Sunday, May 02, 2010

Things that happened on the first of May

Busy weekend! Meg's school had the Strawberry Festival yesterday. We stayed at her booth all day except for a short visit to the Durham Farmers Market. Nearly 90 yesterday and hotter today.

Well the first of May brought us a lot of new things for the year. The first Sugar Snap Pea bloom, Wood Thrush and Great Crested Flycatcher calls, baby Preying Mantis and 9 Pond Lily blooms.

This iris I bought at least 10 years ago from the iris lady at the Raleigh Farmers Market, I used to know the name and would recognize it if someone knows it? We have three stalks covered in blooms right now.
The Siberian Iris below was another first of May and my first ever seedling to bloom here to my knowledge. Iris seedlings appear here and there in the garden, it takes years for them to mature enough to flower.

Here is our first banana tree, a Zebrine Banana got it at the Durham Garden Center for $7 just could not pass it up. I always wanted a Blood Banana and this looks a lot like a blood. That upper leaf opened since I planted it last weekend.
Her is a new planter box we hung on the deck. It has Calibrachoa Caberet Hot Pink, Calibrachoa Million Bells Ultra Purple and Petunias Black Velvet. The Black Velvet have some black with yellow blooms and some all black blooms, very cool if you ask me.

Here is the Foxtail Lily I planted last fall from Brent and Becky's. Supposed to be 6 ft tall we barely managed 30 inches. Looks like it'll be years before we get some spectacular shows from this one.
Here is one of the two snapdragons we planted last spring. Very impressive display for what I always considered an annual.
Clematis henryii below. It is likely 12 or 13 years old and right now has about 60+ blooms. I think it did better last year, it looks great just the same.

Here is a peony that was given to us last fall, wow!
Wood Sorrel form the edge of the yard, grows where it wants too. Not sure why some of it has this reddish tint to it and others are just green. Both the reddish and green grown together in the same places.

17 comments:

Jen said...

Love that unnamed Iris, very pretty colors! This heat is killing me as well, I hardly got any gardening done this weekend. Do you think there are any more of those Bananas at the Durham Garden Center? I'm digging those colors, and am planning out a little tropical garden area by the house, to see what I can get away with :)

Randy Emmitt said...

Jen,

I think it was two weeks ago and they had 3-4 bananas i think. You might just call them and ask them to save you one or order some for you if they are out.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I remember your peas blooming way ahead of ours last year too. Ours are just about 6 inches tall now.
I love those 'Black Velvet' petunias. I haven't seen them yet. I found a really neat yellow one, they smell so good.
It sure looks great there!

Southern Lady said...

You sure have a lot going on in your garden. My peonies blooming are my big story these days. I just love them. Yours is very nice too. Glad you had a great start to your May. Carla

Kerri Farley said...

These are all GORGOUES flowers!! I don't have a green thumb at all and admire so much those that do! Gardening is an art!!

Ginger said...

That iris is so unusual and pretty! Gorgeous photo of the pea bloom! Our peas are suffering a bit from the heat already.

D said...

I wish we could grow that gorgeous banana, but in our garden Musa basjou is the only thing that lives through the winter; we have divided this one many times.

Lovely Foxtail lily Randy; I love that plant and don't know why we don't have it in the garden.

P.S. We have several varieties of Siberian iris should you like some divisions.

F Cameron said...

Looking great, but this heat is horrible! I can't keep up with the watering of my annual seedlings.

Randy Emmitt said...

Catherine,
I planted peas on the first of March this year. Then Meg planted more two week later. Hint plant tons and let them grow thick! The Black Velvets are cool one of the nursery guys pulled us aside and showed them to us.

Carla,
Seeing lots of big peony bushes in bloom around here, none of ours in over 3 years old. Looking forward to seeing yours?

Kerri,
Some flowers you don't need a green thumb. Others grow great for one person and die quickly for another.

Ginger,
Last year we picked our first peas on May 5th. The heat here is very bad, watered tons this morning this evening it was dry as a bone out there.

Diana,

I have lost a white Siberian Iris and also a pale blue one with wide leaves. To be honest I have a bunch of Siberians and killer Japanese down along the pond part way covered in weeds. One Japanese must have seeded as a beautiful bloom appeared under the willows 50 ft from where they were planted.

Cameron,
This heat is too much, be glad when we get some serious rains.

Victor said...

I am jealous and happy whenever i check out yall's pics.... Mental note for next spring: must have snapdragons

Carol said...

I love your sugar snap pea blooms and what they promise. The darn rabbits wipe me out!! I have that Bearded Iris too... it seems to have a few names ... Loop de Loop ... I think and Artist something is what mine was called. It is a beauty, as are all your flowers.

sweetbay said...

Sunday was hot wasn't it?! I love the Foxtail Lily and peony, very showy. Great shot of the yellow sorrell too.

Q said...

Hi Randy,
Lovely show of blooms!
My Snap-dragons are bi-annuals. I love that they come again. I usually plant some every year from seed so I have some in bloom all summer. Seed to seed gardening is my favorite. The Wood Sorrel is beautiful. I just must get some!Gorgeous with the red and green.
My peonies are just beginning to open. Early for my gardens. Seems as if my gardens are about two weeks ahead of normal.
The Baltimore Orioles arrived yesterday. They are a week late!
Spring is fickled sometimes.
Sherry

tina said...

That iris is simply splendid! So much color in your garden right now-it's beautiful.

Victoria Williams said...

OH gosh, such a lot of nice stuff!

We're still waiting on iris to bloom, love your planter box with the million bells.

We love our foxtail lilies. They've never reached 6 ft, but are still quite the show stopper. We think they reseeded this year - first time ever.

I ordered some of those perennial snapdragons from WFF a few years ago. Since then they've spread around a bit, changing their appearance. Really like them.

That peony looks just like one of ours - Pink Sorbet perhaps?

Corner Gardener Sue said...

I started to leave a comment on the cool deck you built, but my eyes landed on the lovely iris bloom, and I had to scroll down to see the other flowers. Do your spiderworts go dormant in the summer?

Lisa said...

Lovely photos! And a nice mother's day tribute.

I'm not a mom myself, but I'm happy to celebrate my own and my spouse's, as well as my friends that are mothers.