Garden Share Bristol

Many areas of Colorado's Front Range have been hit with severe hail storms this past month. Luckily, my garden has only had to cope with the endless, drying winds. Here are a few highlights of what's blooming right now --- my favorites that are tough and reliable, regardless of the crazy weather:

Dalea purpureum, purple prairie clover

Glaucium flavum, horned poppy

Nymphaea spp, hardy waterlily

Callirhoe involucrata, poppy mallow

Echinops ritro, globe thistle

Penstemon pinefolius 'Mersea Yellow', yellow pine-leaf penstemon

I hope you and your garden is faring well during the glorious month of June! Click here to join other garden bloggers via our host, Carol, of May Dreams Gardens.

Paeonia hybrid, tree peony

 We didn't have many April showers, but May flowers are still in abundance - hurray! The hands-down star of the show is this tree peony.


Although classified as a woody shrub, it typically suffers severe die-back every winter (in my garden) then bounces back to form a 3'x3' shrub with these beautiful, 6-7" diameter blossoms. This is one plant in my garden that I'm willing to provide with a bit of extra water. Every garden needs one or two exotic specimens, right? A gift from a gardening friend many years ago, I'm sorry that I can't recall the specific variety.

Update:  After doing some research, I believe that this is Paeonia suffruticosa 'Kinkaku' or 'Souvenir de Maxime Cornu'

May is also prime time for Iris germanica, bearded iris. There are two fantastic iris farms in the region where you can see scores of varieties in bloom and place your orders directly with the grower for post flowering delivery. Iris 4 U is in the Englewood area, and Long's Gardens is in central Boulder. Always a fun outing and it's nice to support our local farmers, too.  But don't delay, the gardens are only open for a few weeks during the peak blooming season.

White iris & white flowering Cerastium tomentosum make an elegant and xeric combination.

Love the hidden "zebra" stripes here!

Another of my springtime favorites is Centranthus ruber, red valerian or Jupiter's beard.  The rich intensity of color adds vibrancy to both sunny or shaded settings:

A great, water-wise butterfly plant. Deadhead for repeat blooms all summer.

An underused perennial that is also quite drought tolerant is this sweet Verbascum hybrid. It stands about 20-24" tall and blooms for several weeks.

Brightly colored flower spikes above a basal rosette of coarsely textured leaves.

Our native spiderwort, Tradescantia occidentalis, adds a col hit of blue and is happy to reseed itself in the driest garden areas.

This linear, horizontal foliage is a favorite of mine.

Thanks for visiting The Art Garden today, I hope you'll head over to Carol's May Dreams Garden for links to additional garden sites from around the world.

It's so rewarding to see so many plants in bloom this month!  April flowers are our colorful reward after a long winter's nap.  Although I don't think of my own garden as having a particularly dazzling early spring display, there are at least a few things to share with you today:

The prairie garden is coming to life

Although the buffalo grass is still dormant...

the first of the species tulips, T. dasystemon, are on show

...and the Caragana is blooming.

The back border is awash in lilacs and mahonia                                    

Syringa vulgaris

Mahonia aquifolium

Bergenia cordifolia

and the standing-on-my-head shot

The pond is not ready for prime-time, but some of the surrounding plants are at their flowering peak now.   These plants provided evergreen foliage all winter:

variegated Vinca minor

candytuft, Iberis sempervirens

Turkish veronica, V. liwanensis

Across the entry garden mahonia, vinca and an informal hedge of Cameo quince:

It's always fun to look back and compare today's bloomers with those from last year.  2012 will certainly go down as an "early" and floriferous Spring!

Don't forget to visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to find links to other gardens from around the world that are sharing their colorful blooms today too!

Autumn purple ash, just about at its peak of color

 Although foliage color is what I associate with the month of October, as you can see here, there are a surprising number of colorful flowers to be found too!

Zagreb coreopsis

whirling butterflies

plumbago

Autumn Joy sedum

Frosty Morn sedum

Maximillian sunflower

hummingbird flower

poppy mallow

All of these plus a few asters, phlox, centranthus, rudbekia, and Russian sage all add up to a rich bounty of blooms.

Please visit Carol, at May Dreams Gardens, to see what's happening in her garden and those of other garden bloggers from around the world.

Instead of plant portraits this month, I'd like to show you the bigger picture: my September garden is lush and full of color!

View of the west border: Cerastosigma, Aster, Gaura, Oreganum and Sedum in bloom

A closer view shows how foliage plays an important role in this garden, too.

View to the east and south side of the bluegrass/clover lawn; Perovskia, Sedum, Ceratostigma, Aster and Chrysothamnus!

View across the south border, looking east: Buddleia still blooming! Sculpture by Mark Burton.

View to the "vegetable" garden: a bit of formality tames the chaos of the grass garden.

View from the patio: water lilies and water lettuce starting their slow decline.

Oh, and Lightening says "Hi!"

Thanks for visiting my garden today, and a special thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this monthly extravaganza - visit her site for links to gardens all over the world!

August in the garden can feel like nothing but weeds, weeds, weeds! So it's especially nice to take time to enjoy what's blooming right now:

The last of the daylilies:

Hemerocallis 'Hyperion'

The not-quite-ready-for-prime-time sedum:

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' One of my clients refers to these as "those plants that look like broccoli"

And the still going strong coneflowers:

Echinacea 'White Swan'

Ratibida columnifera

Looking fabulous right now are the bluemist spirea and butterfly bush:

Caryopteris x clandonensis

Buddleia davidii 'Dark Knight'

Buddleia davidii 'Nanho Blue' This compact form has a finer texture and silvery foliage.

Nearing the peak of perfection is the grass garden:

Switch grass (Panicum virgatum) left, and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium).

Buffalo grass (Bucheloe dactyloides) swirls through the taller plants.

A tiny visitor...

Thanks for visiting my garden today, and be sure and join in the fun at May Dreams Gardens for links to more garden bloggers from across the globe!