May 2020 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month

Not too much variety in the garden at this date, but lots of iris. A nip of cold weather showed up earier this week, and then bam! 85 degrees (30 degrees C) today.

Siberian Iris seems to multiply more and more each year.

Unknown bearded iris but believe it may be 'Fantasyland'.

White nicotiana comes back every year from self-seeding.

Geranium sanguineum makes a nice ground cover.

Kalmia latifolia 'Sarah' was listed as the 'reddest of the reds' mountain laurel in the catalog.

One of my favorite iris, 'Clarence'.

Finally, another result of my bearded iris cross-breeding [posted 2019.05.14] that bloomed for the first time this year. A cross between the Fantasyland and Frank Adams. When the sun hits it, the golden yellow in the base of the petals light up the bright yellow fuzz.

For other garden bloggers' bloom day photos, spring over to the blog May Dreams Gardens

Holdover From Last Year

Three years ago, I bought a cheap packet of mixed snapdragon seeds. I started them indoors, planted outdoors in the spring, and had some so-so snapdragons during the growing season. I was not floored by the size of the plants or the colors, but let them grow. The following year, a bunch of them came back growing again - they self-seeded a dozen new plants from the previous year's deadheading.

Then last year, the same thing happened, but the colors were quite different. There were more yellows and whites. One snapdragon in particular was an incredible color - a soft yellow tinged with salmon pink on the newer buds. [posted 2019.06.15]

This year, in addition to the reseeded plants beginning to sprout again, two plants actually survived our mild winter. The surviving snapdragons are not seedlings but reinvigorated plants from last year. They got a really big head start over the seedlings in the bed and are looking like full mature snapdragons.

This is my deep crimson snapdragon blooming now - a color never seen. I suspect one of the plants that sprouted last year never bloomed, but saved up enough to push out a spike this year. You can see a little of the yellow-salmon peeking out from behind - not very upright.