An April Afternoon (in Zone 8b)

It's 15 April, and time for Carol's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day...and with a day reminescent of a visit from a tropical storm - low pressures, wind, ocassional downpours - the garden barely stood still long enough to be photographed so eventually I just gave up.  The winds are still blowing and the temperatures have dropped at least 15 degrees (Or more?  We might get down into the mid-40s tonight) and I have to keep reminding myself that it is a mid-April afternoon.  I know, I know - many of you are getting snow (like my brother in Vermont) - so I won't complain too much. 

So...what's in bloom in the garden?  Azaleas are lingering, as are a few camellias - the 'Admiral Semmes' native azaleas is still in bloom, as are the violets and this and Nicotiana and the brocolli that has bolted and red clover and roses (lots of roses - Mutabilis and Blossomtime (above) and Marie Pavie and Duchess de Brabant and Cl. Cecile Brunner and others) - but the thing in my yard that has been blooming the most profusely over the past few weeks, and which over the past 12 or so hours has literally poured down onto the garden (and everywhere else) is the inconspicuous flowers of the live oak, Quercus virginiana.  They are described as inconspicuous but today, after the winds that have been blowing, they aren't even remotely inconspicuous - they have covered my car, the deck, and the drive...my whole yard is literally covered in live oak flowers, and as you might imagine, the lowcountry (including the Gladii) isn't too happy about it.  Otherwise, there's a few other plants in bloom that stayed still long enough to photograph.

   

Comments

[Pat]

Inconspicuous, my eye! I had no idea that fuzzy stuff all over my car was flowers. Thanks for enlightening me, Pam.

Stunningly blue, those larkspur blossoms. Beautiful.

[Carol]

Thanks for participating in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. At least you got some rain today, right? I can't believe how much is blooming in your garden and some of the other southern gardens. I am curious what it will be like for you in the middle of summer, if the heat drives away the flowers.

[Annie in Austin]

We're having similar weather -that wind was the reason my hand showed up in a couple of my photos, Pam - it was so fierce that was the only way to hold the stems still. Oak and Pecan flowers produce blocked up heads here, too. I'll have to send my son to see the Gladii.

You managed to get some very nice photos in spite of the wind - and to thrill Hank with your 'dolphin-ium. Happy Bloom Day!

Annie

[Pam]

Pat: It's just nuts - it's like we got a snowfall.

Carol: The DISGUSTING thing is that we got very little rain - the heavy rain was a bit further inland, and right along the coast we only got between .25 and .5 inches - and with the wind - that is just nothing! As soon as it heats back up, we're in trouble if we don't get rain soon. And yes - come late July and August, our southern gardens will be suffering...but then September comes, and our second 'summer' season!

Annie: Happy Bloom Day to you too! I think the whole south was wind-blown this weekend.