Lots Happening

6/15/14

back yard garden

     There is a lot of growth going on in my back yard garden and in the plants that surround the electrical box.  Here are some photos of what is growing in the back yard garden.

The roses have suddenly burst into bloom.

The astilbe have flowered.

The Asiatic lilies are set to open soon.

Brightening the area under the pink dogwood is the ghost fern.

My  hardy begonias have made their appearance.  It looks like they are spreading with lots of tiny new leaves away from the originals.  Their lovely pink flowers will arrive in August.

The seashells cosmos reseeded from last years planting.  For some reason, I have never had cosmos reseed until this year.  Hard to believe they survived the brutal winter we had.

A new garden angel graces the back yard garden.

The plants that surround the electrical box are growing rapidly.  Daisies are in the front with the tall  milkweed behind them.

Here is a photo of the back of the box when the scotch broom bushes were in bloom a week ago.

The milkweed plants in front of the box are just about to open.

     We have only had a few hot days so far.  And even though we had flooding rains again all week, this weekend was dry with low humidity and gorgeous sunshine.  But this week the forecasters say we will have a string of 90 degree days.  That's fine with me.  I like hot summer days.

Lots Of Growing Going On

6/1/14

side yard garden

     During the week that I was gone visiting family in Las Vegas, Nevada, my gardens were filling in nicely.  My side yard garden seemed to have a growth spurt.  It gets the most sun of any of my gardens.  The purple-blue "midnight" salvia is the star of the garden right now. In front of the salvia are the annuals I planted, yellow marigolds and pink petunias. Following are some photos of other growth that is occurring in my side yard garden.







   

coneflower

     While the coneflower plants are still growing and are  not yet at normal height, I found a small bloom beneath them all.

Japanese iris

    
     Here is one of the blooms on the Japanese iris.

oriental fountain grass

     The oriental fountain grass "Karley Rose" is finally greening up.

digitalis

     I can't wait to see the blooms on the digitalis plants.  A friend gave me three of these last fall.

butterfly bush

     My butterfly bush was damaged by the brutally cold winter.  It has a lot of dead branches, but new growth is coming up from the bottom.

zinnias

     I planted these zinnia seeds at least three weeks ago.   They have been very slow to grow because of the very cool May weather.

lavender

     The lavender is just about to burst into bloom.

     There is lots of growing going on in my electric garden and in my backyard garden which I will tell you about in another post.  Also in a future post I will show you photos of a very spectacular park we visited while in Nevada.

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.

It's Finally Here

4/22/14

    

Yoshino cherry

     We had two 80 degree days last week and everything that had been holding back suddenly bloomed.  Here is what happened in the yard this past week.  The Yoshino cherry trees in the yard finally opened their buds.

All the hyacinths bloomed.

Then we had two nights of below freezing temps with rain/sleet and wind.  All the hyacinths were blown down. 

The cherry trees lost half their blossoms.  They were beautiful for two days.

The pink dogwood tree buds looked like this a week ago.

Now the pink dogwood is in bloom.

The grape hyacinths just bloomed in the tulip garden.

And three tulips just opened today in the tulip garden.

     I am waiting and watching for the rest of the tulips to begin opening.  There is much more activity in the back and side gardens which I will tell you about in the next post.  So much happening at once.  The garden centers finally opened around here on Easter weekend.  They are bursting with gorgeous flowers.  I went over today to my favorite garden center just to look around and get ideas.  I just couldn't leave without buying some flowers.  I ended up with 18 plants when I left there.

Just Getting Started

4/12/14

tulips

     I was so tired of the cold and snow after that last unexpected snowstorm two weeks ago that I bought a pot of tulips at the grocery store.  Finally all this week we  have had warm weather in the 60's and 70's.  What a treat!  Blooming is slowly getting started here.  Everything seems to be two weeks or more late.  The Bradford pear trees and magnolias in the neighborhood  finally bloomed about five days ago.

      Here are some photos of what has emerged in my garden so far.

My first daffodil bloomed a week ago.

The first hyacinth bloomed a week ago also.

This primrose is in full bloom.

The Brunnera macrophylla are coming along nicely.  I have four of them in the garden.

The sweet woodruff has emerged.  I have three clumps of these in shady areas of the back garden.

Also appearing is the first fern.

The tulip garden is taking its time and still not in bloom.

This branch on one of my Yoshino cherry trees is just about ready to burst onto bloom.

     In the next day or two,  the cherry trees will bloom, most of my daffodils will open, and hopefully a tulip or two will show up.  I am hoping that the possible frost/freeze for the middle of this week doesn't materialize.