I’m really enjoying these Ruby Meidiland roses — they seem brighter and heavier blooming this year than they’ve ever been. Maybe it’s the lingering effects of the horse manure I fed them two years ago? Anyway, aren’t they a perfect Fourth of July rose? This photo was taken on the Fourth of July, and they go so well with the flag. I’m also enjoying that my Shasta Daisies are in full bloom right now. Maybe I should have some of these out front near the flag, too. And finally, here is a nice photo of the front yard flowerbed. I’m…
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The photos above are flowers I planted this year. On the left is Verbena x hybrida ‘Imagination’ with some Delosperma iceplant foliage in the background. These Verbenas are doing pretty well, and I hope they produce good amounts of seed so I can grow them again next year. On the right, you can see some red Dianthus deltoides ‘Brilliancy’ along with my cutting-propagated Gaillardia with the mostly yellow flowers, as well as some of the Verbena (pardon a few weeds in there, too!). The Dianthus has also been a great plant, flowering the first year from seed in a short…
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My purple and white coneflowers are blooming very well now. They’ve been going for a few weeks and are probably peaking now. The white ones were started last year from seeds gathered from a plant I raised a few years ago from seeds off my mother-in-law’s plant. I think it’s ‘White Swan’ but I can’t be 100% sure. This is only the second year in my garden for the white ones. The purple ones are partly from plants I bought five years ago and also from seeds scattered by those plants.
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Since we got home from vacation a few weeks ago, things have been very busy! Plus, it’s peak garden time, and when I get a minute to spend on garden stuff, I’m out in the yard rather than on the computer. That’s how it should be, but OK, I finally found some time to post some cool photos from this month. Here goes: My garden actually created its own ‘goblin’ sort of Gaillardia (left) — a short little blanket flower. I’ve never actually wanted to buy the ‘goblin’ variety, because I thought they were out of proportion — too stubby.…
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Today, I planted some lily bulbs and a dozen or so Rudbeckias I grew from seed. The lilies are a little late getting in the ground, but I hope we still get some good blooms from them this summer. I bought five bulbs of each kind at Wal-Mart about a month ago. They are: Stargazer – an Oriental hybrid that gets 40″ tall with purple-to-pink petals that fade to white around the edges, and Sugar Jewel – an Asiatic hybrid that gets 24-36″ tall with lavender blooms. These are planted behind the Crabapple tree that is in the main flowerbed…
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These are Prairie Fire Crabapples in my front yard — two of the coolest trees I’ve ever had! I love their display in April and May. It seems like their bloom season was too short this year, and it might have been the dry weather we had and the fast rise in temperature last week. All the blooms started to shrivel up this week, and I think they’ve usually gone stronger into May. The top photo was taken on April 28th, and the lower one was on April 20th, so the blooming was strong for something over a week, but…
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Here are a few more photos from the tulips in my front flowerbed. My girls really like those ones that look like jesters’ hats. I hope these all come back well next year; I should also add more to the bed this fall. These photos were taken one week ago, and they’ve started to decline since then.
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My Grape Hyacinths (Muscari) are blooming now. This year, I was concerned that all I was seeing from the Muscari was a tousled mass of leaves flopping around. But all of a sudden a week or so ago, the flower spikes just jumped up. They actually keep getting better every year, spreading a little and become a little more vigorous with slightly taller, thicker flower spikes. Here’s my Granny Smith Apple tree in full bloom, or pretty close to peak. What a great tree! Also, here are some blooms on one of my Kwanzan Cherry trees. I uploaded this one…