Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 2021

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day at Longview Ranch in my zone 8b, Portland, Oregon garden. Let's see what's out there on this chilly, early spring morning.

My mostly fair-weather garden has had so few blooms recently that I didn't post in January or February. But amazingly, three months after I featured Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide' in December, it is still blooming - a lot!

 

I have grown a few Hellebores for years, but I finally got smart and planted some seedlings from a Garden Bloggers Swap in a place where I could readily enjoy them from my breakfast room. In this, their third spring, they are coming into beautiful maturity.

We took out a big vine maple (Acer circinatum) a year ago, and I moved Camellia transnokoensis just a few feet into its place. It was still young, and seems to have responded well to the move. I love its airy form and small, delicate blossoms.

 

The grand effort to establish Vinca minor around three big trees in the front garden is at an end. I admit defeat 12 years after I originally planted starts, then 4" and gallon pots over the years. They proved impossible to keep happy or moist enough in summer, and the hundreds of dogs walking past leave their pee-mail all over them on the sidewalk side. I'm just letting it go back to the weedy grass that survives around the trees. Everything can just get mowed and they can duke it out among themselves. This time of year, there's a lovely flush of Vinca bloom on the street side, but it's considered invasive here in Portland (my garden didn't get the memo) and I am done worrying about it. So there!

A NOID Epimedium just coming into bloom in the dust dry shade near my foundation.

Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis is almost done blooming. It's one of multiple varieties of teeny blossoms at this time of year.

Azara microphylla is another tiny early spring flower. I can barely smell its slight vanilla scent, but the Mulch Man finds it very strong and says it's like smelling vanilla dryer sheets!

My young Acacia pravissima made it through our short arctic event in late February. It's not growing as fast as the last one I lost a few years back, but at least it's trying to bloom.

Daphne 'Eternal Fragrance' is back with blooms this month. She did take a breather in January and February.

Here are a few "almost" blooms in the Northwest Territory. First,  Ozmanthus x. burkwoodii.

 

And Ribes sanguineum is covered in pink buds that will be magnificent in about two weeks.

Euphorbia myrsinites is juicing up the hell strip.

A couple of recent purchases are brightening up the garden as well. Here's Erisimum 'Winter Orchid' - I hope it re-seeds prolifically.

And yes, another Lewisia cotyledon 'Sunset Strain'. I just cannot get enough of this beautiful Northwest native cultivar that features on my blog header. It comes in shades of violet, pink, apricot, salmon, and apparently this wonderfully intense red-orange.

I'll leave you with a super indoor bloom: Clivia miniata 'Belgian Hybrid Orange' is fabulous on a dark early spring day.

Bloom Day is sponsored monthly by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Pop over there for a little spring pick-me-up!

Happy Bloom Day, all!