My Growing / Blooming Yard...

I've been way too busy lately, not nearly enough time out in the yard… but time (and nature) waits for no one… here's what's been happening in the yard…

My Day-Lillies are starting to bloom… these will
continue to bloom all through the summer...

My first California Poppy bloom… though I'm
thinking I might move these into small pots,
though they remind me of home (San Diego)
they're a bit of a scraggly mess in the garden.

This bush is in full bloom… I was informed by a Pinterest friend
(Thanks Barb Rosen) that this is Ninebark.

My Purple Iris are now fully in bloom, these
won't last much longer (bummer)...

My tardiest plant… a Hibiscus that's hardy enough
to live through Minnesota winters… its finally
showing signs of life… phew!!

Yarrow blooms are starting to open...

My Carnival Weigela is completely covered in blooms...

My Geraniums are covered in blooms...

Bumble Bees are back, this one is visiting a Salvia...

My Spirea near the front porch have started blooming...

A New Friend Comes Home...

Spring 2011 in the Twin Cities was horrid… it was very slow in coming, we had snow on the ground for way too long… this resulted in a disaster…

A pack of ravenous Vermicious Knids (ok, just some hungry bunnies) attacked & stripped my young Maple of her clothing… she lived through the Summer… but didn't survive (sniff, sniff…).

We could get angry at the bunnies, but it wasn't their fault that we had a nasty Spring, or that a sweet tasty young Maple was just sitting there waiting to have her syrupy sap lapped up...

Last weekend, Jeff & I decided to put our sweet young Maple to rest… so we cut her down, dug her up, and placed her remains in the woods… a lovely resting place for our sweet young Maple… :(…

Then it was off to Gertens, to get Maple II, this time we are going to make sure she's protected…

We got Maple II loaded into the van, my view
of Jeff as he's driving...

The base of the tree is at the back door of the van.

I'm sharing the front seat with the top of the tree...

She's home!!  Firmly planted & with a protective
covering on her base… :)

In case you thought I was kidding about the
Vermicious Knids, there's one eyeing Maple II,
obviously sulking because he can't get to her
sweet sap… tough luck Mr Bunny!!

I Love Flowers!!

I Love Flowers… if you love flowers too check out my page on the Flowers Of Ukraine…

Enjoy!!

Sofia Park!!

Check out my page of pictures of Sofia Park…  I was there last week as part of a mission trip to Ukraine...

Blooms Bursting Forth!!

Ok… its been a while since I posted, and you're probably wondering why… or maybe you didn't notice because I had set up some pre-scheduled posts… I've been out of town/country on a mission trip to Ukraine… I'm still working on my postings for garden pictures in Ukraine (I have lots to go through), but you'll be seeing a post on that soon.


Meanwhile, why I was away (11 days) my gardens burst out in blooms… here's what I came home to...


My Salvia are blooming, making bursts of purple dotted throughout my garden (I have several of these).  As long as I keep trimming off the expended blooms this will keep blooming all through Summer.  The Bees are very happy to see these...

Salvia

Salvia closeup

My Geraniums have also started to bloom…  these will get overgrown & have to be thinned once or twice, these also will continue to bloom as long as I don't let them get overgrown, but the blooms will be lesser later in the season.

Geranium

My Bridal Veil Spirea is blooming nicely this year… last year I trimmed in Spring & didn't get any blooms, lesson learned, trim in Fall.

Bridal Veil Spirea

Bridal Veil Spirea closeup

My Carnival Weigela is starting to bloom, though most blooms are still closed… my other Weigela hasn't opened its blooms yet… the Carnival variety is known for its varied bloom color.

Carnival Weigela

Carnival Weigela closeup

My Paperwhites survived my abuse & are now blooming… this makes me happy!!  I had started these as an indoor project over winter, they had grown but never bloomed, then died off… I thought they were hopeless… Imagine my delight to find that they decided to live, grow, and bloom after being planted in the garden.  What a special treat to discover on my return!!

Yellow Paperwhites

This patch of Iris (one of my favorite flowers) is the result of a gift from a neighbor… her's were overgrown last year & I happily took her cast-aways… now I have Iris growing in my garden… Yeah!!  My yellow variety are in full bloom, my purple ones are just starting...

My Iris patch

Yellow Iris closeup

Purple Iris closeup

Strawberries!!  These lovelies came back volunteer… and they're getting huge!!  Lots more blooms since I left, hope that means I'll get lots more Strawberries this year!!

Strawberries

Too Big To Split?

Wow… spring cleanup always seems to take such a long time, and this is the section I always seem to get to last (least visible to the neighbors & to me)… 




So once again I'm looking at my (excessively overgrown) Hostas & wondering if its safe to split them - after all they won't bloom for many months yet.

Hmmm…. I guess it doesn't hurt to try… stay tuned!!

Phloxy Lady

I have two Creeping Phlox… one that starts early and bursts out in blooms rather quickly… the other starts later and very slowly adds blooms… they are different colors, and they're in different areas of my garden, so I guess that's just the nature of things…

I've already shown many pictures of my first Phlox, its more white in color with a touch of pink, this is my second - a solid purple.  Isn't she pretty?

Even more ready to Pop!!

Salvia Blooms

More and more leafy friends are looking like they're ready to start popping with color… isn't Spring fun!!


My (multiple) Salvia are putting out all sorts of bloom pods…

Iris bloom shoot… yes!!

My Iris have bloom shoots springing forth…

Smoke Bush getting ready to bloom

And that Smoke Bush I was so concerned about earlier this year… no problem… she's ready to bloom as well!


Happy Me!!

Any Day Now...

More things are beginning to bloom… I just can't wait!!

Some of my Salvia (I have several of these) are starting to put out blooms…

My Yarrow (I only have one) came back strong, just planted last year, and is getting ready to bloom...

Go Sprouts!!

I feel like a soccer-mom cheering her children's team…

These are my kids that are still too young to go outside on their own…

But they're growing fast…

A bit more sunshine and then…

They'll be strong & ready to plant in some raised beds outside...

Unwelcome Guest ?

Don't get me wrong… I actually like bunnies…

I love seeing them hopping about, and we get lots of them here…


I especially love seeing them romp in my woods…


But bunnies & gardens don't mix… 


I've put up little bunny barriers around the most tempting morsels… 


Damage so far is limited to a brown patch in the lawn where this little fellow has decided he likes to nap… 


I guess if that's all the damage I get I've got nothing to gripe about…

Lila

Lila, my Lilac, has decided to do fine this year after all…

Her blooms continue to open, and she's putting on more leaves…

I guess I should stop fretting about her, but what's a garden-mommy to do when her children seem to be struggling…  Here's hoping for many happy blooming years to come!!

Rhoda & Dendra...

I was right!!  Rhoda is a twin, but not identical… and her sister Dendra has now shown herself…

Meet Rhoda (the redhead) & Dendra (the blond) my Rhododendron twins!!


Yes, of course there's a story…  


A few years back had been working on cleaning the "junk" plants out of the pit below my oak trees in front… one little ugly scraggly plant, when I pulled it up, had a pot-shaped clump of dirt attached… hmmm… so I replanted it in another spot in my garden to see what would result….


Two years ago I got my first bloom (a bright orange bunch) and discovered that this was a Rhododendron that had been struggling to live under the trees (just too much shade)… that was the only bloom the plant gave me until this year (yep, 1 bloom two years ago & nothing last year)…


This year I was delighted to see that I was going to get at least 7 blooms… I've been waiting for her to bloom again!!


The first 3 blooms to develop were bright orange, no surprise there, but then the next 4 were lighter… this had me puzzled because I thought this was just one plant!!


Closer inspection of my plant revealed two different main branches coming up out of the ground… and I started to suspect I had twins on my hands… and what do you know… I do have twins… a Redhead & a Blond!!


I had been calling my plant Rhoda, now I'm calling them Rhoda & Dendra (Rhoda-Dendra sounds kinda like Rhododendron)….


I'm a happy plant mommy of twin Rhododendron daughters!! :D

Amazing Lighting!!

Wow!!  For some reason the lighting this evening painted my woods & my gardens in the most gorgeous colors!!!  Here are some pictures that weren't too fuzzy, I didn't want to wreck the colors by using a flash so they're not perfect… Enjoy!!

 Large Oak Tree in the back…

 Woods in the back, with a path leading in…

 Garden & Mound in front…

 Again…

 This time with a tilt (oops)…

I think Rhoda (my Rhododendron) may have been keeping a secret from me… the blooms that haven't opened yet appear to be a different color… so I think Rhoda is actually 2 separate plants, with different colors, that just happened to come in the same pot… there do seem to be two sets of branches, with the two colors separated between the sets… I guess when the next blooms open we'll know for sure… If she is really twins what do I name her twin?

Lots happening the last couple days...

I'm amazed sometimes at just how much can transpire in just a couple days… In the last couple days I've made more headway in my Spring Cleanup, now the front gardens are complete - next will be on to the side gardens… Estimating I'm about 70% done, 58 bags of Cedar Mulch so far…

Yesterday I transplanted these two huge, previously indoor, plants into the garden… they seem to like their new homes (so far)…

Yesterday...

My Rhododendron started opening up a bloom yesterday, today it was open even more!!

Today...

We had heavy storm come through today… my low spot by my oak trees got a bit flooded… but it soaked in quickly...