A Very Late Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

It's been almost two years since I've participated in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but here I am with a very late February post. If you'd like to share blooms of your own, please visit Carol at May Dream Gardens to find out how to join in on the 15th of every month.

My Valentine surprised me with a container of daffs, crocuses, tulips, hyacinths, an amaryllis and a pretty little Foxglove. The amaryllis 'Ludwig Goliath' is now 15" tall.

Three days later the hyacinths were blooming.

The pink in the background is a Kalanchoe

from Valentine's Day 2011.

This is the first winter since being planted

in 2004 that the grasses growing next

to the driveway haven't been flattened 
to the ground by heavy, wet snow.
  Love this winter look!

Early one morning after some fresh snow had
fallen during the night, I noticed two sets of tracks
going down the sidewalk. One belonged to a deer
and the other a cat. No, not a cougar. 



They eventually parted ways,
going off in different directions.
Very sweet sight.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Andy Williams was referring to Christmas when he sang "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year", but the beginning of each new season always feels like the the hap-happiest season of all to me.

Today is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day -- a day when garden bloggers from all over the world share what's blooming in their gardens. It would be difficult to find a nicer garden blogger than Linda at Slow Growing in Scotland.

I went back and checked my GBBD post for April '09, and found that the none of the daffodils or hyacinths had bloomed, the anemones had no flowers and there was only one crocus bloom. The lungwort, brunnera, and glory-of-the-snow were barely out of the ground.

Come and see what's in bloom this year on April 15.

This is P and N's view of Star Apple Orchard.

Spring and summer will fly by quickly.

September will arrive and we'll be picking apples.

I know, I know...I'm rushing the seasons.

Please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to find out how to join in the fun on the 15th of each month. Carol is a great host and everyone who visits your blog will make you feel welcome. I read blogs for a long time before I felt confident enough to share my own garden. Some people may be thinking that I should have waited a while longer until I had something more substantial to blog about. So sorry, couldn't wait.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 15

The 15th of every month is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. If you think you'd like to join in, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens and find out how easy it is to be part of the fun. We all appreciate you, Carol.

Hen and Chicks

Sempervivum

Waiting for the glacier to move through.

Produces 12" tall flower

stalks in early summer.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
There can never be too
many of them in the garden.

Yarrow
Achillea 'Pretty Belinda'
Grows well in poor soil.
That's why I love it so.

Rock garden blend of sedum.

Come back later to see pink and yellow blooms.

All the pots feeling ignored and

waiting for love.

Acorns in the wren house?

Interesting.

Can't wait to see what your garden looks like in March.

A Day Late & A Lotta Blooms Short

Here in the frozen tundra, I've got nothing in the bloom department to share for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. This red twig dogwood and the texture of the tree bark will have to do for the month of February. I often complain about the unruly growth of these shrubs in our yard, but they do serve a purpose in the winter and provide us with some pretty red bark against the white snow.  

Couldn't find much worthy of GBBD while walking around my yard, so I decided to look up. I should do that more often because I saw a jet leaving a beautiful white stream in sky. The jet looked like a cross to me and it churned up a bunch of thoughts while I stood out there in the cold looking at it.

It gets necessary around here this time of year to look for color where ever possible. I was waiting for Phillip to come out of school one day and was struck by how the school buses and playground equipment were providing the only color in sight.

The young man in black is Phillip. He could use a colorful hat, wouldn't you say?

Carol at May Dreams Gardens is the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Go visit her and find out how you can participate on the 15th of every month. She's not only a good host, she's smart. Can't beat that combination.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - January 15

In the fall, I remove all annuals and cut down all the perennials in my yard. This makes for an easy start in the spring because there is little or no clean up to be done. The problem is that then there's nothing sticking out of the snow to be photographed for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. So, off I went to the Green Bay Botanical Garden. Technically, it is my garden because I'm a member.

This bronze sculpture, Serenade, is in the Upper Rose Garden. It was a gift to the garden from the children of Marguerite and George Kress, as a tribute to their parents. Dee Clements was the sculptor. Morning Light Chinese Silver Grass swaying in the background.

In the summer, the Rose Garden is filled with colorful blooming hardy shrubs and hybrid tea roses, but on this January day rose hips provided the only color. Rose hips are the fruit of the rose plant and according to Wikipedia, rose hips are used for herbal tea, jam, jelly, syrup, beverages, pies, bread and marmalade. They are also high in Vitamin C.

Adam's Needle Yucca looks almost as attractive to me poking out of the snow as it does in the summer when it has a tall flower spike at the center of the plant that last for several weeks.

I think this particular grass is Karl Foerster feather reed grass. The foliage is dark green during the spring, summer and early fall and the flowers are pinkish in color. By late fall and into the winter, both are the color of wheat.

Do you know those beautiful Pinky-Winky hydrangeas that bloom in the early summer with cone-shaped white flowers that then turn to a pink color in August? This is how they look in January in zone 4.

This is the Nodding Wild Onion, a popular Midwestern prairie plant. In the summer it produces pale lavender flowers on a single leafless stalk and attracts honeybees.

This colorful frog sitting out in the snow made me smile. There is a special children's garden that includes a frog pond, but that's not where I found this one. It was sitting near one of the buildings where the classrooms are located.

As always, Carol at May Dreams Gardens, is our most wonderful hostess for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and I thank her for doing so. Please do go to her most delightful and informative blog and see how you, too, can join in on the 15th of every month.

I used the new updated editor for this post and it felt awkward and unfamiliar and it seemed to take me forever to complete the post. And I never did figure out what happened to spellcheck.

I'm posting this one day early because tomorrow is my dad's 86th birthday and I'll be busy preparing dinner to take down to him for the celebration. Be looking for me to visit your garden when I get home.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - December 15

This was the view out the airplane window as we left the frozen tundra last Friday and flew off to San Diego. Fat chance of finding anything blooming down there or in my garden.

In a matter of hours, we were at the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado drinking hot cider, soaking up all the history and enjoying all the blooms.

Carol at May Dreams Gardens is the gracious and lovely host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Be sure to visit her and see how you can join in and share what's blooming (or not blooming, as in my case) in your part of the world. It's fun, you'll enjoy it.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - 11/15/09

If you came here expecting to find blooms in these containers, I'm sorry but you're about a month late. Here's where the pots spend the winter, the northwest corner of the house where nobody can see them. Kind of sad.

The ornamental grasses look as nice in the late fall as they do in the summer. Different, but nice. I'm determined to cut them down right after Thanksgiving because in my opinion, they do not provide attractive visual interest buried in snow and are a terrible mess to clean up in the spring. If Alley Cat wasn't part of our family, I'd consider bringing in some plumes to arrange in a tall vase.

Staghorn sumac is a decidious shrub that can grow to a height of 25'. Its leaves are very colorful in the early fall. The cylinder-shaped berry clusters are red and fuzzy looking and last through the winter. The branches have a velvet appearance that resembles deer antlers, thus the name Staghorn. Only the female plants produce berries which provide food for birds, especially game birds.

Our neighbors have this tangled conglomeration of yellow apples and red berries growing together in their front yard. I can't walk by it without stopping to admire it.

The very talented Carol from May Dreams Gardens is the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and I thank her very much for doing so. And I thank YOU for stopping by Mamma Mia Days.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - 10/15/09

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is on the 15th of every month and is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. It's a nice way to share what's blooming in your garden and a fantastic way to visit gardens all over the world. Thank you, Carol.

The only annuals that haven't fallen victim to Jack Frost are the various snapdragons that are in containers. They still look this pretty even though the temperature has been down in the 20's a few nights.

This tiny white phlox 'David' was planted about a month ago and is already rewarding me with blooms despite the cold weather.

This picture of impatiens and hypoestes was taken last Friday. They were dead on Sunday morning. I bought the containers at a yard sale last spring. Paid twenty-five cents each.

All of the sedum 'Autumn Joy' are looking picture perfect except for a few of them where the plant stems aren't strong enough to support the large flower heads.

These ornamental grasses (name unknown) are at the end of the driveway, on both sides. They are turning a pretty gold/orange and will be even more colorful in a few weeks. Note: They look prettier when it's not snowing and the sun is shining.

I hardly ever buy pumpkins, but my sister-in-law gave me this one and I like it a lot.

These are the same trees as in my header photo. What a difference a few snowflakes make.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - 09/15/09

The first time I participated in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day was February 15, 2009, and it was only my second post ever. Everything in my yard was covered in snow except for the tops of some ornamental grasses. I posted of photo of that and wrote a few words and remember being stunned that four people actually took time to leave comments. Those four thoughtful people were Gail at Clay and Limestone, Jan at Always Growing, Jan at Thanks For 2 Day and Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Bloom Day was Carol's original idea and what a great idea it has been.

The Susans are still putting on a show

and the Autumn Joy are looking prettier

with every passing day.

The "messy bed" is filled with Lantana,

Russian Sage, Sneezeweed and volunteer

Petunias from years past.

The Sneezeweed looks pretty tangled

up with Russian Sage.

The Butterfly Weed was very late

to show up this summer.

It was worth the wait.

Adapts wells to poor, dry soil.

Maybe that's why I love it so.

Green grass doesn't get the credit it deserves.

What better place for a boy to sprawl

out and look at the sky while he

dreams whatever it is little boys

dream about on summer days.

I haven't seen a hummingbird at the

feeder for a couple of days now.

Maybe they've flown off to warmer places,

although it was still 85 degrees here today.

They'll be missed.

Good news. Bad news.

The good news is that I

find fall colors to be intoxicating.

The bad news is that it seems too

early to be seeing a tree this red.

I'm posting this one day early because I may not have time tomorrow. But I will make time to visit your garden.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - 8/15/09

Too Tired To Post

This Photo Says It all

Joseph From Next Door

Plucked The Sign Out

Of My FlowerPot

He Couldn't Be Any Sweeter!

Thank You To Carol

At May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Was Her Good Idea.

I May Be Too Tired To Post

But I'm Not Too Tired To Read

So Off I Go To Visit Your Garden.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 15

This pretty Lantana is called Bandana Rose, but since the yellow blossoms mature to a rose color I think a better name would be Banana Rose. This is my first time planting a Lantana with a mounding, upright growing habit and I'm liking it a lot, so far. It's in a container. The flowers are bigger and the leaves larger and a darker green than the trailing type I usually plant. I have some of the trailing, spreading type planted in the ground, yellow ones. They're not blooming enough for today's GBBD.

The Lupinus regalis 'Morello Cherry' (Lupine).....did I get that right this time? The tag describes the flower spike as being a dramatic cherry-red. I don't see that, but couldn't love it more and plan to plant others with it for next year. The foliage is lovely to look at long after the flowers are gone.

FINALLY, the Aquilegia 'Ruby Port' (Columbine) is blooming and the wait was worth it. She's so pretty and graceful for having only been in the garden for less than a year.

Every year at this time I get tricked into buying Fuchsia plants. I say tricked because they are so pretty at the garden center that I can't walk by without buying one or two. NEVER have I been able to keep them blooming. This year I've done more reading on how to care for them and found that they have a drinking problem, as in you can't water them too often. If you're interested you can visit Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas for more information. Here are the two pots of Fuchsias I'm trying to keep alive this summer.

Early last evening, Phillip walked around the yard with me to check things out and to see what was new. Even when he doesn't ask, I always tell him the names of the plants and he found the name of these Impatiens to be funny because I often remind him not to be impatient.

I enjoy sharing my blooms on this day, but what makes me happiest is visiting all the other great gardens out there. It's truly a pleasure to do that and I thank Carol at May Dreams Gardens for making it so easy to do.

This post is being put together on Sunday evening because tomorrow will be a busy day for me. But I'll make time to visit the gardens of my "regulars" and every GBBD I make a point of stopping by new gardening blogs to see what they have blooming.