GBBD - June

Ah yes it's that time again when Carol over at May Dreams Gardens host this lovely event called Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  A day where we all post about what is blooming in our gardens.  A day we get to see what is blooming in other gardens all around the world at all times of the year.  I would like to take you on a blooming tour of Irish Gardens now.....see what we have blooming today:

 The lilies have started to make their beauty and presence known in the front yard.  Pretty in pint these guys are big and bold.

 In the butterfly garden the first of 8 different Butterfly Bushes has begun to bloom as well.

 More lilies showing off.

 And add to that the day lilies have begun to open up.

 Still in the front yard but in the Rose garden we find but of course the Roses.

The morning sun shining on a newly opened rose makes for a lovely start to the day

 Right next to the Rose bush the 4 O'Clocks are still doing their blooming thing and showing off their yellow flowers.

On to the side of the house or also known as the driveway garden the Hosta's have decided to come out and play the blooming game too.

 A few mixed zinnia that still need to be planted have decided that even though they are becoming root bound and are craving some water they will bloom for me too.

 And into the heart of Irish Gardens we go.  Starting in this years bean and pea garden.

This Marigold decided to grow from a seed that some how was missed in the fall clean up....so the seed lasted the winter outside.....weird.

 Continuing our tour we head into the Greenhouse and see whats going on.
Anyone want to take a guess as to what this flower is of?  Many don't see it....it's lettuce.  Yup in case you didn't know if you leave the tops of lettuce alone long enough they will flower and produce seeds....

 Behind the lettuce is Echinacea showing off their pretty flowers now too.

 Here is another one that not many folks know about.. Marshmallow.  Pretty delicate flowers with purple pollen.

Leave the onions in the ground too long and this is what you get....I am wondering what happens now.

And finally we stay in the greenhouse for our last flower for bloom day....Dill


Hope you enjoyed the tour and come back again.  Leave a comment....let me know how many of my flowers you knew what they were before reading.  Be sure to stop by May Dreams Gardens and see what others have blooming this fine bloom day.

Mother Nature read my blog

So yesterday I posted about how we needed rain.  Well today it's raining.  It is a nice light rain that brings a cool breeze into the house. The nice rain brought flowers along with it

 The first of my seed started Morning Glories.  Flying Saucer Morning Glory and isn't it beautiful?

 Mom and I picked up this plant at a local nursery because of the variegated foliage.  But the blooms aren't too bad either.

 Remember a few days ago when I posted about learning something new?  Well this is what the flower looks like.  The orange is so brilliant my daughter said it looks like plastic.

This pretty little flower is from my new Rose of Sharon bush - Blue Chiffon.  Looks a lot like my double purple bush.

I learned something new

A saying that I heard often growing up was every time you learn something new you get a new wrinkle on your brain.  Well today I got a new wrinkle.  See I found a plant growing earlier in the year and my Mother and I declared it a lily.  Only thing was it was growing differently from the others.  But we were pretty sure that thats what it was.

See this here is what we said is a lily.  Turns out we were right.  But for the past month we have been seeing these black ball things growing on the leaves.  No idea what it was and finally deciding that as the flower is so close to blooming I should really look it up....I did.

These odd looking things are called BULBILS.  Odd name for an odd growth.  But yet apparently very fitting.  These guys is how this particular lily multiplies.  Apparently I can harvest them and grow new plants from it.  Some times they start growing roots and leaves while still on the mother.

So now that I know I can enjoy the flower when it opens without wondering if some bug is going to hatch.  Cause with all the aphids I have had that was the first thing I thought of.  A bug was laying eggs.

I have to say that this is the strangest way to grow baby bulbs but well if it works I guess it works.  Course I have no idea what kind of lily it is so when it opens I will be sure to post a picture so my wonderful fellow garden bloggers can help me identify.

Until later have a great night, and find a way to add a wrinkle to your brain.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - July 2011

Another month has passed me by and it's time to join Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for the monthly fun that is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  A day that we Garden Bloggers post about what is blooming in our gardens.  What a month this has been here at Irish Gardens.

 My pride and joy Rose of Sharon bushes have finally begun their blooming.  The pure white bush is my favorite.  It is just so pretty.

 These came from my neighbors yard....they too are beautiful.

Now this beauty is from my other Rose of Sharon bush.  A double version of my neighbor's flowers.

 The hydrangea bushes are beginning to bloom

 Snapdragon's are still blooming.  A new color seems to pop out each new plant that comes to bloom.

More lilies are finding their time to bloom.

A new addition to the garden this year is eggplant.  This plant surprised me yesterday by blooming not a white flower as I thought it would but a purple one.

My Echinaea is looking wonderfully beautiful.

My pretty peach rose bush is fighting the beetles and slowly winning.

A pretty miniature rose is getting ready to open.

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Come back again soon.  Until then stop on over to Carol's blog and see what other Garden Bloggers are posting about what's blooming in their gardens.

Thriving Thursday - End of June

The end of June here at IrishGardens means the plants are getting big.  How about your gardens?  Are they Thriving at the end of June?
Here is what is Thriving this week.

 The Butterfly/Hummingbird flower garden are opening up and showing off some very pretty wild flowers.

 More Day Lilies are opening every day.

 This pretty pansy is a greenhouse rescue.  $1 for 2 4 cell packs

 The Morning Glory bush Convolvulus finally began to open..granted it doesn't look like a bush but they do look like really small Morning Glories just not on a vine.

 Echinacea in the Greenhouse is beginning to bloom.

My Gardinia that I have inside as a Bonsai, is blooming.

And my pride and joy of the garden is the Strawberry Spinach plant is growing something other than leaves.  It looks like soon I will get to see the Strawberries that grow.  I can't wait.  Supposed to be interesting looking.

Show off whats Thriving in your Garden today.  Leave a link so others can see.  Have a great weekend.

Flowers in the Garden Part 3

As fall keeps creaping in I feel the need to bring Spring to the blog.  So here is another instalment of 2010's flowers in the Garden.  This time we are moving to the side of the house .

The begin of Spring brought several beautiful Daffodils.

One of the Iris' that bloomed.  I love the coloring of these flowers.  The way that look like no other flowers.

The other version of Iris in the yard.  Also pretty in it's own right. 

The lilies that surprised me as well.  Since this was our first Spring in the house I didn't know what kind of beauty was lurking beneath the soil.  Gonna try to get a few other colors for next year.

Now these guys like the Irish have unique color patterns.  To me they look like they have frekles.  These guys are Rodadendrum

Here is a big of a close up of one of my other Rose of Sharon Shrubs.  This one is actually a double flower.  The center part for some opens just like the outer part and sometimes it just stays lacy like this one.  This shrub was covered in blooms this year.  And I am collecting seeds....

 And here we are to my pride and joy.  My morning glories.  This one is called Heavenly Blue.   And let me tell you when they first open they are very blue.  This one has touches of purple in it because it was a few hours old.  If you look to the left of the open bloom you can see a purple one.  This one opened the day before and is shriviling up.  The blooms are only good for one day but if you have a good healthy plant you won't even realize that.  I had some many blooms some days it was crazy.  You can cut them and put in water although the open blooms will only last that day but if you cut the stem so that there are other blooms ready they will bloom in the water.  In fact I had cut back some of the main plant because it was taking over my railing and I droped a stem with buds on it.  Even with out water apparently these guys can still be hardy....4 days after I cut it a bloom opened. 

This little beauty is actually not very little.  This is a Moon Flower, called Giant White.  Like the Morning glories it is only good for one day.  Actually for one night.  Yup these guys open at night.  Most of the time.  Every so often  a few of them got confused and opened early evening but not often.  Compared to the Morning Glories they are quite large.  They do have another big difference though in that they do sometimes last almost a whole 24 hours.  Where Morning glories usually don't make it past 12 hours.

Both of these two are vining plants and can be very aggressive though so be prepared for that.