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| Blooming: tulips and grape hyacinth; lilies and persian cornflowers are growing. |
The first part of the spring was bone dry, not a drop of rain and now the situation has reversed with rain or rainshowers almost every day for the last 10 days. The garden and the planted pots are soggy wet and they need some extended hours of sunshine to get things to blossom.
The grass and the dandelions are thriving!
:( And I don't want to say any more about that topic right now...
On a more positive note, I spotted a cute little dark hummingbird dipping its beak into the pink tulips in my stackstone bed 2 mornings ago. I watched the performance and just enjoyed the moment, knowing full well that if I tried to get it on camera, the little bird would be gone by the time I came back outside with camera in hand.
I have planted 5 out of 6 of my big tubs now (half wine barrels actually) and only one down by the road still need to be done. I was a little slow with the Bobbex unfortunately and 2 of the pansies that I planted got stripped of their flowers and nibbled down to a short stature. They will recover, though, and hopefully will be bushy and full of blossoms as long as I keep applying the Bobbex as they grow. It is starting to look quite pretty around here now although not much besides tulips and annuals are in bloom right now.
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| Tuberous begonia |
The apple blossoms are very pretty right now, but probably won't last because of all the stormy weather.
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| Apple tree with blossoms next to the deck |
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| Apple blossoms |
The hollyhocks are growing well, as are the lupines, monkshoods and maltese crosses. Five of my peonies are up, but that's no guarantee of the number of blossoms. I seem to have a difficult time with getting the peony planting depth just right. Too deep or too shallow means that you will get lots of greenery, but no blossoms. I am ever optimistic, however, and will check them hopefully and enthusiastically nevertheless. Time will tell...
The clematises are a bit slow, but I attribute that to the lack of decent sunshine so I hope that they will catch up soon.
My one and only bleeding heart which grows in the back corner of my triangle bed, looks beautiful with its little droopy pink heart-shaped blossoms. Also in that bed is an unusual perennial, a Lychnis Splendins which I am looking forward to seeing bloom. (Photos later)
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| Triangle bed with bleeding heart in the back corner, day lily on left and miniature lilac with irises on far right. |
I planted a Bergenia in the shadier end of my side bed yesterday. It was originally part of my great grandmother's Bergenia in Germany long, long ago. My own mother brought a slip to Canada many years ago and had it growing in her flowerbeds in northern Manitoba. It will be interesting to watch its progress and hopefully see it bloom as well.
I hear you about the rain. We finally have warm weather and the perennials are growing leaps and bounds. My Bergenia is blooming amongst the few tulips not eaten by deer and other critters! Too bad it doesn't bloom longer as it puts on quite a show. My one and only bleeding heart didn't make it through the winter, alas. 5 Delphiniums and cuddly lamb's ears didn't make it through the coldest winter-on-record either! All the fruit trees are in blossom here and it's beautiful. Love this time of year, except for the tons of yard work still to do!
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