What's blooming today?
Wordless Wednesday
This is a hardy rose named Charles Albanel.
I believe it’s part of the Canadian Explorer series. It blooms at least three times each season and when it does bloom it’s lush with flowers.
When I took this photo I think all of my roses were nearing the end of a bloom cycle but I think the heat wave and more frequent waterings (and maybe that mulch I discussed in the last post) gave them a boost because many are already blooming again.
Wordless Wednesday
The Balloon flower is a pretty flower once it becomes established in your garden.
I have three of this bluish purple kind, as well as two white balloon flower plants and one pink balloon flower plant. Yes, I love balloon flowers. Can you tell?
In the lower right corner I think that you can see a bud forming. The petals are folded in and as the bud grows it looks like a hollow ball or a balloon. When it finally opens the flower appears as above.
Unfortunately the flower, once it’s bloomed, doesn’t last long – perhaps a day at most. The flower dies quickly and droops like a wet rag.
I’d just finished picking off a bunch of dead flowers before I took this photo. That’s why there’s so many flowerless stalks. When a dead bloom is plucked off it’s stalk a milky white substance drips from the damaged stalk to heal the wound.
Wordless Wednesday
This is a honeysuckle bloom.
The honey suckle is called Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle. The leaf underneath the bloom almost looks like a landing pad for humming birds.
This honeysuckle has a rich scent. I most often smell it in the evening or after it’s rained.
As many of my photos lately have been, this photo was taken on a rainy day two weeks ago. I have quite a few wet flower photos from that single photo session!