April Flowers

Forgive me for yet another garden post. Right now everything is growing so fast you can see a difference from one day to the next. Things will slow down soon enough and I'll write about something else.

Until then you might get sick of reading about the garden. Especially the first few weeks of the season, each and every variety in bloom is a favorite. Later it takes more to get my attention.

No garden is complete without the "bulb of the week", Ipheion uniflorum, better known as spring starflowers (below). Several clumps drifted over from the neighbor's yard. They do well in dry shade where little else will grow. [Click on any pic to make it bigger.)

Dicentra spectabilis (aka bleeding hearts) is one of my most favorite plants and the "flower of the week". Beautiful heart-shaped flowers dangle from long stems for many weeks this time of year. Mine are just starting to bloom and will likely show up here again when they reach full bloom in a few weeks.

I use a lot of annuals. Since you need new ones every year anyway, they make it easy to change things up. This weekend the front edge of this border welcomed several flats of pink begonias and red dianthus (below). I'm on a red binge this year for some reason.

Now we need some April showers. If not, reckon I'll be watering. A yard full of dead flowers for the Derby Party would turn anyone into...

The Crotchety Old Man