April Garden Bloggers Bloom Day….and the flu

Orange Jubilee

Happy Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day!  This is one of my favorite meme’s.  I love participating each month and I always look forward to seeing what my fellow garden bloggers have blooming in their gardens.

On another note, I got it.  I thought I had escaped it completely.  With such beautiful spring weather, it is just incomprehensible to me that I succumbed to it the flu.  Isn’t there a rule or law somewhere that states you can only be sick with the flu when it is cold and rainy outside?  Not when it is gorgeous and sunny outside.

Thankfully, I am feeling better and was able to go outside (in my pajamas) to take pictures for April’s GBBD.  The following flowering plants are in my backyard because I did not want to venture out in the front garden in my pajamas 😉

April Garden Bloggers

This is the first cluster of flowers this year on my Orange Jubilee (Tecoma x Orange Jubilee) shrub.  Since it is located up next to my house, it usually does not suffer frost damage in the winter.  Soon, the hummingbirds will be fighting over the blooms.

April Garden Bloggers

 Closely related to the Orange Jubilee, my Yellow Bells  (Tecoma stans stans) is located along the back wall of my garden.  It is covered in yellow flowers from April through November.

April Garden Bloggers

I am extra excited about this one because these are the first blooms on my Whirling Butterfly Bush (Gaura lindheimeri ‘Siskiyou Pink’).  We planted this back in March.

April Garden Bloggers

Okay, technically this Cat Claw Vine (Macfadyena unguis-cati) is not planted in my garden, but in my neighbor’s.  But, it is blooming in my garden, so that counts, doesn’t it? Cat Claw Vine does suffer frost damage in some locations in the winter, but quickly grows back. It can become invasive and so I would use caution when considering growing this vine.  I cut back the portion that hangs over my fence about twice a year when it gets too close to my shrubs.

Geraniums

Geraniums in our new vegetable garden.  This was recently moved from our Children’s Flower Garden as it was being deconstructed.

Mexican Bird-of-Paradise

It is not very easy to see all of the yellow blooms that are covering both of my Mexican Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana), but they are lovely just the same.  Although they are commonly grown as shrubs, they can also be trained as small trees as I have done here.  In our area, they bloom off and on all year.

I hope you enjoyed this brief visit to some of my flowering plants in the back garden.  Please visit May Dreams Gardens for a list of other garden bloggers who are participating in Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day.

Now I’m off to visit my fellow garden blogger’s gardens to see what they have blooming…..

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."
31 replies
  1. Darla
    Darla says:

    Glad you are feeling better Noelle. These are some pretty blooms. How nice for you to have your neighbor's vine cascading over your wall..

  2. Jen
    Jen says:

    Everything looks beautiful, Noelle. If only beauty were a cure for your virus…you'd be healed immediately! Feel better!

  3. Curbstone Valley Farm
    Curbstone Valley Farm says:

    I'm sorry you have the flu, how awful! But I'm glad you made it outside, even if it was just to take a few photos. Your Orange Jubilee reminds me a bit of our Mimulus that are just starting to blooms here, very similar in color. I love Gaura 'Siskyou Pink'. I had a huge one at our large house, and when it's in full bloom, and catches a light breeze, it's absolutely enchanting in the garden. Hope you feel better very soon!

  4. Annie's Granny
    Annie's Granny says:

    Are we garden bloggers passing the flu bug around to each other? Thomas and I have both been abed with it. Glad you are on the mend.

    Your blossoms are gorgeous! I'm past the tulips, quince and daffodils, and not quite into the lilacs and rhodies. Strawberry blossoms are looking pretty to me, though 😉

  5. Rose
    Rose says:

    I love all the hot colors in your garden, Noelle; somehow they seem more appropriate than pastels for an Arizona garden:) The Orange Jubilee is aptly named; what gorgeous blooms! No wonder the hummingbirds love it.

    I do hope you're feeling better; no one likes to get sick, but spring is definitely the worst time of year to be laid up on the couch.

  6. Ami
    Ami says:

    Lovely flowers! I totally missed this meme as well. Lately the work schedule is a little crazy. I am reading your post while I am eating lunch at my desk at work:)

    Hope you feel better! I smiled when you mention you don't want to go to front garden in your PJs. Once I was cooking in the kitchen wearing a apron. And while the oven is doing its job, I decided to go check some flowers in my front yard, and did not realize I still had my apron on! Received some funny looking from the people walking by… lol

  7. Jenni
    Jenni says:

    I got it too! Crazy..still on the mend..boo! I love your Orange jubilee and your geraniums look lovely, glad you were able to salvage them 🙂

  8. Liza
    Liza says:

    Get well soon, Noelle! Thanks for letting us peek in on your blooms. And thanks for not wanting to follow the latest trend in wearing pajamas out in public! I can't believe that people think it's ok to go grocery shopping in their pjs!!!!

  9. Becca's Dirt
    Becca's Dirt says:

    Yuck the flu. Glad you are beginning to feel better. The color of the geranium is so pretty. And the Orange Jubilee is so stunning. Hope you have a good weekend and are soon back to normal.

  10. Kate
    Kate says:

    Loads of gorgeous flowers should have you feeling better soon.

    PS: Wandering the gardens in jammies is a favorite summer past-time for me, too. :))

  11. Amy Farrier
    Amy Farrier says:

    Sorry to hear about your late-in-the-season flu. Love that orange version of the Tecoma; usually just see the yellow esperanza here. And the cat claw vine looks great on top of the wall (borrowed landscape always counts!).

  12. Turling
    Turling says:

    Glad you are feeling better. My daughter, 2 years old, got the flu when we were in Hawaii last week. There definitely should be a rule against that.

    Beautiful pictures, by the way.

  13. Janet
    Janet says:

    Feel better Noelle, and who's to say you shouldn't go out front in your jammies? We will on a very friendly street….one thing we like is to tease the very late risers about coming out in their jammies at one in the afternoon to get their paper.
    My gaura is just starting to emerge.

  14. Floridagirl
    Floridagirl says:

    Beautiful blooms! I've seen the Tecoma and Yellow Bird here in garden centers, but have never tried them. I think I'm tempted to now…if I can find the room. Isn't it nice to borrow neighbor's flowers. Twice-a-year trims don't sound too bad.

  15. Floridagirl
    Floridagirl says:

    Oh, and I hope you have a quick recovery. I agree…we shouldn't be able to catch it when the weather's beautiful! I had a bad case of the flu back in Jan/Feb and could be found wandering the garden in my PJs anytime I got the strength.

  16. pamsenglishgarden
    pamsenglishgarden says:

    Noelle, I bet walking around your garden taking pics of your beautiful blooms made you feel much better! I hope so. Get completely well very soon.
    PS Love the geranium photo.

  17. sweet bay
    sweet bay says:

    I'm sorry you have the flu, that sucks. 🙁 Be sure to give yourself enough time to feel better.

    The Tecoma stans is beautiful, and the flowers of the Orange Jubilee remind me a little bit of our Crossvine.

  18. Brad
    Brad says:

    Your blooms are always colors I really like. I love the orange and yellow of the orange jubilee and yellow bells. Nice bright colors. I feel like they look perfect in a desert garden, though they might seem a bit much elsewhere. Hope you feel better soon.

  19. Di
    Di says:

    Noelle, so happy to hear you are feeling better!

    I love seeing the plants we would not have here, and must say that the Cat Claw Vine is most appealing on the other side in your neighbors yard, reaching and peaking over at you… lovely display. And the Caesalpinia mexicana and seeing that structure of the branching is quite delightful. Have a wonderful weekend and take some time to relax and enjoy a bit of that beauty.

  20. Rosie
    Rosie says:

    Oh Noelle those are fabulous blooms and plenty of them too – mine are scattered all over the garden so I had to take close ups of them all. I think that the Caesalpinia mexicana would be my favourite as it blooms so often. The overall shape of the tree is lovely too.

  21. Joseph
    Joseph says:

    Do feel better soon, Noelle. Thanks for taking the time to post some great pics. Tsk! Tsk! You should have been resting! 🙂

  22. Msrobin
    Msrobin says:

    Beautiful spring blooms at your house, and all over the world. Don't you just love it? Sorry you are sick. It's going around. I've been sick with a cold this week too, no appetite, and coughing. Ick! And just think, I have to sing a solo at church Sunday. Hope my voice comes back by then! LOL Feel better.

  23. noel
    noel says:

    aloha noelle,

    wow, look at all the hot colors in your garden today…hope you save some later for my hot meme at the end of the month….love that first photo of the tecoma, lovely

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