Friday, January 16, 2009

Bloom Day January 2009

Here we are already for the first bloom day of the year. I realize that I'm a day late for this, but I figured it's better late than never, right? I've been trying to catch up on my blogging and have been having problems with uploading photos. One of these days I'll get caught up. Anyway, here is what I have for Bloom Day which is the idea of Carol of May Dreams Gardens Blog ( http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/).
















The first photo is what's left of the bottle brush that I recently planted in the backyard. I realize that the bloom is mostly spent, but since it's trying why not put it in I've got a very unusual bloom from my Mule's Ear Kalanchoe. It's covered in buds and they flowers are slowly opening one at a time. I have this plant inside to protect it from the cold.
That bloom in the middle that looks like the flower that Horton carried around full of Who's is from my shoestring acacia. It's a really cool and unusual tree.


I was surprised at the number of things that were blooming in the garden. We've been having some cold weather lately and a few freezing nights, but most of the things I have in the yard are able to survive the freezing temperatures. The statice in the front yard is still blooming nicely. It's interesting to watch the bloom stalks rise and the flowers unfold on this plant.
I've got a nice assortment of violas and pansies and of course dianthus and candytuft.

The petunia that came up volunteer this past spring still had one flower on it. I've got a few of the spooky dianthus blooming. They are really going crazy with flowers right now. My purple trailing lantana is still looking healthy and covered in blooms and I've got one zinnia plant left with a few rather pathetic looking flowers. That one will probably go into the composter soon.

I'm closing out the post with another photo of the Mule's Ear Kalanchoe. It's such an unusual flower.

Well that's it for this post. Sorry to keep it so short and with unorganized photos. Hopefully I will have my photo posting problem figured out soon and can catch up on the entries.

Stay warm everybody and I look forward to seeing what you have in your gardens in February, the coldest month here in Austin.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have a lot of flowers to show on this Bloom Day. I'm envious that you have dianthus blooming. Mine is just sitting there.

Jean Campbell said...

Love the violas, especially the little blushing yellow one. I bought regular yellow just recently, because they were there....

Next year, I want violas everywhere, not just a flutter of yellow and a couple lines of pink/burgundy.

Carol Michel said...

Wow, that's a lot of bloom and nice to see on a cold January night. Thanks for joining in again!

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

ConsciousGardener said...
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ConsciousGardener said...

Awesome! I'd like a cutting of that Kalanchoe Randy!

Horselip's Horse Sense said...

Cheryl, you can have all of the kalanchoe you want. Each leaf has a little plant piggy backing on it. I have little ones sprouting up all over.

Annie in Austin said...

Hi Horselip - great pansies and love the acacia. My narrow leaved zinnias have been gone for ages - either that's a tough plant or my area has been a lot colder!

So the MuleDeer kalanchoe has a yellow flower? I have the similarly viviparous plant, the Mother of Thousands kalanchoe. There are many babies, but the flower color is coral.

Happy GBBD!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

ConsciousGardener said...
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Anonymous said...

Wow, that kalanchoe and the shoestring acacia (didn't know there was such a thing) are really something. Always love the pansies and am interested to see the dianthus, we have been having similar weather where I am, and I think our climates may be similar. I'd been thinking about investing in dianthus, and this strengthens my resolution.