April's Wildflower Wednesday, 2016

This is one of my favorite times of the year, when spring is in full swing, and there are new discoveries to be made each time you go out for a yard walk.  Unlike Gail, from Clay and Limestone, our host, who normally showcases a flower or few, and gives information on them, I tend to include almost every wildflower that is blooming.  I started to include some that I've already posted about this year, and just decided to delete those.  Ruby did not take a nap today, so I am just getting this finished.

I did include one I've already posted. Gail, I was thinking this was False Solomon's Seal I planted in this wash tub a number of years ago, to limit its spread.  Does it look like it to you?

The amsonias are just starting to bloom.  This is either illustris or tabernaemontana.

I used to have some columbines that were not native.  When I planted some native ones in the same general area, I didn't realize they would cross with each other.  I now have all native looking blooms, which look t me to be a bit larger than they would have been on their own.

This is the first Virginia waterleaf set of blooms.  I wouldn't have noticed it yet, if I wasn't looking for what was blooming for this post.

I have to protect the phloxes from rabbits.  I've been seeing more damage on different kinds of plants, now that we are seeing bunnies.  This is wild blue phlox, next to the puffy seedheads of pasque flowers.  On the lower right are the blooms of rose mock vervain.

 The golden alexanders are starting to bloom.  They are a host plant for the black swallowtail butterfly, and I'm tickled to have seen some on them.

This is what Gail calls PPP, "Practically Perfect Pink Phlox".   The phlox pilosa is just opening a few blooms.

I have shown Fremont clematis blooms, but decided to include this one of the plant.  It's another of my favorites.

We were supposed to have some severe storms yesterday, but just a bit of thunder and lightning with the inchish of rain.  There was a tornado today in Omaha, an hour from here, which was on the national news, while we were just having cloudy skies.  I've not heard more about any damage it caused.  I'll have to watch the news at 10:00.  I hope all is well with you.

Spring, West Front Yard in Front of Fence

I am tickled it is spring, and we are seeing more and more coming up.  Not all of the milkweeds are up yet.  They seem to be one of the last to come up.  I went around taking lots of photos of the beds last night, because we were expecting a storm with hail, which we got, but thankfully, there was not much damage.  We are expecting a possibly severe storm tomorrow.  I hope we fare OK.

Our yard is going to be on our local Wachiska Audubon Society garden tour on Father's Day.  Because of that, I removed the plants that were in front of this sidewalk on the west edge of the yard, and put these steps from another spot in the yard here, so people can come out of the area where the tree used to be.  The path into it is narrow, and a "one way".  I am actually making a number of changes, mostly because of the tour, but am having lots of fun in the process.

I am trying to put the plant labels next to the first examples of each plant that will be seen.

Each kind of plant I have, such as one of my favorites, Fremont's clematis, is also in another flower bed somewhere in the yard.  Not all beds have every kind of flower, though.

Pussytoes and prairie petunia are also in several of the beds.  Prairie petunias are one of the last flowers to come up in the spring.

I don't remember where I got the couple of clumps of merry bells that are in this bed, but would love to find some more.  The foliage on the right is stiff goldenrod, which I thinned quite a bit, hoping there will be less leaning.

I don't remember what this is in the middle, but am thinking it may be a clover of some kind.  I tried transplanting one that was too close to another plant, but it came apart from the roots.  I have several prairie smoke geums, the plant on the right, around the yard.

I see gray-headed coneflower, New Jersey tea, liatris, Riddells goldenrod, and foxglove beardtongue in this photo.

Rabbits have been munching on this.  Do you know how to tell the different kinds of liatris apart?  I had some cultivars, Kobolds that seeded out some.  I am thinking with all of the natives ones I now have, I want to get rid of the Kobolds.

We are heading east, and seeing some of the plants I already named.  There are some bare spots I want to fill.

I am not sure what the two plants in front are.  I believe the middle one is white blooming flowering euphorbia.

Rabbits are eating on the foxglove beardtongue on the right, but not the one on the left as much.

Here is a closer view of one of the plants I'm not sure of the name of.

This is looking back to the west.

This is red root, a relative of New Jersey tea, blooming before the New Jersey teas even have flower buds.

This evening, I got Larry to help me finish digging out the spirea closest to the fence, to make room for the milkweed that came up in the area last year.  That's a Heuchera richardonii in the middle, a native coral bells.

I hope your spring is going well.  I'm thinking those of you in the north should be having some things up and blooming by now.  If you are in the path of the storms, I hope you stay safe.

Blooms!

I am inconsistent in my Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, hosted by Carol, at May Dreams Gardens, but I am excited about spring, and wanted to share what I have blooming.  While I'm thinking about 60 to 70 percent of the plants in our yard are U.S. natives, some, locally native, non-natives seem to be in the majority for this time of year.  After looking at the photos, though, it is pretty close that at least the kinds of plants are about that proportion, even though there are more of some of the non-natives, such as the hellebores right now. 

Some of the plants are about finished, such as the pasque flowers and tulips.   I love the spent flowers on the pasque flowers.

Prairie smoke geum is one of my favorite natives.

I am tickled to have picked up several colors of hellebores over the years, and they are doing quite well.  I love the early spring blooms.

The rabbits have not eaten the prairie phlox down so far.  I am pleased to see a few blooms.

The groundplum milkvetch clumps have lots more blooms than at my last post.

Here's another hellebore.

I don't remember if this iris clump has been this short other years.

The perennial geraniums are just opening their blooms.

Bergenias are showing color.

As the daffodils are finishing up, the grape hyacinths are at their prime.

This is rue anemone, a spring ephemeral.

Merry bells is another spring ephemeral I enjoy.

I planted this false Solomon's seal in a tub, since it is a spreader.  It looks like it will need to stop spreading now, since it has no where else to go.

I have been enjoying munching on the violets in my salads.

These are from some salad greens that overwintered.  A friend said this is a mustard of some kind.

It was hard getting a good photo of the bleeding hearts, so I included one from farther out.

Virginia bluebells are one of my favorites.

I hope spring is going well for you.  Because of burning going on in Kansas, our air quality has been poor, so I spent more time inside this week than I wanted to.  I am looking forward to spending more time outside this weekend and next week.  It is supposed to be pretty nice out!