Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2015

What a relief. A long, hard, snowy winter, even by New England standards, a challenging semester at work and now, finally, it's spring like weather and summer break (I love being a lecturing professor!) and my garden is full of blooms. Here's a sampling.

 All these irises are from Rainbow Iris Farm

Want something out of the ordinary? This is the place to go.

I wish I had room for more...

Guess which bulb got in the wrong bag...

Very fragrant Viburnum - can you smell it from there?

Some annuals. I have a lot of pots around the yard that I fill with annuals. These are just a sample.

And my volunteers. The "wild" violets that I allow to grow as a cheerful ground cover.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams for this meme.

Miscellaneous Saturday

Trees are like people. Most of them I'd rather not see naked.

This reblooming iris would be nice if the color of the blooms didn't match the color of fallen leaves quite so much.

The Baptisia seed pods rattle until they start to open and spread their seeds. They make for winter interest but also for LOTS of seedlings in the spring.

At least my hollies like lively and colorful. And they will until sometime in February when we get a thaw and the berries are exposed to the hungry Robins and Cedar Waxwings. I guess they're still cheerful when the bushes are full of birds.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - June 2014

It's a late post for me for GBBD (thanks, Carol!). Three days of gloom and rain followed by lots of strong winds and today was the first chance I had to get out with my camera. Since The Queen Bee [my mom] is arriving for a visit later today I did a quick round with the camera to get at least SOMETHING to post.

These Petunias were purchased as a group called 'Blueberry Muffin' - I like the color combination [although the name makes me hungry... guess I should have had breakfast before I started this post]

Tradescantia [spiderwort or dayflower] is in full bloom - this plant is a descendant of Sweet Kate and/or Concord Grape and/or whatever is growing in my neighbors yards. I plan to transplant all of my Tradescantia from the front garden (where they're spreading a bit aggressively) to the backyard where they will need that aggression to stand up to the Rowdy Dogs

Iris iforgotiboughtthisii - I have several irises I must have purchased as bulbs (?) that have a lot of different colors. I particularly like this one.

My Calycanthus is blooming nicely. The blooms don't particularly stand out - you need to look close to appreciate them. They are supposed to have a spicy scent but I've never noticed it.

THIS however, does have a strong scent. I've embedded it in this image - scratch it and sniff. Wait. Your computer doesn't have scratch and sniff? I guess you'll have to take my word about it. This Hoya was a pass along plant. I wasn't all that impressed until I moved it to a sunnier spot and it started blooming. I like the looks of the blooms and BOY do they have a STRONG fragrance. Clearly in the wild Hoya are pollinated by nocturnal animals (moths probably) - the fragrance is strongest after dark. To give you an idea of the strength this plant is on the first floor, in my office and if I wake up in the night (when The Husband starts snoring, for example) I can smell it in our second floor bedroom. Wow.

Not pictured - Salvia, Baptisia, Physocarpus, Penstemon, Scabiosa, Heuchera, and probably a few others that I can't see from my office window so I'm forgetting about. June is a GREAT month for blooms here on The Edge!

Wordless Wednesday

Salvia nemerosa (May Night, Viola Klaus, Caradonna)

Iris idontrememberbuyingthisii

Heuchera (supposed to be Frosted Violet but two of the five I bought look like this and the other three look like, well Frosted Violet)

Heuchara mislabeledus

Dianthus Great Wicked Witch

Geum Totally Tangerine in front of Siberian Iris fromneighborii

Aqueligia fragrans scented varieties I started from seeds I bought from Plant World Seeds in England 

Fragrance is subtle and is overshadowed by my neighbors Lilac that's also blooming now

Baptisia australis

Siberian Iris lostustagus

It's JUNE!

It's been a long, cool wait here in New England until we finally arrive at the month of JUNE! Warm weather, good gardening, lots to get done before the heat arrives and it's too late to plant anything else.

The iris in my rain garden are still blooming - the early bloomers are done but I have some late bloomers still going strong.

Penstemon Husker Red is not shy about self seeding. Every time I see a plant growing in a crack in pavement like this I am amazed at nature will find a way.

My Centaurea Black Sprite is just starting to bloom. It's much less aggressive than Amethyst in Snow and I really like the contrast between the nearly black blooms and the yellow-green foliage.

Nepeta is going strong and attracting plenty of native pollinators (this is Dropmore, a shorter version than Walker's Low - the blooms are a bluer purple than they look on my computer monitor).

My Cornus Garden Glow is at it's peak - gorgeous leaves, gorgeous blooms. A bit larger than the predicted 3-5 foot. I've started cuttings in the hope that I can plant this somewhere away from the house and take down these oversized shrubs. I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere or I'd just buy a new one and dig these out (and won't THAT be a chore!).

My Hostas are fully opened. I have a fondness for BIG hostas. I plant them inside the fence and the dogs are a good deer deterrent. We're fortunate that we don't have many deer despite bordering on a couple of hundred acres of woods. I think the coyotes are keeping the deer in check. Just don't let your cats run free around here.

At this point if a plant hasn't poked it's leaves up I'm assuming it didn't make it. 

You made it just in time, Helenium!

By the end of this month I hope to have a fresh layer of mulch in all the gardens and to have made progress on the grass removal in the backyard (sadly not a sign of new beds being put in but of pulling grass away from growing shrubs that I didn't clear enough grass around originally).

And I hope my Buddleia are looking better. They died back nearly to the ground this winter. Not a pretty sight.