Delightful Dahlias and Raised Bed

Delightful Dahlias

My best dahlia performer this year is the red “Thompson” dahlia. It has been blooming for about 10 days now! I'm so pleased with these tubers as I have been growing them for 12 or 13 years now, since we lived in Thompson. It is so easy to just dig up the fat healthy tubers in the fall and keep them over winter in some peat moss in the launder room. The following spring they are sprouting and eager to grow for another season. 

Firebird Dahlia- Stackstone bed

The Firebird dahlia in my Stackstone bed is opening its gorgeous orange and yellow blossoms right now as well.  The clump in my yard tub next to the electrical pole is growing, but seems quite a bit further behind, probably due to the fact it gets less sun there.

Creeping pink baby's breath and red dahlias

I bought a new dahlia tuber in a bag of three this spring called Mystery Day. Eventually they should produce some pretty two tone blossoms. They are growing okay, but are nowhere near producing buds yet. One pot is in the greenhouse and two are on the deck.  Must remember to fertilize them with high potassium Miracle Grow and maybe they will set some buds then.

I love Morning Glory vines and this spring I started some Morning Glories from seed again. The first ones which I planted out in my Round “Angel” Bed have done nothing! They are just hanging in there, but not growing at all. Maybe they don’t appreciate the late afternoon/ early evening sun there.

The second batch of Morning Glories which I had planted in my Stack Stone bed face south east and they are growing tall along the trellis. Hopefully they will start blooming soon, too.

Raised bed

I’m really pleased with my new raised bed that my diligent, thoughtful husband built this June. We planted radishes and carrots in there and  we might actually get a nice crop for once! We had no luck at all growing radishes in the ground since our soil is too alkaline and radishes prefer more acidic soil. It doesn’t help that the sprinkler water from the well pump is high alkaline too. 

We also have some green bean plants, some peas, some onions and a big squash plant in the raised bed. The squashes are growing really long and are producing big yellow flowers, but the lazy bees aren’t doing their job of pollination so no fruit is growing yet. Diligent husband has been using cutips to help that process along, so we’ll see what happens... :)

Bearded irises (left and right) Miss Kim miniature lilac bush (centre back), Splendins Lychnis in centre

The Splendin Lychnis is struggling this year, and had few blooms, but that's likely because I had dug it up a few weeks ago to remove some of the encroaching perennial asters.  The continuous rain showers we had for much of June has caused the asters to grow tall and healthy.  The asters were so weak and tiny for about 3 years that at one point I was debating about composting the whole lot of them!  They will bloom some time in August when most other plants are done, so that's one nice benefit of being patient.

Beautiful rogue lily growing in rock garden

And the weeds, of course are also growing huge! Had to weed my Stackstone bed again this week, especially the shady east end.  And of course that's an ongoing process in all the rest of my flower beds, too. 

Happy gardening!

beautiful buds

Roses and Tiger Lilies

Roses and tiger lilies are two of my favourite flowers.

Morden Centennial Rose

My rose bushes have started to bloom and my first tiger lilies are popping open! I love this time of year when all my hard work and efforts are rewarded by floral beauty in my flower beds!

Morden Blush rose

The most obvious thing I see, as I gaze at my garden beds are my white daisies however! They seem to be everywhere which adds a pretty blanket of white, but they are creating too much shade for the rest of my plants. I already cut a lot of them off and filled 4 vases in the house, adding a few Siberian Irises, Persian cornflowers and white yarrow.

I'm afraid of what might happen if I leave the daisies to finish blooming.  They will attempt to take over my whole garden!  I started chopping them all down this week to keep the prolific seeds in check.

Top of  Rock garden- I dug out (yanked out, in some cases) 3 daisy plants and replaced them with 2 border pinks (dianthus) and a small blue flax. Then I added a bunch of cedar chip mulch. The liatris has more room and sunshine now, as does the rogue lily growing there.

The blue sages there have grown well and have nearly finished blooming. 

Note to self:

Be ruthless! Dig up most white daisy plants. Maybe replace with Shasta daisies?

The tiger lilies are stunning

Lupines

My lupines have started to bloom and they look so pretty, I love the big tall spikes of pink and dark blue blossoms. 

Perennial geranium (left) and pink lupines

Many of the cosmos that I had started from seed are blooming already.  I threw a bunch of seeds in one flower bed and I think every single one has sprouted! Time to cull some of them now.

The holly hocks against the house are growing huge as is the one in the stack stone bed next to the birdhouse.  Some have self seeded at the front of two of my beds and I had to dig them out.

I yanked 2 small to medium sized holly hocks out this week, but there are at least 3 more than need to be removed. Too close to my Morden blush rose bush.

I'm pleased to see that my ligularia on the east side of my Stack Stone bed has a lot of buds on it! This will be it’s first time to bloom since I planted it 2 years ago. Had to dig out some of the tall white daisies surrounding it (and there are still a few more that need to go!) Looking forward to seeing my ligularia bloom!

Peonies-

The princess of the peonies in my yard is the light pink one in my triangle bed. it has 5 blossoms which seems laughable to some people who have masses of flowers on their well established peonies. But this is one that I transplanted from my “wild bed” where it was struggling to grow, so Im thrilled with its progress.

The other 3 peonies are not doing quite as well, but two of them were just transplanted last fall so the fact that they each had one flower already this spring is really good! 

My white peony at the end of my long perennial bed is struggling to grow. Not enough sunshine there and far too wet. A spider wort might be more appropriate there. 

Note to Self:

Dig out one sea holly and move the white peony there.  Move the hosta squished in the centre of that bed to the peony spot. Should be enough sun at that end of the bed for a hosta.

Red painted daises are looking great this year

Campanulas and Clematises

The blue bellflower campanulas next to the house are looking quite pretty. It adds some colour in the spot where the clematis flowers should be. :(   

So far neither of my clematises are getting any buds. I’m disappointed in the Nellie Moser which I had planted a year ago. I thought it would bloom this year.and hopefully it still will. At least it is growing really tall…

Cluster bellflower campanula

Bellflower in centre of clematises

The Integrifolia Durandii which I planted in May/ early June isn’t growing or producing any new flowers yet. I guess that’s what a person gets when you buy plants at Home Depot instead of at a greenhouse…

My columbines are full of flowers and looking very pretty. The biggest plants have been here longer that I have, more than 9 years and they are still growing strong! I especially like the pink and yellow flowered colombine, but the yellow one is pretty, too. 

columbines

I love my garden!