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.

Foliage Follow Up - October

Foliage in the October Garden is all about the changing colors, the berries, the seed heads and the loss of the gorgeous all over summer green. Sigh.

I do have some nice fall foliage in some of my shrubs, like the Clethra alnifolia Hummingbird (nicely accented by the dark green holly behind and the dark Heucheras in front),

and the Fothergillia gardenii Blue Mist,

and Amsonia Halfway to Arkansas, also just starting to turn,

as is Cornus hesseyii Garden Glow which will display red twigs (not obvious in this picture) all winter.

I don't know if anything will eat the seeds of these Asclepias tuberosa but the seed heads provide some nice interest in the fall and winter.

My Hydrangea Lady in Red (maybe) has nice dark stems shooting up above this years spent blooms. This is another plant I've been very happy with and can heartily recommend, even to a small garden.

Let's not forget the berries on the Viburnum Cardinal Candy. I hope the birds start eating those sometime over the winter.

I also have berries on Viburnum Brandywine. It's not nearly as large or prolific a plant as the Cardinal Candy but provides a nice, different look.

And let's not forget some of the starts of the late summer/fall garden - the grasses. Here are seed heads on Panicum virgatum Heavy Metal.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for this meme.