This Week in Wildflower Gardening

Ray Allen, Founder of AmericanMeadows.com & The VT Wildflower Farm

Ray Allen's Meadow Gardening news for members of America's favorite wildflower seed site, AmericanMeadows.com

Tuesday, April 19

Northern States, Eat your heart out.

Bare trees? Mud? Not in the Carolinas! The Southern Spring is in full bloom. This is simply a suburban street in Columbia, SC photographed by our regional botanist Hal Corson on April 16th. It's a symphony of azalea color, and spring flowering trees. I'm guessing those are flowering pear trees, maybe a pink dogwood--a true blaze of bloom. The same is happening in a lot of the country. Texas and the whole Pacific coast are well into their big spring season. But in states like Vermont, Minnesota, and into Canada, we're still waiting. But it will all be with us in a month or so. Soon! Soon!

Posted by: Ray / 1:24 PM

Sunday, April 10

The Bluebonnets are in Bloom!

Far west Texas is experiencing a spectacular wildflower season thanks to a wetter winter across the Southwest. This part of Texas is known as Big Bend country and it embodies a northern extension of the Chihuahuan Desert and and a southern spur of the Southern Rockies. Right now the landscape is dominated by the Big Bend Bluebonnet, Lupinus havardii, one of the five bluebonnet species that are the official state wildflower. To get the latest bloom highlights, read the Big Bend wildflower report by Joe Sirotnak, Big Bend National Park Botanist, at http://www.nps.gov/bibe/dailyreport/flowers/botanyupdate.htm

Posted by: Ray / 11:18 PM

Wednesday, April 6

Lady Bird's Wildflower Days are on. Now.

The Wildflowers are in bloom in Texas. Which means "Wildflower Days" are on at the famous Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center near Austin. Plant sales, demonstrations, lectures, and the rest take place in a sea of Texas bluebonnets now through April 24. Use the click at right and visit their site and read all about it.

Posted by: Ray / 10:35 PM

Monday, April 4

The South Bursts into Bloom

It's April, and like clockwork, the big wildflower show begins in Texas, as the whole south begins to bloom. Our regional reporter, botanist Hal Corson in Columbia SC snapped this photo of the SC statehouse this week. The flowerbed is planted to represent the state flag. As the far north slogs through mud and the last snows, Southerners enjoy the renewal of spring! Thanks, Hal.

Posted by: Ray / 7:43 PM