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Wednesday, August 28, 2019

August Beauties Aug 1 to 7/19


Zinnia grown from seed Aug 2
August Beauties

August Beautiful Blossoms Continue
Only  2 of my numerous lavatara seedling survived transplanting but they both looks great.


Lavatara in Stackstone Bed Aug 2

Lavatara in Round Bed  Aug 3

Aug 3 calendula Stackstone bed
I love how tough calendula are! Once you have them growing in your garden, you can easily have them for years. Let some go to seed, them just toss the dried seeds on top of the soil and they are so hardy they will survive the coldest winter and sprout new plants in spring. They will grow in sun or shade, in wet or dry conditions. How perfect is that!?


Aug 2 Hollyhocks 

Aug 1 wild peony only 1 bloom

Orange Sunflowers started in the greenhouse

More Maltese Cross in Round/Angel  Bed
Never Alone Rose Bush is very hardy.

Never Alone Rose bush Aug 3


Evening Song bird therapy

It was a beautiful evening and I decided to sit out on the balcony to enjoy the view of my garden. What a splendid idea that turned out to be! 
The silence after the weekend warriors all left was wonderful and the bird activity was great to watch. The finches and chickadees flew back and forth between the feeder and the saskatoon branches. The robins danced around in the yard and went for a bath at the edge of our little pond. Even the hummingbird made an appearance and flitted around from flower to flower, actually sitting still at one point. I tried getting a photo of him, but he always seems to know and is off like a shot. 
It was a magical time. :)

There's a hummingbird in this shot somewhere! 

If you look carefully you might see a bird or two. 











Jewels of July 2019

July 3/19 new Morden Belle rose

What a rainy July we had! In the 13 years that we have lived here, we have never had this much rain. It is usually a very dry month.

Two of the lavatara that I started from seed are blooming the rest all died after I planted them out.
(1 in Stackstone bed is huge and the Round Bed lavatara is also looking great.

Dahlias are one of my favourite flowers.
The 2 small dahlias that I got as bedding plants and planted in deck pots are full of blossoms now, looking gorgeous,  and have a lot of new buds (one on the balcony and one on the main deck.)

My new Thomas Edison Dahlia has been living in the greenhouse and then outside the greenhouse next to the tomatoes for many weeks. It has thrived and is gigantic and full of buds now.
The 2 Firebird dahlia that I over wintered and started from tubers in February are doing well, but slow to bloom because of our lack of sunshine this summer. One Firebird is in the Stackstone bed by the lavatara and one in the big yard tub by the telephone pole (surrounded by yellow bidens and one yellow Osteo daisy.)

The Tahitain sunrise tuber that I saved from last year is doing really poorly and I will be composting the whole pot soon. It had some bugs in the soil a few weeks ago and I treated it with Neem oil. it started to come back then took a turn for the worse again. I'm pretty much giving up on it.  :(

Top of rock garden
At the end of July the Morning glory had been blooming for about a week. The 3 sweet peas that I started from seed are all growing and blooming. They took a while to get going this year. Most are white. I was hoping for more of a variety. But, hey, Im happy they survived.  I guess they are not fond of too much rain either.

Cosmos, where are you!??  I threw a bunch of cosmos seeds on the soil in my rock garden and long bed, but nothing germinated at all. I thought I had 2 or 3, but turns out they are dill! :D
Did I mix up my seeds?   The 3 or 4 seedlings that I had started in the pot in the greenhouse dried out sadly when we were away for a few days.

Note to self:  Buy new Cosmos seeds next year.


I love this Julia Rose peony! July 14/19

July 30
Peonies are almost done blooming now. (triangle bed) There is one flower on the peony in the wild bed (left side).

Side of house peony- no flowers again this year. Im done with it! Im going to dig it up in a couple of weeks and replace it with my Morden Belle rose which looks spectacular in its pot and it getting another round of beds. Maybe Ill give the peony away to my daughter R who is starting a new flower bed at her place along with some other perennials.

The poppies continue to do well in my Stackstone bed.


Poppies

The blue campanula was 2 weeks late, didn't really start blooming till mid July but they were very pretty.

Blue cluster flower campanula
Maltese cross were very attractive and the beeds and hummingbird love them.

Maltese cross in rock garden July 20

Maltese cross in long perennial bed, July 20

My lilies are looking quite beautiful but they also are lacking the sunshine.
Tiger lilies July 14 

 Orange Double lilies  July 20 rock garden



Roses
July 28
Centennial and John Davis roses are full of flowers now and looking gorgeous. Considering the hard winter they suffered through, I am really impressed!

July 28 Morden Centennial
Once this morden Centennial starts growing and blooming it just goes like gangbusters. I would highly recommend this rose bush.

John Davis climbing rose
This is another really strong rose bush. It is often the first to bloom even though the snow melts off this bed pretty slowly in the spring. It is very hardy and even if the top branches are dead, it regrows a huge amount of stems and foliage and it blooms continually all summer long. I love this bush!

Morden Ruby rose


Morden Ruby Rose has lots of buds now, but the tall daisies and other annuals around it were causing shade and needed to be culled. It is looking pretty but the flowers seem to be smaller than usual.

John Davis again 


Never Alone Rose
I bought this rose last year and overwintered it by sinking the pot into the earth in the vegetable garden. I forgot to cover or mulch it and it survived a really nasty winter. I am so impressed!
I planted Never Alone in the Stackstone bed to replace my Morden Blush.
*( It started to bloom in early August).


Centennial 

Winnipeg Parks rose
This tiny rose bush has a few flowers now which is amazing considering that the poppy seeds I put in that bed tried to take over, grew huge and leggy and then the rain pushed it all over on top of the rose bushes.

White daisies. They photo bombed also all my flower photos, there are so many of them in all my beds. Time to do a major culling. I cut down most of the flowers as they started to go to seed, but it will need more than that to control them.

My friend B gave me some pale green nicotianas that I put at the side of the house, but, man, are they every tall! The flowers are small and white, but not the prettiest things though.

Last year I had Gladiolas galore but this year only 3 of the bulbs grew worth a darn. I guess its best to get new bulbs every year.

My garden flowers are looking so beautiful! :D


Delphinium

Columbine






 Petunias and pansies









Tuesday, August 13, 2019

June Blooms 2019


Pink babies breath and lupines blooming

June Blossoms
June Blooms
Our season is 2 or 3 weeks behind and then June turned out to be a very rainy month with far less than the usual amount of sunshine so that set a lot of the blossoms back even further.
After the long cold winter we had it was just nice to see the plants and trees and perennials starting to flourish.

The ornamental cherry had pretty dark pink blossoms and the plum trees were covered in white ones.

White plum blossoms



Ornamental cherry 

Lavatara is growing, white daisies are blooming in all my beds 


Wild Alberta roses

More daisies in my Round/Angel bed

John Davis rose has green leaves now and some buds are starting to show

John Davis rose buds


Tiger lilies will be blooming soon

Cranesbill/perennial geraniums


Lilacs June 5/2019

June 11/19

Dominion Day peony- early bloomer June 13/19


Lychnis Splendins Perennial
Lychnis Splendins Perennial - early bloomer

Pink peony has fat buds 

Red bleeding heart survived the winter

Bearded irises are looking great

Tall anemone flowers/ early bloomers


July Robin 




















July 8/19 SNOW! 
July 8 snow




Snow! June 8/19. Luckily it melted fast. :)