What's blooming?

[Aggie]

Well, today is National Schizophrenia Awareness Day, so it's appropriate that everything is wearing purple as required.
[youtube=425,350]SkkIwO_X4i4&ob=av2e[/youtube]

[Opsa]

HA! I was just singing that song to myself the other day.

Speaking of purple, I neglected to mention my Jackmanii clematis, which is blooming like madness in the spring! I bought it from a neighbor lady many years ago. She was not happy and breaking up with her husband and having a yard sale and sold me this clematis root at a very begrudging discount, even though it was half dead in the package, since she'd never planted it, and was never going to. I lovingly gave it a home beside my porch, where Mr. Ops proceeded to weed whack it almost every year for about ten years, thinking it was dead. (Clematis tend to look like dried-out twigs when they're dormant.) Finally, after much patience and homicidal threats, the thing finally decided to produce flowers, and it is glorious. I'm gonna run out there now and see if I can snap a photo to post.

Edit: See below

[Roland Deschain]

Beautiful clematis you have there. I especially love the contrast of the white with the purple. I'll have to take a picture of the clematis my parents have grown. They really are spectacular when they bloom, and they can bloom for many months.

[Opsa]

I love them, too. I have an earlier clematis, a large magenta (two, that I saved from lawn mowers- I think they're some version of Earnest Markham.

There's a kind that's white with a dark purple center (lalalalala!) that I adore and would love to buy if I could afford it.

I also have wild autumn clematis all over the place, which I rip, snarl and tear at (lovingly, of course!) until August, when I give up and let it blanket everything with it's small scented white flowers.

[Darlica]

I love clematis but I didn't seem to have any luck with them when I had a balcony, so I gave up and started planting Ipomea purpurea instead.  And then I found this beauty ...
 

"cobaea scandens" or Cup and Saucer Plant as I believe it's called in English.

My mother grows both Ipomea and Cobaea from last years seeds and they are apparently doing very well.

[Roland Deschain]

What an unusual and beautiful flower. I have essentially run out of space, but if I can find some, maybe i'll give it a go some time.

[Opsa]

I once strung vertical cords along my whole front porch and grew walls of Heavenly Blue Morning Glory (an ipomea) up  them. It was fabulous! Alas, it never happened again, although I tried.

[Roland Deschain]

Was the second year a particularly bad one, especially at the start? It could also have been an incorrect soil type, too. Plants can be fickle.

In answer to the OP, I will say Rocket (15 flowers today), Lavender Thyme (a ball of green and white now), almost the Salad Burnet, almost the Mexican Tarragon, and almost the [fake] Curry Plant.

[Opsa]

I may have depleted the soil after that first year. It may also have been that the bed had become overgrown after that, and shaded out the baby Heavenly Blues the following year. Do you do anything to your soil, Darlica?

What nice herbs you're growing, Ro. I'll bet they smell fantastic.

[Roland Deschain]

What nice herbs you're growing, Ro. I'll bet they smell fantastic.

It's been raining this past week (ish), so not much can be smelt, unfortunately.

[Darlica]

I may have depleted the soil after that first year. It may also have been that the bed had become overgrown after that, and shaded out the baby Heavenly Blues the following year. Do you do anything to your soil, Darlica?

What nice herbs you're growing, Ro. I'll bet they smell fantastic.

Standard soil for container gardening plus some liquid fertilizer now and then.
I changed the soil every year, that's the easiest way when one only has a balcony. The old soil ended up as filler in my mothers garden where it was mixed with grass cuttings and such.

[Opsa]

We have a lot blooming here right now. We have daylilies in orange, peach, yellow and red. There are sweetpeas now blossoming in white, red, purple and pink. The naturtiums are in flower in yellow, orange, coral and sort of a tie-dye of yellow and orange. We have feverfew's little white daisies, which seem to be serving as a honeymoon spot for fireflies. We have some cosmos. We have reseeded nicotiana alata in deep pink and pale pink, and larkspur in purple and silvery pink. There's also the portulaca in peach, pink, buttery yellow and orange. Summer is here!

[Roland Deschain]

Quite a list you have there, Opsa, and it must make a wonderful display. I'm jealous of the fireflies.

I have Delphinium, Lupin and Poppy (both just came out), Hebe, Daylily, Clematis, Syringa (or so i'm told it is), Rose, Thyme, Tarragon, Dill, Salad Burnet, some of my wildflowers, and a few others. It makes it all worthwhile.

[Opsa]

I'm jealous of your delphiniums and poppies! They are faves that won't grow in my yard. ...YET!!! I have to make do with the larkspur for that delphinium effect. I guess the portulacas are as close as I come to poppies. (I keep typing "poopies"! Is it Freudian?)

It is all worthwhile!

[Roland Deschain]

Do you know why the Delphiniums and Poopies () don't like your garden? Not to make you jealous, but i've eradicated more poppy plants this year than were at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. They came up literally everywhere, including the block paving. They seed like bloody Dandelions!