June 2011 Bloom Day

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

There is so much going on in the gardens, I needed an extra day to document it all, and ended up leaving some things out. The peony poppies are about pooped out while the yellow daylilies are coming on. A maroon daylily was handed out at a master gardener tour last year. Coneflowers are all over - purple, coconut lime, and a sundown series. Cleome is robust. Bachelor buttons are new for me this year and so are the yellow oriental lilies. Get a load of the production on the rudbeckia, nicotiana and cactus!

The Find other garden bloggers' bloom days at the blog May Dreams Gardens.

unknown poppy		unknown daylily
unknown daylily		unknown asiatic lily
Echinacea 'Sundown' Big Sky Series		unknown asiatic lily
Astilbe 'Radius' (Astilbe x arendsii)		Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)
Cactus Opuntia		Echinacea 'Coconut Lime'
Bachelor Button (Centaurea cyanus )		Cleome (Cleome hassleriana )
Rudbeckia hirta		Nicotiana sylvestris

Of Spiders and Worts

It seems that there are suddenly a lot of garden blog posts about spiderworts these days. My addition to this collection was actually planned last week when photographs were taken. My Tradescantia virginiana were planted after last year's spring plant swap. A few blossoms were seen in the spring, and a few in the fall. They sat idle for much of the summer, although their vertical foliage was appealing.

Fast forward to this spring, when after the plants did some growin' over the winter, they emerged happy. About two dozen stems 18-inches high (50 cm) with lots of blossoms appeared. But what about the spiders, and what about the worts?

First, I am happy to report that spiderworts are native to this area, and mine appear to be close to the true native (many hybridized varieties exist). They are related to daylilies, iris, and grasses. The flowers appear from clusters of dozens of buds, opening for a day as daylilies do. They complete their show around mid-day until new ones emerge the following morning.

If a leaf tip is broken, the resulting silk thread is supposed to resemble a spider web. One midwest United States nickname for the plant is a 'cow-slobber.' When viewed from above, the plant is supposed to resemble a spider with tip leaves as long legs, and the three-petal flower the insect's body. The botanical name comes from John Tradescent, a gardener for King Charles I. He brought back seeds to England from Virginia in the 1600's, and their popularity increased. And 'wort' is the Saxon word for 'plant'.

For The Record:   • Well drained soil, somewhat clay   • Full sun   • No fertilizer   • No pests or disease Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: spiderworts, coreopsis, rose, tall phlox