The Summer of Gladiola Abundance 2018

July 2018 was glorious. My roses all looked spectacular.

Winnipeg Parks rose

Winnipeg Parks rose is a very hardy small rose bush that blooms early with big red/pink roses. It will sometimes even attempt a second blooming in late summer, depending on the weather. It is a zone 3 rose, so it's prairie hardy.

Winnipeg Parks rose- prairie hardy

Morden Centennial was the first rose to bloom in 2018

Morden Centennial rose was the first of my roses to bloom in 2018. It is easy to grow and always blooms twice per summer. Zone 3 Hardy to -35C but is always mulch it and wrap in burlap  for winter.

Morden Centennial always delightful

Over wintered bleeding heart with red flowers.

 I had planted a red flowering bleeding heart in my vegetable garden over winter and it has made a beautiful comeback. This is the plant that I gifted my daughter for Mother's Day last year but she had not completed her flower bed then so I kept it for the time being.

Pink perennial baby's breath, tiny but mighty beautiful! 

New Clematis for 2018 Negrit Janka

Clematis Negret Janka close up

I planted this clematis Negrit Janka (type C) on July 3/2018. It had lots of strong roots. Its located in the centre of the 2 trellises next to the house facing south east, but it only gets a moderate amount of sunlight here. (I bought it at Rona's in Red Deer) I hope this clematis Negrit Janka overwinters well.

Guaillardia- blanket flower, new one this year

 I love Guaillardias but they are a short living perennial in my flower beds. Maybe without mulch it might drop seeds more often and grow new babies when the old parent plant dies?

Siberian Iris 

 Ive had 2 Siberian Irises for a while but in 2018 they didn't do as well as usual.  Poosibly to dry.

Tiger lilies

 I love lilies and these Tiger Lilies are one of my favourites. they are relatively easy to grow and propagate, as long as the squirrels don't dig up the bulbs, that is!

Petuniasand citronella in deck pots, with tumbler tomatoes in background and curious Lilo kitty in foreground

Small Stone Crop Sedum never fails to bloom

Zuccini plants, rhubarb, spaghetti squashes, raised beds with lettuce, carrots, onions, red beets, dill, peas and beans.

Brandy and squirrel 

July 9/18 day lilies. 

Deck pot, coleus, white zonal geranium and blue lobelia

Glads

Glads blooming July 10

I started my glad bulbs in water in the house in April and then planted them into yogurt containers and moved them into the greenhouse. This was the summer of "Glad Abundance"  I bought a huge bag of glads, more than I really needed and I started 3 batches of them over the course of 3 weeks or so.  I had so many healthy glads that I gave them away to friends and neighbours when they were about 6 to 7 inches tall.

I planted most of mine out into my flower beds and had a few in deck pots as the centre piece. They all did so beautifully!  

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July 10, Julia Rose Peony 

This peony is such a beauty and smells so heavenly.

Pale pink peony transplanted from a too shady spot in the year into my triangle bed 2 years ago

My  pale pink peony has 7 or 8 blossoms now and it always looks so beautiful. I transplanted it 2 or 3 years ago from a bad location on our property and it loves where it is now, across from the Julia Rose peony. Pale pink always beats Julia Rose to bloom but not by much. My first peony is always my red Dominion day which is so gorgeous and hardy!  These 3 peonies got rid of my "Peony Planting Curse" :)

Maltese Cross

Maltese Crosses

Maltese cross is an easy to grow perennial. It is also long living and it attracts butterflies and, oh yes, Hummingbirds! :D

Red Poppies are my favourite Poppies

These are annual poppies but they seed themselves so prolifically that I have them growing and blooming every year now.

Quickfire hydrangea bush

I love this easy to grow, nonfussy hydrangea bush.  It gets long lasting, single petal blossoms which start out white, but in the fall they suddenly turn a fire colour.  Very striking!

Roman Candles Perennial- non fussy, easy to grow,  short but very pretty perennial.

Beautiful June Jewels

Beautiful  June Jewels

 After such a long drawn out winter it is such a pleasure to see everything growing and greening up. There were a few early flowers to show their pretty faces, the bearded irises and tiny lamium are one of them.

Early June was filled with garden prep, a lot of digging and planting.

June 3: I planted an herb pot on the deck: dill, cilantro, thyme, marjoram, tarragon and basil., most of which I had started from seed in the greenhouse.

June 5: I planted 6 bean plants into the raised garden beds which I had bought at WalMart garden Centre since my own beans didn't want to cooperate. I also planted out some dill which can be pretty finicky to move.

Lamium

June 6:  I dug up and moved some small rogue hollyhocks to the far left corner of the Side of House bed. (Gave one to Wendy W.)  I also planted a nice looking echinacea coneflower at the side of the house. It's called Cheyenne Spirit and should bloom pink.  (As of July 9 the blossoms haven't opened yet.)

Rock Garden:  Dianthus, May Night sage and more

Also in early June, I planted a new, unusual perennial called a beard tongue at the side of the house, a version called "Blackbeard" which I got at the Tail Creek Greenhouse. It had some spikes of small light purple flowers. And also 2 Blackeyed Susans since all of mine had died there.

No Clematises. :(

More June 6: I dug out my dead Morden Belle bush and replaced it with a new rose bush called Grootendorst Supreme at the side of the house. It gets red carnationlike flowers, zone 3, and is supposed to bloom in early to mid summer. So far it has a few buds. It looks hardy, so hopefully next year it will come up and bloom earlier.

I bought a new Winnipeg Parks rose at the end of June (from Can Tire in Camrose) and it has a lot of pretty buds on it which started to open. They were at the bottom of the bush, hanging onto the soil, but looking so lovely that I clipped them off and brought them inside to put in a vase to enjoy.

Winnipeg Parks rose buds

 Other June plantings: annuals- Lavatara, zinnias ( I started seeds).
From Round Angel Bed, I dug out a Cranesbill perennial (for Chris W), some white daisies and Anemonies for KR.

First Hansa rose of the season June 29/18 

Baby Spruce trees
My yard spruces have been spreading their seedlings all of the round bed and triangle bed. I usually leave a few to grow although it takes several years. This year I had six spruce babies (6 to 8 inch) to give away to neighbours and friends.

My sweet peas are hanging in there, still tiny, not growing much, but so far so good.
Lots of watering and weeding in the last few weeks. Not much rain other than the occasional little shower.

June 21, 2018

The deck pots are looking good, but require watering at least once a day in this hot weather. The Sun Solaria is dying though. It's in a pot with poor drainage and that's not good for them.

Baby Pink peony transplanted from shaded wild bed

Julia Rose Peony

The Peonies are growing and I'm happy to say that the 2 in my triangle bed have 6 or 7 buds each. Doesn't sound like much to those people who have had peonies for a long time and get dozens of buds, but I am pleased with that considering I haven't had much luck with planting and blooming of peonies in the past.

Karl Rosenfeld Peony 

I planted a new peony at the side of the hose this year (along with all the other aformentioned plantings there). It looked healthy and hopefully it will bloom next year (if I didn't plant it too deep.). It is called Karl Rosenfeld peony.  (From PJ's Plantation greenhouse). I think the flowers are supposed to be a dark pink/ red. Crossing my fingers it will bloom some time in the near future!

Daisies and wild roses June 27

Happy gardening! :D

Spring May 23/24, 2018

Spring Events

Besides the mosquitoes, the poplar fluff was late in coming this spring as well. It "decided" that the May long weekend would be a good time to start floating down on everyone! It was crazy! Fluff and mosquitoes floating around everywhere!  Luckily we had a rain shower on May 23rd, along with our first thunder storm which helped to beat down the layer of fluff on the ground and it is no longer a problem.
But we probably shouldn't complain. It was snowing on the east coast (in Newfoundland) on May 23rd!

Plant development on May 23rd and 24th (2018)

 Lilacs blooming in back yard

Bergenia looking good aside from a bit of frost bite on the leaves

Hostas, Rocket Ligularia, Little Juniper bush and ferns

This is the shandy side of my Stack Stone bed. There's an El Nino Hosta (new), Sleeping Beauty hosta, Green Juniper, Red Lady fern (new), chives and Forget Me Knots which are all doing well so far.  I also transplanted an ostrich fern from my round perennial bed into this area. There are still a few Obedient plants surfacing, although I dug out dozens of them.

First Anemone to bloom (Stack stone bed- West side)

Just lounging around the triangle bed looking cute. :)

First lamium to bloom. Such a tiny, but cute perennial and easy to grow in zone 3

First lilac bouquet- May 24/18 

Lilacs and Tree Swallow house  May 24/18

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Quick Fire hydrangea shrubs are both showing signs of life

WE dug out the Double Flowering plum which I planted last year (as it was dead), and I replaced it with a bigger one that I bought at Tail Creek greenhouse. Unfortunately for me, it had already finished blooming. I have to wait another whole year to see blossoms on it.

The rhubarb plant outside the garden is growing well and ready to start harvesting stalks

Stackstone Bed- red pot lilies with Morden Ruby on right growing shoots finally (May 24/18)

My roses had a really hard winter and most of the top stems of the shrubs are dead, but they are valiantly growing new shoots from the lower branches and up from the roots which luckily survived.

One of my many little baby spruce saplings

I have given away 6 spruce saplings this year to neighbours and friends. There are about 2 dozen tiny sprucelings in the Stack stone bed, long perennial bed and the triangle bed. I have been letting them grow and hopefully will find good homes for the ones that we don't plant ourselves.

Miss Kim Lilac has green leaves now.

Miss Kim Lilac has green leaves now. The 2 yellow day lilies in this bed are starting to grow as well. The Splendins is sprouting leaves, the bearded irises are turning green, but no sign of life yet from the 2 peonies or Siberian iris. 

Time to start fertilizing the perennials, and adding blood and bone meal to the roses.