May flowers on Bloom Day
I nearly didn’t post this Bloom Day, having a lot of work on my desk that needs doing, plus a stock tank pond that needs installing. But when I went out this morning to water some new plants and recent transplants, I noticed some new May flowers and couldn’t stop myself from getting out the camera to document them. Here they are, mixed in with some April holdovers.
Pictured above is a beautiful, single, and easily overlooked flower spike on a green sempervivum echeveria. The flower is hanging above the blue echeveria next to it, whose foliage is as beautiful as any flower.
This pink cuphea is a passalong from Annie in Austin and a transplanted division from my old garden. It just started blooming this week. The ants seem to love it.
Winecups (Callirhoe involucrata ) continue to charm me. This too is a transplant from my old garden, and I must plant more of it throughout my garden beds next year.
‘Totally Tempted’ cuphea, one of the Proven Winners plants I’m trialing. FYI, I saw this plant and many other of my PW trial plants at the Great Outdoors yesterday. So if you’re in Austin and want to support a terrific independent nursery instead of a big-box store, go check it out. Also, according to Merrideth Jiles, general manager of the Great Outdoors, the PW plants can be purchased under other names, so just because you don’t see a PW plant tag, it doesn’t mean you aren’t buying the exact same plant.
‘Grapes’ gomphrena, rustled from one of my old garden’s stock-tank planters.
Rudbeckia hirta , which overall are rather slug-eaten and ratty looking, but this trio of blazing flowers looks good.
Ahh, sweet ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome, another of the PW trial plants, is still flouncing her skirts.
One of my favorite native plants for part-shade, heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata ) has oily, fuzzy leaves and beautiful lavender flowers in spring. It can spread aggressively, but summer’s heat tames it a little by causing it to die back until cooler weather revives it.
‘Best of Friends’ daylily is blooming.
So is my new ‘Candy Corn’ trailing abutilon. I love love love these petite red-and-yellow flowers, which dangle along the length of the horizontal stems like bleeding hearts. I’m not sure what summer will do to this plant, and I recently transplanted it into a little more shade than I’d first given it. Morning sun seems best, with midday and afternoon shade. This is a Great Outdoors purchase also.
‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia, as fresh and lovely as ever.
Rock penstemon (Penstemon baccharifolius ), another Texas native.
I dug this division from my old garden and planted it with the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (Agave ovatifolia ), also relocated from the old garden. Both like sharp drainage and sun, but they’re making do nicely with part-sun (midday and afternoon) in one of the raised beds.
Mexican oregano (Poliomintha longiflora )—like the rock penstemon, a drought-tolerant hummingbird attractor.
A lily I inherited with the new garden. It looks so out of place, so frou-frou, standing there all by itself, but I didn’t have the heart to pull it out.
A closer look
The ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave is finished blooming. This and the next image were taken a few days ago, as the flower spike was on the decline.
Today when I looked up at it (it’s at least 6 feet tall, and even taller because it’s planted in a stock tank in a raised bed), I saw that the spent flowers had mostly dropped to the ground, which surprised me. I expected that they would dry on the plant and the seeds would fall out later. But perhaps it seeds out by dropping the flowers right after they’ve wilted.
I leave you with the winecups, which will probably be finished by June and only a sweet memory until next spring. Visit May Dreams Gardens to see what’s blooming on this day in gardens around the world.
All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Pam, I’m so happy you decided to post about your May blooms! Did you see on my list of newly planted perennials that I’m trying Winecups in my garden? I can only hope they’ll look as good as yours! Thank you for joining in for bloom day!
Hi Pam! Wonderful blooms, as always! Sets the mood for the day. Thank you!
Yes, my aloe bloom looked droopy earlier in the week. And I regrettably chopped it down. Boy, that stalk was thick. At least an inch around. It’s like a holiday when you’re a kid. You wait and wait and the day just spins past so quickly.
Brenda
That daylily shot is stunning! Thanks for showing off your May blooms…
Wow, for someone who wasn’t going to post you did good! I think the photo of the sempervivum is my favorite – I like the colors and composition, the blurred background of the plant, and of course, the fact that at least here in Michigan it’s great to get a flower. But all of your photos are beautifully done and the gardens are wonderful.
Good for you to notice and appreciate the sempervivum bloom. So many people don’t, and as usual a great shot with the fabulous rosette in the background. Pam I don’t remember, is the Macho Mocha mangave monocarpic? It is still looking very happy and healthy!
I’ve been told that it is not monocarpic, Loree. In that regard, it’s more like a manfreda than an agave. —Pam
If you ever decide you don’t want that white lily, I’ll take it! I guess I’m into frou-frou. I think a lot of what flowers this time of year in Austin is so pale, small, and wan. As long as our weather is going to be sweltering, I feel like going a bit more tropical, especially around the pond.
It’s all yours, MSS. I’ll save it for you. —Pam
Pam, I’m totally tempted by that cuphea too! I recently planted my first heartleaf skullcap and await the day it looks like yours. Oh, and keep the lily, too sweet, and free!
Gorgeous blooms Pam! I’m glad you decided to post your May flowers. They’re all beautiful. I love the wine cups.
That’s a great shot of the Diamond Frost. I find them hard to photograph.
Happy Bloom Day!
I have a soft spot for the plants that have that delicious water colored look like the pink cuphea and Totally Tempted Cuphea! Your flowers look wonderful…gail
That lovely callirhoe reminds me of Clarkia (Godetia) which I will enjoy in my garden sometime in the next month…I hope. The lily doesn’t seem like your style, but how nice to have a free, pretty surprise. I would be v. happy to have that pink cuphea to pass my way, too.
Your transplants have taken well to their new garden. You could always take that lily inside and make a feature of it there. Will the manfreda make viable seeds I wonder. Senorita rosalita is a pretty form of cleome.
I have to say, the Easter Lily next to the Agave bracteosa, while unconventional, is evidence of a keen sense of horticultural irony. I LIKE it!
And the rest, of course, is as beautiful as ever…
Yeah, that’s it! They’re all in the lily family. That sounds so much better than, That’s just where they ended up! The Easter lily’s days are numbered. MSS of Zanthan Gardens is going to give her a new, loving home. —Pam
I can see why you decided to post, you have some lovely things blooming. I think Callirhoe may be in my future. I just love how the color seems to glow.
I did wonder about that Easter Lily when I saw the photo. It doesn’t look like your style, but they do have a nice scent and pristine blooms. It needs a friend or two is all.
It will have a friend soon, in MSS’s garden. She’s offered to take it off my hands, and I gladly accepted. 😉 —Pam
The Winecups are my favorite! It was fun to see the Easter Lily in full bloom as you showed us that plant when it first started coming up.
Hi Pam, the sempervivum photo is pure art! One of your best, and that is saying something! The cuphea is great. You have inspired me to begin a collection, your lovely ones and the fact that C. ignea wintered over! I am on a mission now, and my favorite nursery, Mouse Creek has many different varieties. The daylily is just the mostest. 🙂
Frances
ps it is later than I am usually commenting, my excuse for nonsensical words.
Cupheas are great, aren’t they? I need to restock my garden with the Austin favorite batface cuphea (C. llavea). —Pam
I’m glad you have winecups in your new garden, I think they are so pretty. Your pictures are beautiful as always, you can make even a slug infested, ratty looking flower a work of art!
Pam, it’s always fun to see the plants in your garden that are unknown to me in this zone. Pretty photos, and educational!
Cameron
Thanks for taking the time, I really enjoyed the tour of blooms and absolutely love the first photo.
You have such an interesting variety of blooms Pam. Thanks for posting even though you were busy. I do like the Winecups a lot. What a rich color! And Senorita Rosalita is a great color as well. My Cleome reseeded all over the place, it is a white and pale pink bloom. One day will have to try Senorita Rosalita.
Beautiful photos as usual, glad you kept the iris, she’s lovely, and must love her home:)
Love the pictures as always and I also tried the winecups last year. I am cleaning out that garden today which holds them so time will tell if they overwintered. Glad you found the time for the post…beautiful blooms.
Hey Pam: Beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing! sheryl
I’m so glad you shared. Thank you. You’ve made me a Cuphea nut. I have three this year I think. I bought bat-faced and put it in a container to pull against the house (so that it might stay alive through the cold). I bought ‘Mouse Ears’ the other day, and I think I bought one at Bustani, but now I can’t remember. Girl, you’ve helped me change the plants in my garden. Thanks and Happy Bloom Day.~~Dee
Ooh, I’d love to try the ‘Mouse Ears’ myself, Dee. I just love cupheas. By the way, I saw a variegated tapioca at the nursery the other day and thought of you! —Pam
The flowers to the green sempervivum are indeed stunning. I also really like your combo of the agave and the rock pensetmon–inspired! Also, ‘Macho Mocha’ really got tall!
I love some of the new things I am seeing on your pages. Some of the cupheas are totally new to me. And note to self- must add winecups. They look delightful and the color is so vivid.
I could try to tell you I’d finally caught up with you since I have some of the same things blooming, but of course in my case they’re annuals (Diamond Frost euphorbia and Totally Tempted Cuphea.) I haven’t done Bloom Day for quite a while but that’s not keeping me from enjoying the postings of others.
I’ve never seen such a pink cuphea. Or maybe it’s just the closeup that makes it look so different. Love the ants on it. 🙂 I really love the rock penstemon with your Whale’s Tongue. Great combo. Looking forward to meeting you at CSF in less than two weeks!
It’s pretty pink, Jean. I don’t know what it’s called since it was a passalong plant. See you in Chicago! —Pam
The cuphea with the ants is a cool shot. What lens did you use for that shot?
Thanks, CIMS. I only wish I had an SLR camera with different lenses. I use a nice point-and-shoot, a Canon Powershot S3 IS that I bought in 2007, and I used the super-macro setting for that image. —Pam
Hi, Pam, I can see the garden really did call you and you responded fully! Bravo! Love all the flowers you are experimenting with. The white “out of place” lily seems to be heralding its joy that you are there and making everything so beautiful. I’m sure I heard it singing. 🙂 Kathryn xxoox
I too felt guilty when I was supposed to be taking quick pictures of the state of our new house but ended up spending another two hours photographing wildflowers. Then Garrison Keillor was on the radio with his writer’s almanac and had a wonderful poem called “Leisure”. The link is at http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/04/30 and it reminds us that life is not worth much if we don’t have time to stand and stare.
Yeah, even a lily fanatic like me would have to admit that lily seems out of place, though I can’t see the whole mise en scene of your garden. The sempervivum flower is truly amazing and gorgeous.
That cuphea is incredible! I’m always amazed at the strange forms and colors some flowers have. I also love those wine cups, very pretty.
You make that little pink cuphea look dramatic, Pam – I’m touched that you brought it with you. The passalong heartleaf skullcap from you has a flower! The whole plant disappeared last year so its reappearance was a surprise. And right now there is a bloom stalk on the ‘Best of Friends’ from your old garden.
Looks like the lily is in with columbines, spiderwort and a yucca? Varieties of all those plants grew happily together in my Illinois front yard so it doesn’t look very odd to me ;-]
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
The heartleaf skullcap always disappears in the summer, Annie, but then it returns in the winter and keeps on growing through spring. A wonderful plant! I hope it will fill out for you a bit this year. —Pam