Gardening Flowers & Foliage

The azaleas and rhododendron have bloomed out. Time for the mountain laurel to do it's thing.





It's also "rice crispies under pine trees" season.

 

3 different small rose bushes. The first two were already growing here when I bought the house years ago. All I’ve done was trimmed them when they needed it.

This is the third year for these yellow roses I bought from David Austin.

I’ve been letting the “weeds” grow in this small patch of the yard this year. Turns out this is actually some kind of native fleabane which is in the aster family. Small humble blooms but I’d rather this than some invasive like mugwort.

 

Lots of rain this spring means most plants are happy.





The rhodies are georgeous this year. This is from the driveway. Note that you can just see the stairs to the house on the left hand side and the bottom of them are a couple feet higher of where the rhodie is. That area has a nice slopeaway from the house then flattens out just to the right of the rhodis. Their trunks are pretty much smack in the middle of that mound.



This picture is purely for scale. The house is 40' long - not including the roof's 3' overhang. The right side of the house is directly below where that conduit is holding the wires. One day the rhodie will get too close to the wires and I'll have to hire someone to trim it back. But, I've just let it go since I've been here because I love the privacy and view it offers to the living room and the front porch.

 

Evening primrose

 

I love when those appear. Just like your own personal pocket of sunshine

 

I’m being a lot more selective when cutting “weeds” around the house this year. I let this patch of native red clover bloom and I’m not disappointed. You can see all the white clover in bloom in the grass in the background, which is a European variety. The wild rabbits seem to like it so I leave that alone too.

 

Peonies have lots of buds and Wednesday blooms started bursting out. There is a lovely fragrance in the air.
Odd how the first picture was turned clockwise by 1/4 compared to how the picture was taken, just cock your head to the right



I've never seen the ninebark by the side of the road with so many blooms.


And the yellow batisia, in only its second year, is looking lovely. Wish the stems would hold the blooms in more of an upright bush shape, but maybe as it gets older, the stems will get thicker and stronger like the blue one (which I failed to take a picture of).

 

We have been busy of late as well of all of you. I'm just going to throw some quick picks your way. Hopefully they go through, sending them from camp.

 

A few more, like the previous post all these pics were taken at home. The orange flower is a poppy almost gone by.

 

Winter Berries: pre-berry

 

Lilys are starting.

 

Wild ones?

 

Spring flowers are in the rear view mirror. Summer is here.

Monks cap lily


I need to thin out around that lily. It never seems to get wider.

Dr Zeuss flowers opening


Cohosh. I'll take closeups once the flowers start opening


Daylilies

 

Pictures from Wednesday afternoon. Spring flowers have gone by and the summer flowers aren't really started yet, but the hostas are looking great

Driveway garden: Young butterfly weed plant. The blooms from the oldest one are not quite open yet

The small leaves above the hosta are from a variegated weigala


Wavy leaved hosta with another young butterfly weed. In the background is the original, older butterfly weed. Those darker blooms are the few on that older plant that are open - all the formed, but unopened buds around it is part of that older plant too


The only color in the shrub garden is from this dwarfed spirea. It stays dwarf as it nestles under one of the many winterberries, which are showing flower buds


Hostas in the south garden


Interestingly, while I was taking pictures I realized the pink peonies in the south garden never bloomed - there weren't even any buds. I didn't see stalks or anything that looked like they were eaten by critters. The white ones around them bloomed profusely this year, as did the darker pink peonies in the roadside garden, so I don't know what was up with that. Guess I'll see what happens next year.

 

A few things in bloom around the yard

 

Our Catalpa.