Dahlias, Peonies and Other Blooming Things

I finally took my red cactus dahlia out of its pot and planted it in the usual spot, my big circular 'angel bed.'  I started all my dahlia tubers back in April and pinched them back a couple of times to hopefully grow nice and bushy.  I have been growing these particular tubers for about 10 years now. I dig them up in the fall and over-winter them inside till the following spring.

My 2 Firebird dalias are growing really well. One is planted in my old stack stone bed near the house and the other is in a big half-wine barrel in the yard surrounded by yellow Bidens, and purple and yellow pansies. This is my 3rd year growing these tubers. The blossoms are such a beautiful colour, orange and yellow like fire.

Firebird dahlia, yellow Bidens and pansies

I am so thrilled to see the buds developing on my peonies!!!  I have been "peony challenged" for many years and never seemed to be able to get one to bloom after I planted it. :(  
Last year I planted a white peony Festiva Maxima which I had bought mid summer and I also transplanted a young peony from the back of my wild bed which had been struggling to grow in the shade under the trees there.  I moved that one to my newest bed, (my triangle bed) which gets hours sun. That little peony not only has lots of new shoots now, but flower buds as well!   I think I finally broke the peony curse!  I am looking forward to seeing what colour those flowers are. :)

Long perennial bed with Festiva Maxima peony sprouting at near end; Also delphiniums, Monkshoods, columbines, creeping jennies, pink Malva, a hosta and one Morden Centennial rose bush at the far end.

The monkshoods are growing like gangbusters with all this rain, but I see a need for some Neem Oil spray . I found a few inch long caterpillars wrapped up in the growing tops, which I squished with my gloves. :{

John Davis- hardy 'explorer' rose bush

I bought a new rose bush this week. Okay I'm a sucker for roses. I went to the greenhouse with the intensions of buying a small shrub, a "Little Devil" Ninebark, but ended up with an pretty medium pink Explorer rose bush full of buds! It is a climbing rose so I bought a narrow climbing frame as well. I decided to put that in my long perennial bed instead of another delphinium. Right now  the rose bush is blooming away in its pot on the deck and I might just leave it there for a week or two to enjoy the blossoms, before planting it out into its permanent home.

Did a major clean up / trimming of my red currant shrubs yesterday. Took out a lot of dead branches and a massive amount of 2 foot tall new quack grass as well as old brown dead grass tangled in the branches from last fall. It took over an hour and it's still not completely done. I trimmed back the potentilla shrub as well to give my Hostas in that bed a bit more sun.

Blue Persian Cornflowers and a few late tulips blooming on west side of stack stone bed. Potentilla bush behind them and lilies growing on the right.

East side of stack stone bed orange poppies are blooming and daisies are getting ready to open their buds.

 The Lychnis Splendins in the front centre of my triangle bed is full of buds that are justing starting to open. It is a short perennial that should bloom most of the summer (supposedly).  The False Spirea behind it is doing well as are the day lilies at either side. I planted 9 little Durango marigolds and some Rocket mix snap dragons.  I started the marigolds from seed in April and learned my lesson from last year when they kept getting eaten. I put the beer traps out early and only caught 1 slug so far. (Last year I drowned over 100 slugs!)  But with all this rain, I am not going to get complacent.  I am going to renew the beer in the traps when it stops.

One final thing: a reminder to self: Bobbex the heck out of everything again!  The little bunnies living nearby don't like that and the deer seem to have crossed me off the lunch list. :)  
 Now if only the dogs would be successful in catching the little varmints living under my huge juniper bush by the house my garden might be safe...