I discovered that garden bloggers have a tradition of posting pics of whatever’s blooming in their gardens on the 15th of each month. So, as a wanna-be garden blogger, here’s my contribution. Our garden is in Asheville, NC, on the south-facing side of a mountain ridge.
The official first bloom of the year was a stunted dandelion my younger daughter found a few weeks ago. However, last week, the first desired bloom arrived: jasmine. Which sort of jasmine it is, I don’t know — it predates me on this property. It has a nice sheltered spot on the sunny south-facing bank along the road, so it usually blooms comparatively early.
Coincidentally, today was the first day a crocuses bloomed. Typically, just like buses, I’d been waiting a week since the little green leaves first stuck their needles out of the ground a week ago, just to tantalize me, and then three of them bloomed at the same time this morning. Judging from the multiple flower spikes visible in the first picture, there should be a crowd joining these débutantes tomorrow.
Every year I bring the picking pots into my office (which has three walls of windows) and consolidate the remaining annuals and a few perennials into them. They keep my office bright and cheerful even through the dullest parts of winter. These geraniums and petunias are evidently feeling their own version of spring fever right now, as they’re blooming brightly in response to the more-abundant sunshine.
What this intrepid shoot will become I have no idea. It’s growing wild along the roadside, beneath the jasmine. I only noticed it last week when I cut a nearby tree down. I’ll keep an eye on it and see what it turns into. If it’s pretty, I’ll move it somewhere more prominent and share it on a future Bloom Day.
Some great garden blogs:
The fab May Dreams Garden blog, where I believe this whole Garden Bloom Day thing originated.
Growing a Garden in Davis, another good garden blog, albeit one very far from my NC garden.
Two of my near-neighbor garden blogs: Outside Clyde and An Urban Plot.
And another lit-blog/garden-blog hybrid like mine, Vicki Lane’s Mysteries.
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February 15, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Christopher C NC
Welcome to Garden Bloggers Bloom Day Rich. You are ahead of me in Asheville. My elevation sets me back a whole climate zone.
February 15, 2011 at 10:10 pm
Pam/Digging
You don’t seem like a wanna-be to me, Rich. Looks like you ARE a garden blogger based on the posts I see on this page. I hope your cast-iron plant is happier in a shady spot. Probably in your cooler climate you could even go with morning sun, afternoon shade. Here in Austin they need a good deal of shade or they burn. But, man, are they drought-tolerant. And deer ignore them.
February 15, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Rich
Thanks, Christopher.
What you may lack in temperature you make up in scale and beautiful vistas (not to mention a great eye with a camera).
Hi Pam,
At least deer aren’t a problem where we are (unlike bears… who at least don’t bother the plants). The drought tolerance has probably been what saved our iron plant the past couple of years. I think I’ll have to move it temporarily to a half-way house bed, as I have plans for a great morning-sun mostly shade bed, but don’t have time just now to make that a reality. I do love the pictures you took, and hope our scraggly plant can become a lush, explosion of green fronds like yours.