Things are Coming Along!

May 28, 2011


It's a rainy day here. I've been doing some weeding and finished the garden clean up. Everything's late, but coming along nicely. The weather forecast is looking good for next week.

These are a couple of shots of the border that goes along the south side of our house. We built the bed in the fall of 2009 and put the perennials in last spring. Things are starting to take shape.



My Side Border



Tulipa 'Cracker' with some Phlox Moss Phlox

These are some shots of the limestone walkway. Most of this was planted last spring as well. This is the north side of our house and it's very shaded by a pine grove out front. My hope is that the left side (against the house) will have lots of high(ish) and colourful plants doing well in it. I have bee balm, digitalis, bleeding hearts, and monkshood here. On the right side, lots of hostas and ferns, and well as some low-growing things like lamium, violets, and other ground covers.



left side of the limestone walkway

right side of the limestone walkway

Wordless Wednesday

May 24, 2011

Muscari Grape Hyacinths



Myosotis Forget-Me-Not

Bleeding Heart

Arabis Rock Cress

Fertilizer Friday!

May 20, 2011

I decided to join in the fun at Fertilizer Friday today. I enjoyed all the great garden blogs I discovered though the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, so I thought I'd try this. Check out Tootsie's blog all the information about it at: Fertilizer Fridays.

I posted this same view of the 'Apricot Beauties' and muscari last year, but I love the combination so much. It's one of my favourite 'happy coincidences' that they bloom together: 

Tulipa 'Apricot Beauty and
Muscari (Grape Hyacinth)



These are my shade-growing tulips called 'Firespay'.  They also have the interesting habit of having more than one flower on each stem.  These are the second year for these, in my garden, and I notice they are somewhat smaller than they were the first year: 

Tulipa 'Firespray' with a daffodil

Some other things that I have blooming today:

Tulipa 'Yellow Emporer'

Tulipa 'Wildhof' in the foreground and 'Fringed Elegance'
 in the background.

Periwinkle

Lamium bought at a plant sale, so I don't
know the variety.



The hostas are starting to come up!



'Red Lady' fern

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

May 15, 2011

I've been seeing 'Garden Blogger's Bloom Day' posts on some of the blogs I've been following and decided to join in the fun. The idea is to make a post about the things that are blooming in your garden, on the 15th of every month. Check it out at May Dreams Gardens. 

I don't have a lot blooming right now (we're getting a late start in Zone 4).

I'm delighted to introduce, appearing for the first time in my garden, these darling little miniature 'Tete a Tete' daffodils. I planted them last fall.

These pretty little dwarf irises are new to my garden as well.  In fact, I only transplanted them last week.  They were found in a vacant lot, next-door to some friends of ours.  They had once been a part of a garden, but the house on the property has long been torn down.  All that is left is some perennials that have gone kind of wild and part of the old driveway.

I'm very sure the gardener who planted these would be very happy that we have transplated them to a new home, where they will be loved and cared for.  (I'd love to know the species of this, if anyone can tell me.)



Iris

An interesting story about this Rock Cress is that  I bought it from a home garden sale that a lady in my community had last spring.  They had finished blooming for the year, by the time I bought them, and the lady had put tags on them calling them Edelweiss.  My friend, Rita, who I talk about a lot of my blog, grew up in Germany and said they were 'definitely not' Edelweiss. 

When they started to bloom a couple of days ago, I went to my trusty perennial book didn't see anything that looked like them. I posted the photos on my flickr web page, and a couple of my contacts there identified it as Arabis Rock Cress.  I've looked up lots of information since, about Rock Cress, and this is definitely it. 

As a co-incidence, the lady I got them from at her annual perennial sale yesterday morning, when the name of the plant was still a mystery to me.  I tried to subtly tell her that they didn't look like the Edelweiss in my plant books and she said that she didn't really know the name of them, just thought Edelweiss was 'the closest thing to them'. 



Arabis Rock Cress

The Pasque Flower just came out this morning. It's one of my favourites.

Pulsatilla  Pasque  Flower

And I'm really not sure how this one got in here....

 

Wordless Wednesday

Trading Perennials with Gardening Friends!

May 5, 2011

One of the things I love about gardening is trading perennials with friends.  Recently I had the opportunity to trade some crocuses (which the rabbits and chipmunks are playing havoc with at my house) for some more critter resistant spring-flowering bulbs.  My good friend and garden-mentor, Rita, offered me some of her puschkinia, so I thought it would be a good idea to give her some of my crocuses.  (Rita has hundreds of crocuses in her garden, and not many bunnies around to bother them.) 


'Prince Claus' crocuses, some with the tops eaten
 off, some with the bulbs taken.



Phooey!



Digging the crocuses up.



Maybe I planted these too deeply?

Ready for the move to Rita's Garden

So I took the crocuses up to Rita and spent a lovely morning having coffee, talking, and taking a drive to one of our favourite garden centres.

The 'Prince Claus' crocuses are now safely planted in Rita's Garden and I came home with the following beautiful bunch of puschkinia (the light coloured ones), some scilla (the blue ones) and something new-to-me, chionadoxa 'Glory of the Snow' (the pretty mauve ones).  All of these are tucked into their new garden at my house now. 



Thank you, Rita!



Wordless Wednesday

May 4, 2011





Chionadoxa 'Glory of the Snow'

  

This and That

May 2, 2011

I don't have anything in particular to blog about today. Just feel like posting.....

This is the bunny that has been eating my crocuses.  You can see he's fat one.  Soon all the white will be gone and he will be a nice brown colour.  Much better camouflage!

This little crocus was a suprize.  It came up through a pile of grass clippings, off behind the perennial border.  I had forgotten I had planted some, hoping naturalize some last fall.  I guess it worked! 

This little one is called crocus 'Prince Claus' - it's tiny, white and has a little purple on the outer edges.

Another picture of a white and purple stripy crocus, just cause I love it.

And this is a sure sign of spring!  I brought home four bags of garden mix soil from the hardware store.

Happy Gardening!