Wordless Wednesday

Welcome 'Bowl of Beauty' Peony and Welcome June!

I bought my first book on perennial garden about twenty years ago and it had a 'Bowl of Beauty' peony on the cover.  I've wanted one of these ever since.  They were hard to come by back then, and when I first started seeing them in garden centres, they were about three times the price of the other peonies.

Last spring I treated myself to one, however it must have been mislabelled because it was a different peony.

I tried again this year and purchased this plant just about a month ago.  It is already blooming (a lovely surprize, as sometimes peonies can take a few years to get established) and it is definitely a 'Bowl of Beauty'. 

This is the one that was labelled 'Bowl of Beauty' at the garden centre.  You can notice that the outer pink petals are the same shade of pink as the one above.  It's a double (rather than the single 'Bowl of Beauty') and has a very slightly paler shade of pink in the centre.  

Last Day of May

This is what's blooming in my garden on the last day of May.  The two irises were gifts, the purple and white one from my garden friend-mentor, Rita, and the dark purple from my in-laws' garden.  The pink poppy, 'Paradiso', I treated myself to, just this spring, and am delighted that it is blooming.  The lilies-of-the-valley I transplanted from our previous home three summers ago and they are just starting to take off in their new bed.

My backyard border (seen in full bloom in my blog's header) is lush with 'greenliness' at the present time.   I recently read that if you intend to do perennial gardening you should 'learn to love green'.  Good thing I do!

There are several things just ready to pop open in here though.

Planting Limestone Path

Sorry the picture quality is a little dark here.  It's a shady garden and I'm finding it a little hard to photograph well. 

My plan is for this to be very natural looking and have the hostas and ferns kind of 'spill over' on the walkway, here and there.  For now I have black plastic garden edging along the right side to hold the soil and water in, but I'm hoping to be able to remove it (or have it covered up by foliage) before too long. 

Along the right side are several types of hostas  including Minuteman, Lancifloria, Longissima, Blue Mouse  Ears, a couple of ferns (Frizelliae and Lady in Red) and some violets.   

On the left side, between the walkway and the house, I have foxglove and monkshood, bee balm, bleeding heart, periwinke, bugleflower, lamina, and some hostas, including June, Golden Tiara, and Gold Standard. 

I love how everything looks but I have no idea if I have too many or too few plants in here.  With luck I might have just the right amount. 

We will see. 

What's Blooming!

May 4, 2010 - The first of the tulips to come out! These are called 'Apricot Beauties' and were a house-warming gift from our former neighbour, Michelle. This is the third spring for them. I understand that some people pull the tulips out after they bloom and start with fresh ones in the fall. I just leave mine in the ground and let them rebloom each year.

The muscari is in full bloom this week. I cut some and made a little mini-bouquet for the house. I just love this flower!

I was quite pleased to see the little fringes along the edges of these petals. These tulips are appropriately named 'Fringed Elegance.'

These 'Yellow Emperor' tulips are a little brighter shade of yellow and a bit taller.

Except for the 'Apricot Beauties', I ordered all the tulips from Breck's. I've forgotten what they all look like, so it's fun to watch them open.

Finished Planting the Front Beds

May 2, 2010 - I added the dwarf burning bush and mock orange to the front today. Not that you can really see it in the picture. I'm hoping I didn't plant too much in here, but I'm told that I can prune everything to the size I want.

I know nothing about shrubs so this will be a learning experience for me! I can't wait to see what this will look like in a few months.

This is the other side of our front steps, and the limestone path that we put in last fall. I planted some ground covers in between the rocks, which are meant to be able to withstand some foot traffic - wooley thyme and Irish moss.

I'm hoping to have hostas all along the right side of the walk, and maybe some ferns to break it up. I'm hoping it will be a nice contrast tot he bleeding hearts and monkshood on the left side of the path. So far I have about seven hostas there, a 'Lancifloria', a 'Longissimo', two 'First Frosts', two 'Wide Brims' and an unknown variety that my friend, Karen, gave me.

Pasque Flower

April 30, 2010 - The pasque flowers are in lovely shape today. I hadn't seen one of these plants before, but the former owners of our home left two of them on the property. They are also known as 'pulsatilla vulgaris' which seems a kind of ugly name for such a lovely flower!

My brother, who lives in Manitoba, told me they are called 'Prairie Crocuses' there and are actually the provincial flower of Manitoba.

I really look forward to these every spring. I love their fuzzy little parts, just beneath the flowers.

Bluebells, Daffodils and Other Spring Delights (April 2010)

April 4, 2010 - These little scillas (also called bluebells or squills - I never know which is the common name) came up in the clumps of larger perennials given to me by my friend, Rita. They are sweet and delightful little things. I see more of them coming up everyday.

I only have one of these, and I identified it from my perennial book as a puschkinia (or striped squill). According to my book it's a 'close relative of the bluebell and it's strange that it's so rarely seen'. It sprung up in a clump of fall asters, given to me by my friend. I'm curious to see if it will multiply for next spring. It's about four inches tall, about the same as the scillas.

At first I thought this was a scilla, until I noticed that there was only one flower on each stalk, as opposed to several, as the scillas have.

April 14, 2010 - My daffodils came up today. I don't know what variety they are - I bought them through mail order in a bulk pack. They are gorgeous and seem invisible to the squirrels and rabbits. They bloom for a very long time.

On April 20 I noticed that there is a white scilla hiding among the blue ones! These two came up (again as a surprize) in a little clump of daylilies that was a gift from Rita last fall.

Crocuses (March/April 2010)

March 25, 2010 - The first blooms of 2010. They are my 'Delft Blue' crocuses. We had a very early spring (three weeks earlier than last year).

The slightly paler, 'Remembrance' crocus, came into bloom just a fews days later.

April 15, 2010 - These pint-sized beauties, 'Prince Klaus', were quite a surprize to me, as I didn't realize they would be miniature crocuses when I ordered the bulbs. They look great in little clumps with their white centres and a touch of purple on their outer leaves.

2009 - Garden Pictures

My pride and joy - the back border in July of 2009. It's meant to be as much of a 'cottage garden' garden as I can make it, and for me, that means large clumps of colour and kind of messy but organized at the same time. It still needs to fill in the empty spaces, but it's getting there. In here I have shasta daisies, phlox, daylilies, irises, peonies, coneflowers, evening primrose, sweet Williams and many others. I'll post all the things as they come out in the 2010 part of my blog.

The pool border at the end of July. Sweet Williams, evening primrose, lavander, purple coneflower and fall asters live here.

The little backstep garden, near the end of the summer. 'Catherine Woodbury' and 'Pandora's Box' daylilies, scabiosa, and 'rose campion' lychnis.

The front bed, planted up with hostas, delphinium, bleeding heart and monkshood. This garden is mostly in the shade.

2008 - First Summer: Getting Started

Removing the river stone and a couple of the cedars.

Planted up with some hostas.

Wonderful gift of perennials given to me by my wonderful friend, Rita.

Expanding the garden, with Rita's gifts and a trunkload of perennials from good friends, the Bells (no photo of them before planting).

Back perennial border finished for 2008.

Border built around the outside of the pool.

Little back-step garden, after the deck was rebuilt. Many of the perennials left by the former owners were returned to this bed. Others moved to better places elsewhere on the property.

2007 - When We Moved In

When we moved into our home in the late summer of 2007, this was the only garden with perennials on the property. There were some lovely plants in here (bugle flower, scabiosa, pearl everlasting, and a pair of gorgeous pasque flowers). We rebuilt this deck in 2008 and most of these plants have been moved elsewhere on the property into new beds.

This is the bed at the front of the house when we moved in.

The beginning of my back border:  That first fall, I started making a perennial bed along the back of the yard. I planted a climbing hardy rose (the Explorer series 'John Cabot', a peony, and a couple of 'Neon Blaze' spireas.  My plan was to increase it bit by bit over the next five years, so that eventually it would go across the width of the backyard.   As you can see, if you check the photos from 2009, it only took two years, thanks to friends who gave me many perennials.