Emma's Garden

May has been blooming away here. Emma's gardens are doing really well, including the Chihuly Rose,

and the pink dianthus,

and the blue-eyed grass,

 and veronica.

 She's been a good gardener, weeding and watering.

New Plant Adventures

Last fall I added two new irises. One, called Alaskan Seas, looked like this in the catalog picture:

And like this in my garden:

I'm not at all unhappy with the way this iris turned out, but the difference in color is interesting.

Another new iris, called Ziggy, looked like this in the catalog:

Unfortunately, although it reappeared with three fans of leaves, it has not bloomed and doesn't appear to have any buds.

Another new plant last fall, the rose Chihuly, has two buds. I'm excited about this because I have not had a lot of luck with roses, and this one has come back strong.

The bulbs I planted last fall have all done well, and there are two in particular that I will be adding more of: a large, starry alium (Christophi), and this orange heirloom tulip Generaal De Wet, 1904,:

May Garden Blogger's Day

May is the month of the iris in my garden. Although our warm March started everything early, the cool April seemed to slow things down so now they're blooming at about the right time. Most of my iris are bearded iris. I do have a patch of Siberian iris, but those are still in bud.

This last one is new this year --I love the color, and I'm hoping it will form a clump in a few years.

Also blooming are garlic chives,

and lots of native columbine. I also have a songbird columbine that I planted last year, but it is still very small, with just one flower stem.

Last year I planted a clematis, which is the third I've tried and the first that's been successful. Now that I know where they will grow in my garden, I think I'll be adding other colors.

I also uncovered a sphinx moth waiting out the heat of the day in a pile of mulch. I got a few photos before it's wings had dried and it could fly away.

Thanks to Carol for hosting!

Spring Garden Work

Emma and I have added a couple of perennials to her garden, which we started last summer. She chose scabiosa, and a ground cover with small bluish flowers I don't know the name of. It's always fun to let her choose and just see what happens. All the perennials she chose last year have returned and look healthy.

We also planted some annuals, even though it's early. They've already survived a couple of frosty nights, but luckily they are all near the house so they stay a tad warmer. She chose petunias and snapdragons, along with a cork-screw grass and a daisy. She got to choose where they went, but I had to dig the holes --I need her to become stronger so she can dig the holes.

We've managed to give everything a drink of fertilized water, so we'll just hope they'll all survive.

This late daffodil has just opened.

It's an heirloom, and I really like the color. The top photo isn't a good composition, but you can see the contrast with the yellow daffodils in background. This heirloom has such a soft tannish orange, compared to my bright yellow and orange daffodils.

Last summer I put in two heucherellas  and the leaf colors are just wonderful!

I also really love the spring green tips of this little dwarf spruce that sits at the northwest corner of our house.

Emma has been wanting to make some stepping stones for her garden, so we stopped at the craft store and got a frog mold. We've made simple cement stepping stones before, but this one required a bit more time, as you had to completely dry the frog, then turn it over and decorate an indented area. She worked so hard on it, she doesn't want to step on it anymore :-)

April Garden Blogger Bloom Day

Spring slowed down around here after March, thank goodness. The second wind of daffodils is still around, and the tulips have been amazing. For a long time I didn't plant any tulips, having memories of my mom buying bulbs of single red tulips that turned yellow the second year, and disappeared from the beds quickly. But once I started exploring tulips I realized that there are now lots of tulips that will last, tulips that grow naturally in groups, single tulips that keep their color from year to year, and lots of tiny tulips, I think closer to the species, that spread into a great ground cover. Here are a few of the varieties blooming this April in my yard.

I have these little yellow guys all over now --they spread both by seed and division, and they bloom early. They only open fully when it's sunny, but they make a beautiful spot of sunshine on the ground.

 After the yellow ones fade, these pink and red tulips come up in the same general area. 

I also have some of what I think are the Darwin tulips. They are tall singles with big flowers, and they've returned true to their color for at least three years. I like multi-color groups of them, the way they are on this corner.

This next one is new this year, and I love the mixed orange and yellow color. I have the name of these written down (they're one of the heirlooms I purchased last year) and I'm going to order some more to plant this fall.

This is a group of multi-stem tulips that I planted four or five years ago, and they are still returning, and have multiplied. 

In addition to tulips, there is bleeding heart (with a bumble bee taking a deep drink), Jack Frost brunnera,  and lungwort blooming.

I also have some lovely late daffodils --two groups, one taller than the other, but both with a really deep yellow color and some orange accent.

This is a shade plant that I really love, but I have no idea what it's name is. It was given to me by a friend who spent some time working as a landscape architect. The little yellow flowers are just lovely, and it does well under our Korean spice bush.

The same friend gave me two tiny starts of Virginia Bluebell last summer, and I'm glad to see them back and blooming. I'm hoping to spread these around as they multiply.

Thanks to Carol for hosting the Garden Blogger Bloom Day posts!

The Blooming Back Forty

Looking back past our barn, I noticed a white sprinkling on the ground.

Turns out, it's violets.

We had lots of violets back here when we moved in, but then we started using this part of the yard, while Emma was young. We haven't really used it the last few years, and they seem to have recovered from our foot traffic. I know they can be invasive, but I really love violets. They just seem so charming and romantic.

Crazy March Explosion of Bloom

It is just amazing how many things are blooming this March! I wonder what the rest of the season will be like? We have cooled down a bit today, and I think we're supposed to stay cooler (but still above normal) for a few days. I'm crossing my fingers :-)  The daffodils are almost gone, and the hyacinth are in full bloom. I wonder how long it will be before the bearded iris begins to bloom?

Last year a friend gave me two tiny Virginia bluebell starts, and they've both become small clumps with buds this spring! Once the clumps are a bit larger, I want to transplant some to the woods behind the garden bench, where we already have scilla.

The heather is still blooming away, and the glory of the snow that I planted next to the heather is now coming up through the edges of the growing shrub. I really like the blue and pink together, although the blue is kind of washed out in this photo.

The flowering quince is gorgeous this year! The same friend who gave me the bluebells, gave me this shrub as a stick she'd dug up where her neighbor's quince was spreading into her yard. That was about 5 or 6 years ago. We had this same color quince at the house I grew up in, so I have a nostalgic attachment to it. This is a cool shrub because you can prune it just by cutting off the ends of the branches without hurting the blossoming.

Our young red bed tree is also doing really well. We tried to establish red bud trees several times, and this is the first time we been successful.

I feel like I need to get out and take pictures almost every day, in case I miss something!