Archive for the 'Lilacs' Category

Spring Flowers

What’s been blooming in our yard this month:

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I’ve shown most of these flowers in posts from previous years, but I can’t resist showing them again, because so many great flowers are in bloom in our yard this month. The first three pictures are showing our Black Magic rose (long lasting flowers), Sheila’s Perfume rose (very fragrant), and ginger Snap rose (deep orange color). The fourth picture shows our white philadelphus (left) and our pink Cecil Brunner rose. The fifth picture is one of our red Camellias (not sure which variety). The roses, philadelphus and the red camellia are in bloom right now. I took these pictures today.

The last picture is one of our Lavender Lady lilacs. This photo was taken 3 weeks ago. Our lilacs were only in bloom for about 2 weeks.

April 20 2013 | Camellias and Lilacs and Philadelphus and Roses | Comments Off on Spring Flowers

Early Spring Flowers

The lilacs in our yard have been in bloom for the past two weeks, but they look to be at their peak right about now. These are photos of one of our Lavender Lady lilac bushes, which is more full of flowers than it ever has been. The fragrance of lilacs is really like no other flower. The fragrance is so strong that I can smell it at a distance of about 10 feet away. We are also growing California Rose and Blue Skies (descanso hybrids for mild winter climates) and Sensation lilacs, but our Lavender Ladys get the most flowers by far each year.

This is a photo of our one of our azalea bushes, which has been growing in our backyard since before we moved in. It is a well established bush at this point that doesn’t seem to need much care. Azaleas of course prefer partial shade, but this one seems to be doing well in full sun.

I can’t remember the name of this plant. It’s a small perennial bush. My mom gave it to me about 2 years ago. It has been flowering in our yard for the past 6 weeks, but its flowers are starting to fade now. This photo was taken about 3 weeks ago. Its flowers look like tight clusters of ‘lily of the valley,’ but it’s leaves are very distinctive and evergreen.

April 01 2012 | Lilacs and Rhododendron | Comments Off on Early Spring Flowers

Lilacs in Bloom

Late March and early April is lilac season in our area. We have several of the Descanso lilac hybrids including lavender lady and blue skies, which do not require as much winter chill as the standard lilacs. I took these pictures on March 31. Lilacs have been one of my favorite garden flowers for a long time because of their fragrance and beauty, even though they only bloom once a year. Our lilac flowers are fading now, just as our roses are starting to open.

April 16 2011 | Lilacs | Comments Off on Lilacs in Bloom

Still more spring flowers

These are photographs I took this morning of some of the plants blooming in our garden.

This is a photo of our Blaze climbing rose. I planted it as a bare root rose about 7 years ago. It’s so heavy with flowers and new growth right now that it’s about to fall over. I forgot to prune it last winter, which really needs to be done to reduce it’s new growth in the spring. Now I’ll either have to cut off many of it’s flowers and buds to keep it upright or add a new support to it.

This is a photo of one of the many California poppies growing in our yard this year. I planted a California poppy transplant I bought from a nursery several years ago. A few new seedlings sprouted from that plant, but each year we had less and less of them. Last year, a few of the seedling grew and bloomed more than in the past. Those few plants must have spread their seeds widely, because this spring, poppies are growing all over our backyard. Our yard is covered with bright orange flowers, and they look amazing.

This is a photo of some lavender blue bearded irises that we’ve had in our yard for a long time. They bloomed for the first time last year, and they have even more flowers this spring. I attribute that success to the fertilizer my partner has been putting around the hydrangea that is growing behind these irises.

This is a photo of a Sensation lilac bush that is blooming in our yard. I bought this bush last year from a nursery, because I was enthralled by the look of the flowers, which each have a deep lavender center and a white border. This is a French hybrid lilac which is supposed to bloom best after a cold winter. Although last winter seemed chilly to me, I didn’t know until about a month ago when the buds started coming out if our climate was cold enough to stimulate this lilac to bloom. Last spring, our lilacs had very few flowers. We fertilized them with an all-purpose fertilizer 2-3 times last spring and summer to try to get them to bloom more. This spring all of our lilacs except one are covered with flowers.

April 24 2010 | California Poppies and Flowers and Irises and Lilacs and Roses | Comments Off on Still more spring flowers

Lilacs in Bloom

Blue Skies

Lavender Lady

Lavender Lady flowers after a rain

Our lilac bushes have been full of flowers the past few weeks. Lilacs are among my favorite garden flowers, because they produce many large clusters of very fragrant flowers that last for weeks. They are one of the few common garden flowers that have a great flowery scent. Unfortunately, lilacs only bloom once a year.

My partner and I planted descanso hybrid lilacs that were developed for mild winter climates. We have three of the Lavender Lady variety, one of the Blue Skies variety, and one of the California Rose variety, which are all lavender in color. This year our Lavender Lady and Blue Skies bushes are coming into bloom with many more flowers than in previous years. I think they are blooming so much this year, because we took the time to fertilize them two or three times last summer. Although, our California Rose lilac has only two small clusters of flower buds on it. But that could be because it is growing in a dry spot next to our house where it doesn’t get much sunlight.

Our oldest Lavender Lady lilac has produced offshoots that are rooting near the base of the plant. My partner dug up one, and it was full of roots so he transplanted it to grow into a new bush. It seems to have taken to the transplant well so far. We plan on digging up more of the offshoots to get even more lilacs. My mom transplanted an offshoot from her white lilac a few years ago, and it has already grown into a medium size bush that is full of flowers. I am not sure if the lilacs we planted were grafted, but they don’t look like they were grafted. Obviously, if they were grafted onto the rootstock of different variety, then the offshoots won’t be genetically the same as Lavender Lady.

We also planted one Sensation lilac, which has a deep purple color fringed with white. Our Sensation lilac is full of buds that haven’t opened yet, even though Sensation is not a Descanso hybrid and is supposed to require a more pronounced winter chill to stimulate bloom.

March 30 2010 | Lilacs | Comments Off on Lilacs in Bloom