Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 2020; Poetry Sunday: In Perpetual Spring by Amy Gerstler

March brings a plethora of blooms to my garden here in zone 9a near Houston.

March, of course, means azaleas. The blooms of mine are fading now, but just a week ago it was in full bloom.

 Likewise, the Carolina jessamine only a few days ago was a wall of blooms.

 It has dropped most of its blossoms by now but still hangs on to a few.

 The 'Peggy Martin' rose continues in full bloom.

 The pot of pansies on the patio table bloom on.

 As do their cousins, the violas.

 Snapdragons are still in bloom.

 The loropetalum is at its most floriferous now.

 The camellia has been the star of the show for a while.

 The redbud is full of blooms and full of bees enjoying them.

 Purple oxalis.

 Indian hawthorn.

 A single delicate blossom of the Tradescantia 'Purple Queen'.


The blue plumbago has continued to send out a few blossoms all winter long. It never got cold enough to cause it to die back.

 Dianthus.

 And more dianthus.

Coral honeysuckle, a favorite of the Rufous Hummingbird that has spent the winter with us.

 Meyer lemon.

 Mandarin orange.

 Satsuma orange.

 The pomegranate tree is sporting buds.

 The yarrow is almost there.

 And so is the oleander.

 Hibiscus.

 Shrimp plant.

The delicate flowers of the purple ground orchid.

It has been a dry March so far. My garden could really use some rain. But I won't complain too much. Yet.

I hope your garden is getting just the right amount of sunshine and rain. Happy Bloom Day and thank you, Carol of May Dreams Gardens, for hosting our monthly visits.

~~~

I think Amy Gerstler must be a gardener. She seems to understand gardens very well.

In Perpetual Spring


by Amy Gerstler


Gardens are also good places
to sulk. You pass beds of
spiky voodoo lilies
and trip over the roots 
of a sweet gum tree,  
in search of medieval 
plants whose leaves, 
when they drop off 
turn into birds
if they fall on land,
and colored carp if they 
plop into water.
Suddenly the archetypal   
human desire for peace   
with every other species   
wells up in you. The lion   
and the lamb cuddling up.
The snake and the snail, kissing.
Even the prick of the thistle,   
queen of the weeds, revives   
your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt   
there is a leaf to cure it.

Comments

  1. What fabulous colors! I love all the different shapes and textures, too.


    Feel free to share at My Corner of the World

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Betty. The garden is all about color and texture and shape.

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  2. Beautiful flowers!
    Interesting poem
    Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting, Lea. I look forward to visiting your garden.

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  3. Very nice pictures. My gardening is usually vegetables but my wife plants the flowers. This year we may be both too busy to do much gardening however.

    Have a happy March.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do a bit of both vegetable and flower gardening, but of course, this monthly post is all about the flowers.

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  4. Thank you for the flowers! We finally got the rain we missed in February. Hallelujah!! The opening line of the poem today made me laugh out loud.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have a possibility of rain this week. I hope it materializes.

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  5. Oohh, that Jessamine! It's glorious!

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  6. Such brilliant color! Lovely to see. Happy GBBD.

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  7. That is an incredible, and quite wonderful, burst of colour - guaranteed to make one feel good. We just returned from a weekend up north, and while there is still deep snow in the forest the temperatures are warming and some birds are already singing courtship ditties. Spring is really on its way. Now if only we could get rid of COVID 19!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the meantime, we get to practice our social distancing, which, admittedly, is much easier for us introverts!

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  8. What a lovely, lovely collection. Many of my favorite spring flowers in one place! I love Carolina jessamine, which doesn't grow where I live in upstate New York; I haven't seen it in about three years and I miss it. Thank you for warming my spring-starved heart, but knowing my crocus are in bloom, I know spring is on its way for us in the Northeast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No doubt spring in the Northeast will be glorious!

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  9. Your shots of Jessamine always took my breath away,my oleander shrub is showing no sign of buds till now probably unusual cold weather to blame.I miss my pansy blooms after hailstorm created havoc in the garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jessamine is quite a dazzling plant for the two+ months it is in bloom. The rest of the year we hardly notice it.

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  10. I really needed this post today. I love seeing something so beautiful in this dark time. I can't wait to start my garden when the weather and my health allows, I miss it terribly. Azaleas are some of my favorites, my partner got me some for Valentines Day and I've been taking care of them. They're the only plant I have right now.

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    Replies
    1. I'm happy I could offer you some cheer. And there are few flowers more cheerful than azaleas at this time of year. Good luck with yours and with your other gardening activities.

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  11. Every year, your March garden amazes me! And I really believe there is a leaf (or flower) to cure every hurt. P. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. March does indeed bring an explosion of color to my garden, a most welcome sight after the grays and browns of winter.

      I guess our challenge is to match the leaf with the hurt.

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  12. Wow those are fantastic. You've given me some hope & cheer with the color of those flowers. We are buried in snow today ... so there is nothing ... but virus news. Things will begin to melt soon ... and our color usually hits around mid-May I think

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    Replies
    1. Gardening and reading are my twin salvations in this time of nothing but horrendous news.

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  13. I love your dianthus. I just planted some this past week between rain storms. My other plants seemed to have disappeared; usually, they reseed themselves. I don't know what happened. Looking at yours makes me impatient for my little ones to bloom.
    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just planted the dianthus recently and they haven't had a chance to grow much yet. I'm hoping that they will reseed.

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