What's Bloomin'. Edition 11

Pink Ladies/Pink Evening Primrose. Oenothera speciosa.  Funny story on this flower. When we lived in the Fort Sanders neighborhood of Knoxville, these flowers were growing in an empty lot. The old Victorian home that once stood there had unfortunately, like a lot of the homes in that neighborhood, burned down. J dug up some of these and brought them back to our little apartment. We put them in a pot, where they eventually made there way into the ground here. And they've done well, coming back every year and spreading. I like to think we brought a little bit of Fort Sanders with us.

Rosebud Azalea - Azalea "Rosebud". This azalea, already here when we moved in, blooms a lot later than any of the other azaleas we have. It looked really, really sad when we first moved here, and for the first several years it had very few blooms. We've pruned it a bit, done some fertilizing, and this year it really looked quite spectacular it was so laden of blooms. It still has some sort of fungus growing on the stems, but a little TLC went a long way with this bush. The double blooms on it are so pretty. It also seems to hold the flowers a little longer than the other azaleas. I've never seen it sold in stores.

Impatiens - these are one of my favorite annuals, and they do well in the shade. I buy some every year to put in planters on our front porch. They always look so sad and small when I first plant them, the planters seem to just swallow them up. But just wait, in a month or so they'll fill the container and spill over the sides.

Even though they are technically annuals, we have several in pots with other plants that get taken in every winter. Surprisingly, they over winter okay. A number of these plants are several years old.

Ferns. Sigh. These are tough. I mentioned before that the previous owner had already planted a variety of ferns, but I have no idea what they are. I have had little luck on identifying them, but here's some pictures nonetheless. They're beautiful.

The one below is the only one I've been able to identify.

Eastern Maidenhair Fern. Adiantum pedatum. I don't know if you can tell from my pictures, but this fern is very unique looking with the fern leaves coming off of a C shaped fronds.

I mean, come on, any plant that has a part called a fiddlehead? That's pretty rad.