June Blooms

While I wait for my vegetable garden to get going, I'm enjoying a few floral blooms...

This is the best my Endless Summer hydrangeas have ever looked. The plant is healthy and I love how the petal colors go from pink to purple to blue. And I think I finally figured out the secret to getting them to look this good--I left them alone! We've gotten so much rain that I haven't bothered to water or obsess about them, and I think they are thriving now that I'm not loving them too much.

My snapdragons have snapped back too.

And here's a nice surprise: the yellow snapdragons reappeared this year! I didn't see them last year and thought that plant had just died. It's so nice to see this bit of yellow in my flower garden that seems to consist of a lot of pink right now.

The blooms are gone now, but in mid/late May the rhododendron was blooming. This variety is called Besse Howell and she's mighty cute. Besse was accompanied by a few pale pink Gerbera daisy blooms.

Lastly there's the Red Mill Andromeda (Pieris japonica 'Red Mill'). The white blooms are gone now, but what I really like about this beautiful shrub is that its new leaf growth is red. It's a nice addition to my garden.

I'm linking up with May Dreams Garden's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Check out the blog to see what other gardeners have blooming in their gardens this month.

Winter Bloomers

I should have titled this post Winter Blooms, but that wouldn't have been as fun!

I took this picture of my snapdragon plant on Sunday. While all the other flowers in my yard died off months ago, this little plant has toughed it out through snow, freezing rain, sub-freezing temperatures, and the crazy warm spells we've had this winter.

I first planted the snapdragons in spring 2011, and the plant died back that fall of 2011. I expected the plant to die back again this past fall, but it's still here.

 

There is still snow on the ground from last Friday, but tomorrow it's supposed to be in the high-60s! I don't know how this flower has toughed out the wacky temperatures when none of the others have, but it's nice to see this little red flower every day. I hope it lasts through the rest of the winter.

And since I mentioned bloomers, I feel like I should include some of those too. If they came in flannel I would probably buy them and wear them throughout the month of February:

Source: bing.com via Renee on Pinterest

Any winter bloomers in your garden?