However, there are a few white blooms in the garden at the moment, and the repetition of the theme caught my attention.
One of the first flowers to bloom in our garden is the spring snowflake (not pictured here). This unknown white clematis starts flowering fairly early, too, but it's still blooming sporadically:
Already done for the year are two types of "bridal wreath" (spirea) that bloom in white. The viburnum comes later, but as you can see, it's started:
I value the blooms of gardenias more for their scent than for their form or color, but they too are a dazzlingly bright white:
Another crisp, clean white adorns 'Little Gem' magnolia:
The blooms seem to glow against the glossy dark leaves...
The petals (and sepals) have a sculptural quality, catching fallen stamens and holding them like shallow bowls of the finest porcelain...
Other white (or cream) flowers that come and go through the year include wild violet, cemetery iris, peacock orchid (Gladiolus callianthus), common yarrow, 'White Star' spring starflower, 'White City' Spanish bluebell, moonflower (an annual), white cleome (another annual), purple oxalis, 'Little Lime' hydrangea, night-blooming jasmine, strawberry begonia, tea olive, crepe myrtles, rose of Sharon, confederate jasmine, angelwing jasmine, butterfly ginger, English dogwood, white loropetalum, and an unregistered white daylily-- to name the ones that come to mind. (Spider lilies are white, too, but I'm not sure any of mine still live.)
One (or both?) of Granny L.'s roses that I planted this spring also have white flowers, and I hope that this year white tuberose will bloom for the first time in our garden! It may take another year or two before they start to flower, but eventually, three new white crinums will add more spots of white to the garden palette.
...Once I got started on that list, I realized that we do actually have a lot of white flowers-- but many of them are small, and of course they don't all bloom at the same time.
They're not flowers, but my favorite (and the most continuous!) "touches of white" around our garden are the Eskies. ;o) Here are the latest photos of Luna:
