Hello everyone out there! Sorry I've been MIA for such a long time...but I'm back, and I can't think of a better way to return than with a Bloom Day Post (of course, a couple days late). Spring is well and truly underway here in Portland...the garden changes so rapidly right now that every days I wake up and can't wait to see what else has returned or is in bloom. At this point, I think everything that will return HAS returned. There were a few losses over the winter, I'm guessing due to our parking strips flooding repeatedly. Oh well...such is life, right? Without further ado...on with the show!
April in my garden is Tulip season. I'm not a collector or connoisseur by any means...I just buy a bag of whatever looks good at the time. My favorite Tulip purchase was a few years ago when I found a mix of pinks/purples/whites called Plum Pudding or something similarly silly....they are great...a perfect blend of colors that makes me look super chic! I wish I could find it again...maybe this fall, right?
Here they are again...just love them!
While its early for most of my Iris, the purple ones we inherited with the house always bloom about a month to a few weeks earlier than all the rest...which I love...it extends the Iris season by quite a bit...and they are so pretty (and fragrant)!
Love 'em or hate 'em, if you live in Portland, chances are you have a healthy patch of Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides). They spread at a frightening rate...and I've given up trying to get rid of them...I just pull them out the moment they are done blooming. Does it really weaken the bulbs...maybe a little, but not enough to keep them from coming back each year!
Still...at least they are a pretty weed...and they do provide a nice cool flush of color for several weeks.
I especially love them mixed with grasses...as here with Calamagrostis 'Avalanche'.
The Geranium macrorrhizum I have scattered around the garden are also starting to bloom. I love their lush, green (and fragrant) foliage...and the blooms are brief and lovely addition.
I know there was a time I really liked this Euphorbia 'Dixter', but it seems like such a distant memory. I tried exorcising from my garden last year, only to have it return even more vigorous this year!
One of my favorites, Oxalis oregana, flowers fairly heavily in the spring and then sporadically during summer...it's another plant which forms a lovely, lush carpet of leaves.
I purchased this Manzaninta 'James Roof' earlier this spring when I fell in love with it's deep mahogany bark and bonsai-like form. Imagine my surprise when I noticed these tiny, white urn-shaped blooms!
That's about it for now in my garden...we're literally just days away from the flood of Iris and Alliums...but you'll get to see those next month, I'm sure.
I hope you're having as nice a spring as we are here in Portland...we've had some nice, sunny weather recently, but have returned to lovely, soft showers today, for which both I AND the recently transplanted plants are grateful. Check out May Dreams Garden for more blooms from around the world...and happy GBBD!
Delightful~Happy GBBD, I just posted mine, too!
ReplyDeleteHappy GBBD! I'm glad to see a post from you, I missed your wonderful pictures. You should bring that Euphorbia Dixter to the plant swap, I'll take it off your hands.
ReplyDeleteWeedy or not, the Hyacinthoides would be welcome here. So cheerful!
ReplyDeleteLOVE the color combinations in the first two photos. And the use of the word "exorcize" in reference to aggressive plants!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha...glad we're together in tardiness, Gail!
ReplyDeleteHahaha...I'll bring it for you, Alison...just beware...it looks pretty sad when you dig it up...so it won't look particularly happy!
ReplyDeleteYour tulips are perfect--I love those purples. And that painted fern emerging from the oxalis--yowza! Happy bloom day!
ReplyDeleteOh yes indeed, I am lucky to be in the Spanish Bluebells club too. I had fun attempting to remove some from the former privet-lands. I swear for every tiny bulb I removed two would break off and immediately sink into the soil never to be seen again, or at least until next spring.
ReplyDelete" super chic"...perhaps you are?
Welcome back! Hope everything is o.k. with you! Your blooms look terrific. Maybe I won't try so hard to get rid of the curse of Spanish bluebells in my garden. They really aren't so bad except that they tend to smother delicate emerging foliage around them. Great to see you and Heather on Saturday!
ReplyDeleteI actually always forget that fern is there and get so excited when I see it. I think I need to add more ferns in that area.
ReplyDeleteThey are so awful, aren't they...I swear, one time I decided I was going to eradicate them...I must have dug down 3-4' and they just grew in layers...hundreds and thousands of them...it's a little scary.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Peter...yes, everything is fine (if hectic). It was great seeing you two as well...always a treat!
ReplyDeleteYour yard is really taking off there. Just had snow again here but am starting to see some growth. Now to watch to see what all I lost.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
Last year the Chicago Botanic Garden had a mass planting of light to dark purple tulips much like your "plum pudding". Beautiful! Now, I have to say I planted some Spanish bluebells last fall. I'm thinking they will be less rampant here in frigid Chiberia? Just to be clear, you pull out the bulbs just to slow them down - just throwing them in the compost or whatever?
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you "back". Your tulips combos are divine. The oxalis and fern photo looks like a painting. Phenomenal.
ReplyDeleteMy Spanish Bluebells didn't get the memo on being invasive, I looked and there are still 3 little 6" clumps. Strange. Your tulips are making a wonderful display. Voles eat mine, so it's fun to look at yours, though some species Tulips do OK for me. I really like the Japanese Painted Fern appearing mysteriously in the Oxalis. I was wondering if planning for Hortlandia and Fling were keeping you from posting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pleasure to see all those tulips. i cannot grow them because of the deer. A great Bloom Day
ReplyDeleteI usually avoid those bulb mixes, but it sure worked out well for you. I'm with you on the Hyancthoides: they come along just in time to hide they dying tete-a-tete's dying foliage, and after all, I have plenty of room.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to find you back with a new post, Scott! It's funny what gardeners in different areas of the country view as weeds. Our dry, hot conditions are apparently sufficient to keep the Spanish bluebells in check here in southern California - I count myself lucky when they reappear at all. However, in my own post, I referred to Centranthus ruber and Erigeron karvinskianus as "weeds" and heard other gardeners protest about the effort involved in cultivating these plants in their own areas.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, with the fling and all looming I cam imagine that has been making you all there extra busy. You came back from your short hiatus with aplomb with gorgeous pics as always!
ReplyDeleteLove the tulips. You could, of course, create your own mix from a good garden center (of which you have MANY, lucky man!). I just love your garden and am so glad spring has FINALLY come and we get to enjoy it again. Happy Easter
ReplyDeletewelcome back! your blooms are super.
ReplyDeleteThe tulip / bluebells combo down that length of space is stunning!
ReplyDeleteHi Scott,
ReplyDeleteHope you are well and enjoying the lovely weather and garden!
Your Tulips do look very impressive, I had hoped for similar in my garden too but the soil is too heavy and they don't repeat bloom very well here so it's more sporadic and, well, rubbish to be honest.
I love Oxalis; their leaves are so nice and of course very useful for ground cover.
The Hyacinthoides are a very common plant here as well, and have naturalized all over the place. I like them and have planted my share, but I only wish they would stay where I put them.
ReplyDeleteI've been digging and moving / removing: Bluebells, tulips, E. Great Dixter , Alliums …. exhausted
ReplyDeleteThings are looking up there Scott. I suppose you are ready for the explosion. Live for today, plant for tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! Looks like spring in Portland is in full swing! The Fern and Oxalis combination is stunning. Thanks for sharing your colorful display!
ReplyDeleteHappy GBBD! The purple combinations of your tulips are very soft and romantic. Perfectly spring! Gorgeous new header! And I think you are one of the few people I am aware of who can make spanish blue bells look so perfect. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteSo very pretty, love the tulips. Wish I could grow those bluebells.
ReplyDeleteHi Scott
ReplyDeleteThanks for the gardenreport from your garden. Maybe it´s because we do not have the same doubble pavement in Denmark like you in Portland, and at many other places overthere, - that your last picture, as many before this, - once again give me the oppotunity to clap my hands. The way you have made this natural gardenwalk in the Rhone Street, is amazing. I´ll call it `complicated simpicity´. Most because many gardenpeople don´t see the possibilities in the land or garden they own, like you´d practised here so fine and convincing on a rather small plot. In Denmark frontgardens has become a joke resent years. Many are covered with crushed granite, imported from Portugal, with lack of interesting colours, no plants at all, and trodden upon; it feels like walking in biscuits before teatime. I´ve given references to your blog and your extremly noble and delightful photos to many of my clients, and with no further words they understand my point when they see your garden described in your many lovely posts and your beautiful pictures of a special garden that inspire some more of the danes to make a more beautiful and vital frontgarden.
ps: I know what you meen by the silly name of tulipcombinations; had a similar of three tulips years ago: `Ronaldo´ `Chirley´ and `Recreado´ an astonishing combination but a short pleasure and only for three years.
A beautiful day to you and your relatives
Kjeld Slot
Hey, send some of those Spanish Bluebells my way. They will fit right in with the other invasive plants I seem to have collected.
ReplyDeleteRay
Here is a 60-second video that shows how to easily remove arborvitae, roots and all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkU9Sz-fgGI
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning photos. Your spring flowers are just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteSpring has been vile here. So glad to see it all looking so alive and well in your neck of the woods - the oxalis and fern are a particularly interesting combination - looking forward to seeing more from your lovely garden in the days ahead.
ReplyDeleteIs that a Japanese painted fern with the Oxalis oregana? What a stunning combo of shape and color. Also, your front garden is very inspiring. We are currently scouting out plants that can tough both the salt from winter roads and the extreme summer heat. Happy Bloom Day!
ReplyDeleteHi Kjeld...that's one of the nicest compliments I've ever gotten...thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteIt is, Jane...I love it!
ReplyDeleteOh no, that's awful, Barbara...I hope it improves :-(
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Diane!
ReplyDeleteHahaha...I will!
ReplyDeleteBe careful what you wish for, Donna ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I wanted, Jenni...the romance and gentility of spring :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks...spring is definitely on the move!
ReplyDeleteHa...that's the truth, isn't it, Greg!
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain, Linda...I truly do!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha...that's the thing, isn't it, Les...they really are pretty...but they LOVE to colonize!
ReplyDeleteI have really mixed luck with Tulips, Liz...this was a good year...some years it's like they just do nothing.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of my fave vignettes, to be sure, David :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Kathie!
ReplyDeleteYes...so glad, Susan!
ReplyDeleteIt's been a crazy spring, hasn't it...and it doesn't look to let up any time soon ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's so true, Kris! The Centranthus is a bit of a nuisance around Portland too...but I still kind of love it ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've honestly never bought one before either, Ricki...but I love that one :-)
ReplyDeleteDarn Deer!
ReplyDeleteIt's so weird how plants act differently in different conditions, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI do love that fern & oxalis pairing :-)
ReplyDeleteYes...I just pull the plants in handfuls...tossing them in the compost :-)
ReplyDelete