Tuesday, March 24, 2009

March Blooms

Lady Banks is putting on her annual bloom fest...


The bees were busy in the Wisteria, but my camera is not strong enough to get a good picture. Can you guess what is on my ever-growing "un-birthday" list?


We had a lovely drizzly morning, and the pansies were soaking up the moisture.



The Spiderwort is quietly beautiful.







34 comments:

Roses and Lilacs said...

Lady Banks, I so wish I could grow it here. I have pictures in my mind of the blooming rose spilling over the roof on my garage.
Marnie

Susie said...

Love that spiderwort! Here you can find it growing wild.

Love all your blooms!

beckie said...

MG, I know this is going to sound dumb, but what is a Lady Banks? I enlarged the pic. and stildon't know.:) It really is beautiful though. I love the wisteria-mine is a looong way from blooming. I did see you were supposed to be getting some rain. I hope it helps!

Nola said...

Your wisteria is beautiful; I can almost smell it! I once lived in a cottage and had wisteria all the way across the front of the lot, and a huge clump in the back that grew over an old chicken house and up into the trees. This time of year my yard was scented so sweetly, I loved opening up the house and having the fragrance of wisteria sweep through it!

Rose said...

Your photos are gorgeous--no need to apologize! They make me want to walk around and smell all these lovely blooms.

A new camera is on my wish list, too, but I think it may have to wait awhile. I have a big "unbirthday" coming up in a couple of months, too, but I'd prefer to forget about this one:)

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

Is Lady Banks a camellia? She's pretty, whatever she is!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Dear Marnie, It would too! It will grow on anything--to me, it is the Kudzu of the Rose world! LOL!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Susie, It grows in the wild here too. I dug some up from an abandoned house near where I work and brought it home. I just love it.

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Beckie, That's not a dumb question at all! I shouldn't have assumed everyone would know what it is. Lady Banks is a rambling rose that has small clusters of yellow flowers with no thorns or much fragrance. It only blooms once in the spring, and then just quietly fades into the background the rest of the year. I have not kept it trimmed back because it is home to much wild-life. It has taken over the Red-bud tree next to it, as well as my neighbor's trampoline!!!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Nola, the Wisteria is actually my neighbors, but I get the most of the blooms on my side of the fence, so I really get to enjoy it more than they do! It is beautiful, and what amazes me, is that it blooms periodically throughout the year.

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Ah, Rose! We don't have to fear "un-birthdays"! The beauty of having an un-birthday, is that I am always 29. Granddaughter Charlotte has it all figured out. She says, "Grammy, you were 29 last year, your 29 this year, and you'll be 29 next year!" She has got it all figured out--and the beauty of it is you still get cake and ice cream and presents on un-birthdays!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Monica, Nope! Lady Banks is a rambling rose. She's a beauty, and blooming all over the Austin area. South Austin seems to be about two weeks ahead of where I am in Round Rock. She just blooms once a year, but has the most beautiful cluster of delicate yellow blossoms you have ever seen.

ShySongbird said...

You may think you need a new camera but your photos are lovely. I loved the cheerful yellow of the Rose, the beautiful Wisteria, and the lovely faces of the Pansies with the drops of moisture showing.
Perhaps it's a good thing Lady Banks has no thorns or we might hear the screams of the trampoliners here in the UK!!

Wendy said...

Hey Jen, I learned something! I also didn't know what a Lady Banks was. Thanks for enlightening me.

I was thinking of pansies today. Don't know why. We still have snow, and don't plant until late May, so I wasn't thinking of my own pansies. Just thinking of fields of pansies and then I see your pics. Nice!

Hope you get your un-birthday wishes!

Rock rose said...

You seem to be one of the lucky ones for whom wisteria blooms with ease. Walking round the lake the other day I couldn't help but notice their wisteria has climbed up into a huge bald cypress tree. It is almost at the top. I wonder where it will go next!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Thank you Shy Songbird--you are too kind. Hee!Hee! That's true about the trampoliners. Last summer the neighbor came over with pruners in his hand and asked if I minded him cutting it back on his side of the fence as it was taking over the trampoline and the kids couldn't jump anymore!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Wendy, those pansies have been in that pot all winter! I potted them sometime last Fall. Here, we use them for winter color along with Kale, and alyssum. They will be done soon, but I just can't bear to rip them out like most gardeners do. I usually tuck in my summer flowers around them and let them die naturally.

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Hello Lancashire Rose! Maybe the Wisteria will wind it's way down again! We have had major problems with our Live Oaks in the front of our house and have a series of Arborists treating them. The first one we hired said that one was toast and to chop it down...I couldn't bear to do that to a tree that was 75-100 years old! I had decided if it did die, I was going to plant Wisteria at the base and let it become a trellis for the Wisteria to climb. Happy ending to the story--I didn't have to plant the Wisteria! It has taken quite a few years, but the tree is making a come-back.

v said...

I can never have enough of beautiful flowers. Everyday, there's one that is new to me. And, they are all beautiful.Blossom Blooms

Annie in Austin said...

Hi Morning Glories,

Love my Lady Banks, too, but it's on the patio arch so she really has to act like a lady.

Your not-good Wisteria photo looked pretty good to me. Oops, since you're wishing for a new camera maybe you'd prefer that I agree and say it's not-so-good ;-]

Hope you got rain (with no hail) in the last few days.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Hi Annie! We had plenty of thunder-booms and hail, but thankfully no busted out car windows. We covered the tomato plants and other tender plants so we survived nicely. Wasn't the rain lovely?

Corner Gardener Sue said...

LOL I must be reading too many blogs. I knew Lady Banks was a rose, and I don't even grow them. I didn't remember the color, though.

What lovely blooms you have, and I'm glad you got some rain. I hope you are having good weather now.

Thanks for your comment on my SkyWatch post. Our weathervane is not something I would have been creative enough to think of. My father-in-law put it up when he lived here.

Gail said...

I thought I brought home Lady Banks...but it was a single kerria, or Japanese Rose! Isn't that funny! No tag, sitting in the clearance section this winter. Your blooms are all lovely...we have a white wisteria that we get occassional blooms from..most years a late frost takes it out. They smell divinely. gail

Brenda Pruitt said...

I bought a Lady Banks rose last year. It is full and lush. But hasn't bloomed yet. I can't wait to see it in bloom!
Brenda

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Hello Lili11. So glad you stopped by. I think gardeners are always looking for one more blossom they haven't seen before to add to their collection--it's what keeps us going!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Thanks Sue, it seems everyday brings a new blossom right now. The weather is unseasonably cool, and I am taking advantage by being out in the garden as much as I possibly can!

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Gail, that Kerria you brought home by mistake was beautiful, and well worth it...and gives you an excuse to go nursery shopping for a Lady Banks again!

Thanks for stopping by.

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Brenda, I hope you get some blooms this year on your Lady Banks. Are you around Tyler? If so, I imagine you are a few weeks behind me. I'm always about two weeks behind south Austin!

Dawn said...

Whenever I see a pretty Lady Banks like yours I think of the tune "The Yellow Rose of Texas". Though I realize the Lady Banks is originally from Asia and isn't Texan at all. Texas was the very first place I ever saw the plant, so the song just keeps on popping into my head. Weird I know.
;-)

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Not so weird, Dawn--I feel the same way. It's one of the reasons, I got the Lady Banks--that and because my grandfather always had yellow roses in his garden. :-)

Debbie in CA : ) said...

Oh what a lovely spot of beauty! I'm so glad you came to my blog and left a trail I could follow to find you. : D I have been so busy around my spring-filled gardens of late, that I have found little extra time for blogging. But when I do hop on "the box" I am delighted to find kindreds like you with a heart for flowers and so much more that is lovely and nourishing for the spirit.

My lady banks rose is getting ready to put on her show and I can hardly wait! Daily I use my camera to chronicle the newness in the gardens, but by days end I am too tired to download the camera and upload to the blog (and maybe I'm not all that tired, but truly distracted with a good read about gardeners like Jefferson or Washington -- and then there's always the dishes from our delicious dinner), so my little bloggy thing languishes. Your blooming blog has inspired me to get busy again. Thanks! ; D

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Debbie, thanks for stopping by. I know exactly how you feel about neglecting one thing to concentrate on another. It's all about balance. I always feel I have to concentrate on the garden in the Spring because by Summer it is too hot to do much more than water and pull an occasional weed.

Iowa Gardening Woman said...

Great March Blooms, I am still waiting for April blooms, great photos.

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

Thanks IGW, I hope winter is over for you soon, and April brings you lots of blooms--one thing is for sure--you have plenty of blooms inside to keep you going until then.