Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2016

Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for April 2016.

Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, I'm pleased to report that after roaring out of the starting gates at break neck speed, Spring has slowed down a bit and returned to what I think is normal speed.

In other words, what's blooming now ought to be blooming now.

And there is a lot blooming.

Where to begin?  Shall we walk about the garden in an orderly fashion or dart from one end to the other kneeling to exclaim at a tiny bloom then jumping up to see some trees in bloom?

Let's dart!

Without further ado, some of the many blooms here in May Dreams Gardens.

Above is a picture of some 'Lady Jane' tulips. I love the two tone look of them and appreciate how they return reliably from year to year. There foliage is slender and sort of melts into the foliage of other plants around them.

Next up are some flowering quince, Chaenomeles species Double Take™ 'Orange Storm' and peeking out behind them, the blue flowers are Muscari sp., grape hyacinth.

I like the color combination.

Oh look, there in the vegetable garden, the strawberries are starting to bloom.

Someone start making some shortcakes... well, it is a little soon for shortcakes, but it won't be long until there are some strawberries to eat and other produce, too.

In the meantime, how about a jewel of a flower. This is Pearl Bush, Exochorda × macrantha

I should know the variety name but I don't and it would take me a while to find the tag amongst all the plant tags I have around here.  But I do know the reason they call it Pearl Bush is because the buds look like little white pearls.

Look over there, the source of that wonderful scent,  Korean Spice Viburnum in bloom, Viburnum carlesii.

It has a wonderful scent. Did I mention that?

Way on the other side of the garden, there are still some Narcissus in bloom.

But one hardly notices them when nearby the trout lilies, Erythronium 'Pagoda', are blooming, too.

I planted these last fall and think I should get some more to plant next fall.

The serviceberries, Amelanchier sp, are in bloom.

Kids, if you want white blooming trees in the spring, plant serviceberries, not flowering pears. The flowering pears smell awful in bloom, have a weak structure and are invading our woods and forests. End of lecture.

I have some other lovely tulips in bloom. These are Tulipa sylvestris, I think.

And this is a hybrid tulip.

The hybrid tulips dot the garden here and there.  There is one here, one there, one over yonder. None were planted alone but because they don't return reliably, they end up alone.  I just leave them be but don't usually bother planting more.

The lovely Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica, are still going strong in spite of some rather nasty cold weather last week.

Who doesn't like a little puddle of Phlox subulata in the garden?

Want to go and see what's blooming in the front garden?

The Burkwood viburnum, Viburnum x burkwoodii,  is blooming.

It's in competition with the Korean Spice Viburnum in back for Most Fragrant Bloom.  I will run back and forth between them and decide later which one wins.

There is no scent on these narcissus, but I still like them.

Do you like how I matched these tulips to the emerging foliage of the spirea behind them?

I will confess the match is purely be accident.

And so we come to the final blooms in this rather long post.  This is Malus 'Gwendolyn', which is just beginning to bloom. It will really shine this weekend.

I planted it 18 years ago and it has bloomed every spring since then.

Thank you for darting around the garden with me. There is more to see, but I'll save some of the pictures for another day.

What's blooming in your garden today? Why don't you join in for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and show us?

It's easy to participate. Just post on your blog about what's blooming in your garden, then come back here to this post and leave a comment to tell us what you have and put your link on the Mr. Linky widget to make it easy for us to visit.

We welcome everyone!

And remember, "We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence