Perennials Have Finally Come Up

5/18/14

rhododendron

     It has continued to be cooler than normal here.  Last night it was in the 40's.  Everything is late.  The azaleas are just done blooming.  The rhododendrons have just bloomed all over the neighborhood.  And I noticed a few iris are blooming in some yards.

     Here are some photos of my perennials that have finally come up in all my gardens.

The three Asiatic lilies are getting taller by the day. 

My Japanese iris has buds and will be blooming soon.

This balloon flower finally emerged from the ground.

The Midnight salvia is the only perennial blooming right now in the side garden.

This coneflower was slow to make an appearance.

 This is a digitalis plant a gardener friend gave me last fall.

I was worried about this gaillardia plant.  But it finally put out some green leaves.

     One of my plants, a coreopsis, did not survive the brutal winter.  I have seen nothing in the spot where it was growing.  I had damage to other plants which I will show in another post.  I hope it gets hot and stays hot here soon.  We have had a cold fall, a brutal winter, and a cool spring.  I think everybody is ready for some warmth here.

Been Waiting For This

5/4/14

tulip garden

     The warm weather finally arrived with May.  It has been on the cool side, with one day at the end of April where the high temperature was 49 degrees!  That is the day the flooding rains (five inches!) arrived.  We had no flooding in our neighborhood, but many streets in the area were flooded for several hours.  But the first of May, the air changed it seemed to me.  And the bitterness of the cold spring disappeared.  The sun suddenly seemed like a summer sun instead of a weak, lukewarm spring sun.  I had to get out the sunglasses and sun lotion and take the winter blankets off the beds.  Hooray!  I long for and live for this time of the year.  The trees are just coming into leaf.  But my tulip garden is in full bloom.  Here are photos of what else is blooming.

The beautiful Brunnera macrophylla plants have all bloomed.  I love their color and lacy look.

The hostas and asiatic lilies broke through the soil about a week ago and now look how big they are.

Sweet woodruff just flowered.  I have three patches of it at the edge of the backyard garden.

The azalea bush at the front of the house burst into bloom a day ago.

I planted pink whopper begonias and alyssum snow crystals along the front of the house.  The whopper begonias are very showy.  Their blossoms are two inches across when they reach their final height.

I put in some petunias and marigolds in the center of the side yard garden.  The perennials are coming up around them.

     I also planted annuals in my deck railing pots and my large tub pots on the deck.  I will show some photos of these and all the perennials that are coming up in the back and side yard gardens in another post.