In bloom this week: May 24, 2016

Peas!

Peas are growing spectacularly well this year, I can't wait to eat them all.

The foxglove and geraniums that are nearby in my shade garden are lovely too, plus lavender on the sunnier edge.

Foxglove and geranium

Lavender

My flowers that are taking over the vegetable garden are fading now, the iris is done and oriental poppies and lupine are finishing up. I cut the remains of the first blooms off of these aquilegia when I planted them and now they're blooming again - a good super sale purchase.

Oriental poppy

Lupine

Aquilegia

I did some deadheading in the roses this afternoon and was surprised at how many are just starting to have full blooms. There are a few that bloom early and are done with their first blooms, but now is the peak for many others.

More lavender in the rose garden, white and Munstead; these are tiny little plants still.

On the sunny hillside, all of my new plants are settling in well. Two of the penstemon are blooming, nice shades of purple to go with the red and white salvia. I still need to write up info about everything that I've planted on this hill!

Penstemon

Penstemon

Hot lips salvia

At the top of my rock stream, yarrow is blooming along with thrift and sedum. At the bottom, one lewisia keeps on blooming, happy to be out of the very crowded nursery pot.

Yarrow, thrift and sedum (plus low hanging blueberries)

Sedum and thrift

Lewisia blooms mixing in with lupine leaves

I also have a few aquilegia towards the shadier side of the hill, they've been cheerfully blooming all spring. I don't know why I never tried to grow aquilegia before, they have great flowers in so many varieties.

At the bottom of the hill - blue eyed grass is another of my new favorites, why did I not know that this plant existed?

A couple of random flowers from a wildflower mix. Not a whole lot came up, but there are now a few flowers and it was a temporary plan anyway.

By next week, this fireweed may start to open up. They grow from seed every year at the very bottom of my rose garden and bloom for most of the summer.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2016

I'm a couple of days late for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but I missed April completely so better late than never! Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts GBBD each month and it's always fun to check out what's in bloom around the country and around the world.

I've been posting "what's in bloom this week" almost every week, not sure if I'll keep doing that all year but it's been fun so far. Sometimes there's such a huge difference from week to week, and it helps remind me to get out and really look at my yeard.

Roses continue to be the big bloomers this week. I'll have to count one of these days but we have about 20 rose bushes along the front and north side of our yard.

A few of the new plants that I've added in with the roses this year are blooming, including these fern leaf lavenders.

Fern leaf lavender

In my partial shade retaining wall bed, the hardy geranium are starting to bloom. I've also transplanted a few pieces into the rose garden and they are doing well there too. I'm guessing these are Johnson's Blue, but hard to tell for sure.

Geranium

The foxglove that I planted earlier in the spring continues to bloom, now there are much smaller spikes around the main stem.

Foxglove

One blue poppy has a second bloom, and looks like a third will pop out too. The other plant shows no sign of blooming - hopefully next year.

Blue poppy with bonus geranium

Also these aquilega, which I found on super sale last month and couldn't resist. I deadheaded and now they're blooming nicely.

The flowers taking over my vegetable garden are still going strong, an unknown bearded iris, oriental poppies and lupine. 

Oriental poppies, lupine, bearded iris

I really like the color combo of the oriental poppies with a new gazing ball. See my reflection? More super sale aquilegia hidden just behind the poppies.

I've finished another section of the lower hillside, which I'll post details of later in the week. I couldn't resist buying a hot lips salvia, already in bloom. The blooms are red and white, although I think even just the red is gorgeous. 

Hot lips salvia

And a lewisia, which was very crowded in it's little nursery pot, I divided into five pieces. I'll confess I'm never too impressed with tiny pale blooms, but I love the leaves. 

Lewisia

Just below the sunny hillside is an area that I hope to build into a native meadow. The showy camas bloomed weeks ago, but blue eyed grass is peeking out now. 

Blue eyed grass

What's coming next week? More roses, I'm sure! Maybe my new penstemon that is next to the hot lips salvia. 

In bloom this week: May 9, 2016

Oriental poppy, lupine and irises

Flowers are taking over my vegetable garden, and they are the stars of the yard this week. A giant blue bearded iris that had languished in a shadier, weedier section of the yard for years is very happy here. Lupine and oriental poppies are also flourishing. Delphiniums that I just planted last fall are still small, but in bloom.

Lupine

Delphinium, still a baby plant

Oriental poppy about to pop

Bearded iris

The roses are in their full glory, this time of year makes up for all of the weeding, watering and disease control! Roses are not low maintenance plants, but they are gorgeous.

I've planted a lot of lavender in the rose garden this year; it's all very small still, but here is one lace leaf lavender.

Lace leaf lavender

The one Dutch iris from last week has turned into a nice little cluster. This is also in the rose garden.

Dutch iris

Salvia, or at least this plant, was sold as an annual but this is the fourth or fifth year that it's come back to life.

Salvia

Next week: maybe a hollyhock? Nah, it's probably a month away still. They didn't bloom until very late in the summer last year, but I grew them from seed and was surprised to get any blooms the first year. 

Hollyhock