.
Yes, I dug these up from someone’s yard, with permission.
And that’s a taste of the blooms around my garden as we reach mid-April. Are we frost-free? It sure seems like it with the warm week ahead, but I’m not going to call it for a few more weeks.
So what’s blooming in your garden now? Join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and tell us about your spring blooms.
It’s easy to participate. Just post on your blog or Instagram or wherever you share online and then come back here and leave a comment to tell us what you have and a link in the Mr. Linky widget so we’ll know how to get there.
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Love your violets, Carol. And those trout lillies are gorgeous!
I have common violets running rampant throughout the yard and garden beds and I mostly just let them do their thing. Luckily they are pretty.
I didn’t mind a violets post at all. I didn’t know about several of yours. I think we have Confederate violets growing here and there (not in my yard) but I never knew they were called that. Enjoyed the rest of your blooms, too. We are ahead of where we normally are here in New York State but I don’t mind.
Love the ‘Eco Artist Palette’ violet!
Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
I have never seen the wild violets growing in my region they seem hardy. Thanks for Garden Bloggers blooms day which let us connect from fellow Gardeners from around the world.
I look forward to your violets blooming each year Carol and your trout lilies are wonderful too! Yes it is finally starting to feel like spring with sunny days and warmer temperatures. The garden is coming to life with blooms of Hyacinths, ornamental Plum, and Lungwort while Hellebore continues to give a show. Happy Bloom Day!
Freckles is adorable! My wild violets finished already, at least for their first go-round.
I really like the violets, such an intense blue!
Carol, I love your violets, particularly ‘Freckles’ and ‘Eco Artist Palette! I must find specimens of these for my garden, but I’ve never grown violets from seed. Are they hard to grow from seed?
Elena, I winter-sowed those violet seeds and that worked out well. The seeds are tiny!
I love the volunteer violets too. They are a cheerful little flowers. I hope to be back by.
Love your beauties, Carol! You made me remember that I left our Erythroniums out this month. This is more of a May garden this year for April – an early May dream 🙂
Thanks for hosting! Fun to find you on IG now as well.
I wish wild violets were as happy in my garden as they are in yours! Thanks for hosting, Carol!
So many pretty little violets. They are such simple yet lovely flowers. ~~Dee
Hi Carol, good reminder to get another birds-foot violet. I like violets of every sort as well.