May 15, 2012

A Rain Soaked Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!


Well it's just been too long since participating in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  While taking in the posts of my fellow gardeners, I became so inspired to join the fun that I grabbed my camera and ran out into the rain soaked garden to see what I had to share.


There are rain lilies...lots of them in the space beyond the fence.  They've been blooming for a week now in response to all the May showers.  You can see they look a little tattered from the .80" we received last night but they'll spring back.  Last night's shower was a slow, gentle, soaking rain with periodic rumbles of distant thunder...perfect to drift off to sleep to.


The dill sends up fireworks of yellow blooms to entice the swallowtail butterflies and hover flies.  As much as I enjoy cooking with the dill and parsley, I seriously look forward to photographing them more!


The dwarf oakleaf hydrangea, planted last spring, is coming into its own.  The foliage is gorgeous and the blooms are just beginning to fill in, brightening up the shade of the Japanese maple bed.


In the sunny bed along the back fence, verbena bonariensis floats above other perennials attracting near by butterflies.  This pass-a-long plant from Amy at Go Away, I'm Gardening, makes me smile and think of her every time I walk by.  Thanks, Amy!


And one last shot before the skies opened again with another soft, soaking rain!  Hallelujah!  Livin' Easy is on it's second round of blooms this season.  I counted 14 buds the other morning!  This spring has been so fabulous especially in contrast to the horrid drought of last summer.

I hope this GBBD finds you all soaking up the joy that spring has to offer!

Thanks, Carol, for hosting this meme on the 15th of every month.  Stop by the other bloggers' posts to see what they have going on in their gardens this May. 

A quick note about comments:  Unfortunately, I've tried unsuccessfully to leave comments on many Wordpress blogs.  There are a few I'm able to but many redirect me to a page requiring that I sign in to Wordpress.  Any information as to why this is happening would be much appreciated.  Also, I've made The Whimsical Gardener a word verification free blog.  It has been no problem with only one spam comment actually making it through Blogger's filter.  I would encourage y'all to give it a try; it sure makes it a lot easier on those wishing to leave a comment ;)











29 comments:

  1. Love how you grabbed your camera to join in the fun! and love your Piglet/Pooh quote! Nice Blog...
    Thanks for visiting me!

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  2. Wow, two posts in one day (well, for me it's one day)! I loved the owl update. Cant wait to see the little ones! Great shots again in this post! Sooooo happy about all that rain. What a difference! Hope everybody is well. Please tell them I said hi.
    xxo Sandra

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  3. The drops of rain look so pretty on the rose petals...makes the flowers grow! Happy GBBD!

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  4. So much rain for central texas. A flood follows a drought. I hope this drought is over for a while. Your blooms are grand. happy gbbd.

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  5. The rain has been so welcome, Greggo. Unfortunately, Austin is still in a drought. Lake Travis is about 50% full. So much of the rain has fallen east or south of here. May's rain has been more beneficial for the lake though. Our church congregation is praying for Lake Travis to be full (681') by Labor Day.

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  6. We're having a rainy Bloom Day, too, and I love it! I also love your garden. I see we have some plants in common, including the oakleaf hydrangea. Mine bloomed earlier and is already past its prime, but I still find the bloom heads attractive even after they have faded.

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  7. So good to be heading into summer with a few solid rains under Austin's belt, so to speak! It seems like verbena bonariensis is one of those lovely plants that keeps popping up on the garden blog circuit; and it's a butterfly attractor, too! Definitely going on the list. Lots of rain lilies in my yard as well these days.

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  8. So nice to see you getting so many benefits of all that rain! Your blooms are gorgeous. I definitely like a verification free blog. Somehow, I can never get those letters right and it usually takes several tries. Thank you!

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  9. Happy GBBD Cat. I bet your garden is just loving that rain.

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  10. Many lovely blooms, Cat! I'm declaring 2012 the Year of the Rain Lily. Congrats on going Captcha-free, and happy GBBD.

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  11. You are so right - the dill blooms do look like fireworks! I never know what to do with the dill. Using it for fish is all I can ever think of but we don't have fish all that often. The mint - I've used that for juleps. Seems I drink more juleps than I eat fish :)

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  12. Cat, awesome pics in the rain! We are having a lovely bloom day, aren't we? I have a new Oakleaf Hydrangea, too - it's budding like yours right now. I'm anxious to see it actually bloom for the first time. And as far as comments, for the past few months there have been some weird things happening with wordpress comments on various blogs. There are some I can no longer comment on, usually because of the capcha words. Who knows, right?

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  13. Wow....love your macros...especially the 2nd shot of the dill!!! Beautiful. I'd love to have a soaking rain right now....gentle...but soaking:)

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  14. Cat, Your Dill photo is beautiful, totally reminds me of fireworks..love it! Oh I would be snap happy with those beauties too!! Also, I've been having probs leaving comments on WP blogs too, thought it was just the technically challenged me ;) Cheers Julia xx

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  15. Cat great to see your blooms for GBBD and to hear of all the wonderful rain. I am also happy to hear you are word verification free. My wordpress template is old so it does not have the requirements to sign in, but Wordpress has done this crazy thing and we are very upset. Not sure what the solution is at this point.

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  16. Gotta love those night-time showers with thunder rumbling in the distance...makes for great GBBDs!

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  17. Love your oak leaf hydrangea. It's so pretty and delicate. I'm loving my bonariensis, too, but wish I had about 4-5 more of them - my one looks so lonely! Happy GBBD. Oh, I've always had to do that with Wordpress and it makes me not bother much of the time.

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  18. willsfamilyacres.comMay 16, 2012 at 8:35 AM

    As always, beautiful photos! I especially love the verbena one, looks like you painted it.

    Laura

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  19. Hooray for more rain for you! I saw on the news that TX is still technically in drought though, so I'm sure your plants are enjoying it. Happy GBBD!

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  20. I do like your rain lilies - I havent seen those before

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  21. Those rain lilies are gorgeous! I love how we celebrate the sun while you celebrate the rain. Climate.

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  22. The rain and mist make all your photos look so dreamy. I'm glad you're getting plenty of rain this year! I agree--it is so much easier on everyone without word verification.

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  23. Hi Cat, Belated happy GBBD! Love the dill fireworks. There is just something so pretty about this kind of flower shape. So delicate! Ginger is so beautiful!
    P.S. I got rid of my word verification and haven't regretted it at all! Have a great weekend Cat!

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  24. I love to plant dil just for the swallowtail butterflys to lay there eggs on so my grandkids can collect the catterpiller and watch it hatch It is so awesome! beautiful pics by the way.

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  25. oh good, it's not just me having weird issues with Wordpress. I keep getting emails asking me to sign up in order to comment. I use blogger and went word verification free a couple months ago with no issues. Only a couple spam comments during that time and easily removed.

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  26. As always, your garden and your photographs inspire me so much! I'm glad you caught these on the soft rain day. I'll look at them again when it's hot and icky and need a boost! XXOO

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  27. Your pictures are lovely. Though it's only been a few days since we were blessed with this rain, I miss it already. I hope the next storm is not too far away.

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  28. As I drove out of Austin, I was glad for your rains wetting my windshield! That looks like the most or only rain I'll see for another 1-2 months! Gotta love the effect of wet on plants, especially the last one of a rose.

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  29. Not raining in my neck of the woods, but glad to hear you are getting rain. Your area needs it from what you had last year. I was told you said hi to me from Pam, and that was so nice of you. In case she forgets, I said to say hi back. Too bad you could not come, it was a great time.

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