Gardening Flowers & Foliage

I’ll be your Huckleberry

 

Spirea is looking for attention.


Across the yard is an azalea.


There's a few branches needing to be pruned, bottom right.

Lots of blueberry potential.




Berries were few and small last year due to the drought.

 

Cleaned up all the winter storm damage in my elderly neighbor's yard. One entire 8-10' lilac trunk from a bush was laying on the ground and mostly broken off. But, it still leafed out and bloomed. It didn't take much effort to break it off the rest of the way at ground level by hand. I did cut off two branches of blooms before taking the rest of it to the brush pile. Vase is 10" for scale. The whole place smells great now.

 

Yes, my lilac is in full bloom as well. It is blooming better this year than last as we have had more rain this spring.

 

Lily of the valley is smelling so nice.


And the ground Phlox is at it's full bloom

 

Mom's Lily of the Valley is just coming into bloom. She also has bluebells blooming all over the place.

 

Mock orange




Rhododendron is opening up

 

The hard frost the other day took all the leaf buds on my Rose of Sharons- I have no idea what that means for them. Also really made a mess of the Japanese maple.



A few other plants got bit, that I'm sure will be just fine once they get over the shock.

 

This bunch of early daylillies, brightens up this corner.




And the Siberian irises are opening.




Theses irises are usually some of the 1st to bloom. But, I'm seeing bearded irises in bloom as I drive around. Oh well. It is what it is.

 

Serviceberry snack time

 

Our hydrangeas are just beginning to put on blooms

 

So I looked up Service berry to see where they are grown and how you prepare them. I find out that up here in Western Canada, they are called Saskatoon berries. My dad loved them and as a kid growing up on the prairies, his family would pick them quite often. Other names for them are Juneberry and Shadblow. I think there are places in Western Canada where they are trying to grow them commercially. I haven't seen any growing on Vancouver Island but from the description of them, I think you could.

 

We picked Juneberries on my grandpa’s farm in SD, but I remember them being way better than these berries. Grandma made jelly with them. Her strawberries were the best too. Lost a lot of old ways when Olaf and Corrine passed.

 

My red rhodie is at peak bloom. I think it gets a little too much shade, so never has a lot of blooms - this is a good year for it. It irritates me that I can never get a picture of the true color. 1st pic is what came out of my phone (an actual camera does no better) and the second pic has been adjusted to give a more true representation.





Individual blooms. I tried to adjust the pic, but couldn't get results that I was happy with, so this is too bright and pinkish. It is sad that if I try to autocorrect, the software makes it even more garish. These should be closer to a burgundy color but I have neither the talent or patience to make it better [sigh]

 

Those are pretty.

 

I think the big pink rhodies are in full bloom - all pics taken yesterday afternoon before the storms ripped thru



Variegated weigala. I can never get the pinkish flowers to stand out in a pic as well as they do in real life

Columbine. I planted one there years ago and kept pulling them every year because the greenery looked like weeds . This year I realized they weren't and was rewarded.


This is some sort of "pink" that I bought and planted in early May. It was in bud at the time and has done nothing but bloom. Even the freeze in late May didn't bother it (and I haven't watered it - I'm amazed it hasn't wilted up on me). Unlike the red rhodie, the phone represents the color well without touching it.


The lupines are in sad shape since it has been so dry for the last two weeks and this may be the only bloom I actually get. .


Also have batisia starting (no pic as they are still scraggly looking). The peonies around the lupine and in another garden have a bazillion flower buds and ants are at work getting them ready to open.

 

If you have them bloom and go to seed, they will start showing up all over the place. I have a fancy purple one that show up in the original spot but also in unexpected places.

 

It's at the edge of the "woods" (a thin strip of trees between properties), so I hope they do spread.

 

I have a friend in NY (not in city) that was bemoaning that bumblebees are disappearing and she doesn't have any in her gardens. She has way more garden space, variety and blooms than I have, but this year is a stellar bee year for me (last two years, not so much). The two large rhodies are humming all day with bees everywhere, and have been that way for a week or more. I can hear them from 10' away. I had just got done mowing so didn't have my readers on and just haphazardly started taking pictures hoping I got something in them





Even though the baptisia isn't in full bloom yet, and the flowers not really open enough for a big-azz bumblebee to get in there, this one decided there were advantages to foraging alone.

 

The mountain laurel is carrying the day here.