What's Blooming in My Garden - April 28

• Apricot - Our first blossoms opened up last Thursday. Since then we have been blessed with clouds, rain, snow, and frost. Luckily yesterday was warm and sunny so the bees came out and visited the blossoms. I am hoping that we will be able to harvest more than 9 delicious apricots this year.
  
• Bergenia - Bergenia isn't a very well known perennial, but it has some great attributes. This one does best with some shade. It blooms early in the spring. The pink flowers are nice, but the real selling point for this plant is its foliage. The thick leaves are about the size of my hand and are a pretty green edged with red. In the fall, the leaves turn a beautiful burgundy color. It is semi-evergreen so they add some interest to the garden until the snow buries them. Something in my garden likes to eat it (strawberry root weevil, perhaps?) so my leaves have notches out of the edges. I like it anyway. Unless they've replaced them, there used to be a large beautiful patch growing on the north side of the South Visitor's Center at Temple Square.
  
• Grape Hyacinth - Some people hate these little beauties because they naturalize readily, but that's part of why I like them so much! They are gorgeous, low maintenance additions for almost any garden. I love their bright blue color, especially when planted with dafodills. They smell good. They make tons of flowers so the kids have something to pick. Grape hyacinth's make very nice cut flowers and will last over a week in a vase if you pick a young bloom. There are several varieties available - white, lavender, various shades of blue, a yellow one edged in purple, and blue ones edged in white (my favorite).
  
• Nanking Cherry - My Mom and Dad used to have an entire Nanking Cherry hedge and I loved their sweet blossoms and the tasty jelly Mom made from their fruits. The blossoms run the length of the stem and range from pale pink to white. They are very showy in full bloom. The bushes are extrememly hardy and require little very little care. Later on they will be covered with small red (usually pretty tart!) cherries that make fantastic jelly. The variety I planted is supposed to be sweet like a Bing cherry, but I'll believe that when I taste it...I'll take sweet or tart cherries!
• Tulips - My tulips are just beginning to bloom. They used to be my favorite spring bulb, but dafodills beat them out a few years ago. I still like them though. I have some regular tulips in bloom and a few of my lily-flowered tulips have opened up. Most will need another week or two, depending upon the weather.
  
• Violets
• Vinca minor
• Daffodils
  
• Arabis
  
• Abrietia
  

What's in Bud (but still a way off):

• Apple tree
• Crabapple tree
• Oriental poppy
  

Weeds to Watch For:

• Blue Mustard - This is a short little weed with really pretty purplish pink flowers. It usually grows in patches. The tiny flowers have only four petals because it's a member of the mustard family. The leaves also smell kind of stinky when you damage them - think bad cabbage.