Congrats, Michelle, very nice!

Great pictures! Very nice close ups. Wish my camera could do that. Pretty flower, too.

The name is dead on - looks like velvet. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful! I really like the grasses in the background too. What a nice combination.

It will be eons before I see a bloom. No scapes even on the way yet.

Beautiful pictures.
Thanks for sharing.

Very, very pretty Michelle.
Alberta

That is so not fair LOL. I'm only a few doors down from you and none of mine are near ready to bloom. Got lots of scapes though.

Beautiful, I love red's

I'm with you barb, what in the world is she feeding those plants?!?!?!

I've got a few baby scapes on Stella and that's it :-(

Very pretty especially for a first bloom! I have VE, I need to run out and see if it's scaping yet. :) I'll have my first bloom open tomorrow on Cosmic Hummingbird. It's always my first one to bloom.
Jan

I know I purchased early DL's so where are my blooming blooms LOL.

:o) Thanks all for the kind comments. As to what I am feeding them... GOAT POO! No, just kidding, not yet, it is still fermenting. :o) But I did put down some organic mulch around them with blood meal. Dratted dog keeps eating it - NASTY dog. I had to go out and bag the next bloom, seeing as how it is raining now... and velvet eyes and rain don't mix. Have to remember to take it off in the morning!

Barb, I think tomorrow, I might have another bloom open on VE AND I think Mildred Mitchell might bloom too, if you want to meet at the house...

Jan, please post a picture of Cosmic Hummingbird!!

Oh, I love this time of year, but I feel REALLY impatient... checking the garden three times a day!

Miami Heat, Awesome Artist, Blue Elf, Glenn Fletcher Memorial, Half Moon Key, Honkey Tonk Blues, Iddy Biddy Gal, Lavender Fantasia, Little Blue Bell, Musical Medley, Nice and Easy, Sea Siren, two of my pink seedlings (first year to see bloom), Spacecoast Surprise Purple, West Coast Blues AND Yankee Doodle Blues all have scapes...

Lucky you to have a beautiful bloom aready.I have tiny scapes on some of my Stella's b ut nothing else.Ok who else has early blooms to share?

Jean

Love it! Thanks soooo much for sharing, im soooo jealous.

Beautiful photos - you're so lucky to have blooms already!

Juliet

I have some scapes on the new ones I got April 4th.
Jill

I have some scapes on the new ones I got April 4th.
Jill

Well, I think the FFO and the 2nd FO got real confused.... here is what I got today! ICK.

{{gwi:684718}}

{{gwi:684719}}

Even the stamens rotted out...

beautiful!!!!have you notice that some of the 'UF' look like that--the one you said looklike it rotted out--have you checked out C Hansen intros this year?

only one scape in mendo we have been having the cool morns--

got an order from Nicole H.--and rices--they are great--fans like redwoods--
Well you know they'll shrink uphere but what a great start--

bestbloomsalways keep sharing--cole

Wow, you certainly are giving us a glimpse of the best and the worste, LOL.

What is that white fuzzy stuff on the pistil of the last picture? Does this one have an insect problem that damaged it? Looks like a spider web but maybe severe mites or some type of larvae/catapillar?

berrytea4me - the white stuff is mold... it grew down in there when the flower was closed... The flower on this scape actually matured before the other scape, but didn't bloom until after the other. Wierd. I think it just stayed closed up too long, and the humidity made it right for mold.

Thankfully we are back to normal today!

{{gwi:684720}}

what a gorgeous flower.

Interesting about the mold. Wonder why that flower took so long to open? Wonder if it was weather or the mold or something else that caused the mold in the first place? Won't ever know but its curious just the same.

Does this lovely red hold up to sun, rain, etc?

berrytea4me - this flower does not like water... wilts pretty fast if you get it wet - hence, not keen on humidity either. But, it was 80 degrees and it stayed pretty well all day in sun and we are talking TEXAS sun... HOT.