Bloom Day

I've noticed many garden bloggers post what's blooming on the 15th of the month. Until now I had always associated Bloom day, or Bloomsday, with June 16, 1904, the date when James Joyce's Leopold Bloom set off on his adventures around Dublin in Ulysses. Joyce lovers everywhere celebrate that day with parties at which they read selections aloud. Is there a connection?

Anyway, here's what's blooming in my yard at the moment:
Exotics include tulips, Vinca minor, Iberis, dwarf irises, bleeding hearts, Brunnera 'Jack Frost,' dandelions, creeping charlie, and Norway maple. Natives include celandine poppies, wild ginger, violets, prairie phlox, Virginia bluebells, and serviceberry. A few other things, such as the lilacs, are about to pop and will be done before the next bloom day. So perhaps these lists should be posted every two weeks.

I'm not much of a photographer, but my friend Joe took these pictures of
what was blooming in Thatcher Woods on April 10 and shared them with me. At left are spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) and bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), at right is trout lily (Erythronium americanum).