It's a good thing I took pictures on Friday. All weekend it has rained and rained and rained (2.72 inches so far). For those of you suffering from the same problems here is some GBBD cheer!
I know many gardeners are posting spring blooms this month but outside for me it's Garden Bloggers Bud Day. Here is a nice pansy that survived under the snow all winter. If we'd had sunshine and warm weather on the weekend she's probably be blooming today.
The previous homeowner planted lots of crocus in purples and whites. I need to add some yellows. After a long gray New England winter I need bright colors in the garden.
The Pieris japonica hold their buds all winter long. Nice winter interest. Not blooming yet.
Sadly that's it for outdoors. But inside is a different story! Here's my new Streptocarpus.
A nice close up of a reblooming Phalenopsis.
My windowsill full of perpetually blooming Begonias. Love the long bloom time on these.
Finally, some yellow. A nice yellow primrose, followed by a nice orange primrose. These guys sit on my desk to cheer me up while I'm grading. If you notice that the centers of the flowers look different they are. The yellow plant is a "female" and the orange one is a "male." Most plants seem to be both but primrose fit into the Dioecious category. I have been corrected. (Doesn't happen often. Don't get used to it.) Primrose flowers are even weirder than that. They apparently come in two varieties: Pin and Thrum. They do seem to require cross pollination between a pin type and a thrum type but both types produce both "male" and "female" gametes. Thanks to Joseph from Greensparrow Gardens (see the comment below).
That's it for me today. Hopefully next month.... Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for this meme.
Love your begonias! I need to get myself some of those.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I'm pretty certain your primroses aren't male and female -- rather, they are "pin" and "thrum" -- a crazy thing primroses do (called heterostyly) where one plant has short stamens and a long pistil (pin -- your yellow one), and the other has long stamens and a short pistil (thrum -- your orange one) Good pictures and explanation here: http://www.primulaworld.com/PWweb/pinandthrum.shtml
Ha! I'd never call 3 inches of rain a problem! But of course I'm still glad you took some pictures before. Thanks for sharing! Happy bloom day!
ReplyDeletealoha,
ReplyDeleteyou have alot of beautiful indoor blooms coming from your garden today i love that streptocarpus flower, the red is quite intense.
I hear ya! You have to anticipate rain when planning bloom day in the spring. Great indoor blooms.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how pansies manage to survive the winter, even though in our zone 6 gardens they're not "supposed" to. I let mine go to seed last year and I now have baby pansies scattered throughout the beds, most of them sporting small buds. Yours looks like it's a little ahead. Happy Spring!
ReplyDelete