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.

Syringa reticulata, Japanese tree lilac

Arum italicum, Italian arum

Iberis sempervirens . . . indifference

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.

Vinca minor . . . early friendship

Syringa vulgaris . . . first emotions of love

Caragana microphylla, littleleaf peashrub

This fine textured plant is tough to photograph, but today it's an inspiring waterfall of yellow.  Read more about it here.

Frittillary .... persecution

Magnolia .... Dignity

samara - fruit of the silver maple, Acer saccharinum

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!

Red Tulip .... declaration of love

Crocus...youthful gladness

From the courtyard garden of The Denver Puppet Theater. Design by Annie Zook

Iris germanica and Tradescantia virginiana (blooming in The Art Garden in early June)

This may well be the most floriferous day of the year!! 

My garden is bursting at the seams with blooming plants; some are on the wane, some are in their prime, and others are just starting to emerge. Fifty-two different plants, to be exact.

Only a few woody shrubs flowering now: beauty bush, Apache plume, and and unknown variety of Potentilla. The Apache plume, Fallugia paradoxa, has simple (OK, boring) flowers, but just wait till you see the seed heads!

clearly a member of the rose family, Rosaceae

full of fluffy funness!

My small Syringa reticulata AKA Japanese tree lilac, is just barely starting to flower - a bit later than usual - but it will look like this in just a few days:



One plant that I always get questions about is this Allium christophii. The flower heads are typically softball sized on 12"-30" stems, but this one is spectacular!

Not a trick photo! My palm is on the flowers, my finger span is 7 inches.

I like the look of the dried seed heads, they remind me of fireworks bursting in the sky, so I've let them seed throughout the garden. A great on line source for these bulbs, and many others is Brent and Becky's.  Right now is the perfect time to order bulbs for fall planting!

Another plant that is starting to flower now is this pink Maltese cross, Lychnis chalcedonia
I love the dusty rose color, softer than the traditional - and more common - red form.  It can go fairly dry if it's sited to receive afternoon shade.



Crambe cordifolia is another WOW plant this time of year. The large foliage - think rhubarb sized leaves -  adds bold texture, and the five foot tall (yes!) inflorescence  is spectacular.


The beautiful silver foliage of horned poppy, Glaucium flavum, is a treat all summer, but the orange blooms are certainly cheery in the garden now:


Be sure to join Carol at May Dreams Gardens to link up with all the other gardeners showing their favorites today!

Now, just one more before I go... bearded iris, Iris germanica, are - oddly enough - still going strong. All of my iris have been acquired as giveaways from friends, so I don't have a clue as to their "proper" names.  This one is a favorite:

If you like this iris photo, just wait till you see my Photo Friday post...stay tuned!