six on Saturday, 13 May 2023

At the close of last week’s post I said that the my next Six on Saturday would likely be photos of blooms. Well, I was right. That’s what I have today: flowers with very little flourish.

1. Here is the first. It is a specific followup on last week’s post of Southern Living’s trade mark  ‘Diamond Spire’ Gardenia. It is happy in its pot and blooming healthily.

2. From a tight shot on one container and one plant to a long shot of many perennials:

I look forward to this combination every year when the purple woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) flower. Ferns, hosta, and mountain mint on the right are nicely highlighted by the native woodland phlox. Until it finishes blooming much of the understory will look a bit weedy, though.

3. The portion of the garden that passes for lawn also looks a bit wild until all of the oxeye daisies have bloomed. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden calls the oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) one of the most common North American weedy wildflowers. They even named it the weed of the month in August 2019! I don’t get it—unless one has an irresistible affection for golf courses. I like them and look forward to them blooming. The bees and friends like them, too.

4. Our native oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) are beginning to bloom as well. The progression of their opening flower heads always presents interesting camera shots. You can see below that difference that the direction of sunlight can make on coloration the florets.

5. My fifth bloom is not quite fully open yet, but it is a new to my garden Southeastern US native and a successful transplant from a friend’s woodland. So, I have to celebrate it: Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica). Maybe it will merit another photo next week.

6. For last of the six, I’m switching from flowers to leaves because these two hostas deserve some screen time. The one on the left is ‘Curly Fries’; the other is ‘Wiggles and Squiggles.’ I think both are going to get much bigger than I thought that they would be. I was expecting something closer to the size of the mouse ear varieties. This might well proved to be a temporary home for them.

That closes me out for this week. Jim Stephens’ site at Garden Ruminations should be readers’ next stop.  His site is the hub of our Six on Saturday venture. And, his attention keeps our post sharing going. Look at the comments and follow the links in them for photographic garden tours. There you will also find a link with guidelines for taking part in Six on Saturday.