More May Activity May 13/18

Parkland Plum Blossoms at the side of the deck

TULIPS!

The first 2 tulips opened up on May 7, one pink/yellow, and one red at the side of the house. There were many more tulips up and ready to pop their buds! Yay! The Candy Apple tulips in the stackstone bed and at the top of the rock garden are looking nice and green with lots of buds. They are a midspring variety so no surprise that the buds aren't open yet.

Red Dominion Day peony and bearded irises

Peony news: The side of house peony has sprout a few stems (the first to show signs of life) I hope that it will have flowers this year.
The Red Dominion Day peony at the side of the step suddenly started growing and it has strong, fat stems.
I still need to clean out that little bed a bit better, and dig out a few of the bearded irises which are growing too close to my peony.

First Stack Stone bed tulip to pop open May 15

Petunias, bracchicombs and Penstemon Rubrum in centre

I donated a bunch of perennial diggings to the plant swap this past Saturday:
Lots of small sedum (yellow flowers), small orange day lily sprouts, pink monkshood (I took it right out of the Round bed garden altogether; it never did grow that well), Campanula cluster bell flowers, purple and white bearded irises, purple Siberian Iris, and a wild rose bush.
I didn't take anything in return this year.

Regal geraniums, Icicles and penstemon rubrum

The fruit blossoms have started to open now and the smell as you walk up the deck stairs is so heavenly! 

Pear blossoms May  15

The plum bushes on both sides of the stairs have blossoms now and are so beautiful and so fragrant. They popped open on May 15.

Parkland plum blossoms

Friday May 18 I finally planted my tubs at the end of the driveway with red zonal geraniums on one side and red Ivy geraniums on the other, with a penstemon rubrum in the centre and also a tall red snapdragon. I still want to plant some kind of a vine in those tubs also.

 We had rain all day yesterday, off and on which we really needed. We had a County fire ban in place since May 15. It has now been downgraded to a fire restriction, which means you can't get a burn permit, but you can still have fires in a noncombustible fire pit; BBQs etc are allowed, but no fireworks.  

We are enjoying the pleasant days of spring!