I finally have strawberries coming ripe in my new planters!
Slugs or something still had a nibble, dammit. Ate them anyway.
And the raspberries are ripening, too! I have a LOT of these this year, and while the wind is doing damage, the sheer weight of the fruit is bending/breaking them more. Our soil is mostly rocks, and I didn’t put in anything to tie them to, like an eejit. They are also really dense, so I’m going to have a lot of trouble finding the ripe ones every morning. I didn’t think this one was quite ‘done’ yet – but a bird did. It was gone the next morning, entirely! Argh. Need to make a scarecrow!
These glowing orange, shop bought lilies are always the first to bloom, every year. Even better, they are the first ones I ever grew or owned – iDJ bought them for me, oh geez, about 9 years ago? We didn’t have many plants then. He was just learning that I preferred growing flowers to cut ones. I can’t recall now, but seeing what time of year they bloom, they could have been a ‘moving to Ireland anniversary’ gift.
What the hell, tomatoes? Come on now, we don’t have a lot of time left!
The big hosta is in bloom. Flower stalks aren’t as tall this year, I’ve noticed. And the purple one hasn’t even tried yet. Hrumph.
Another mutant. It is SO much larger than the other violas. No idea why.
Rose…
Wild daisies. Dog Daisy? These are everywhere on the roadside right now – love them. So when they moved in, I let them stay!
This one is on purpose: one I grew for himself. My first shasta daisy from seed, started last year, and it did naught until now. Do you like shasta daisies? Yes? No?
Going to end as usual on my very favourite of the week, and in this case it is my favourite rose. It’s very hard to get a pic of this where the colour is accurate!
One of Aldi’s finest bare-root roses, and I don’t know what this is called anymore but it is lavender, not pink. I’ve been struggling for years with this one, and right now there are a record four blooms/buds! One of my treasures.
heretherebespiders 
Does that lilac rose have a scent? I had a beautiful one once in a garden long ago. It was called Blue Moon, and it smelled like heaven.
Unfortunately not. The massive white one next to it makes up the difference! I really need to dig through my box of plant-tags and make a proper inventory of what I have – my memory has never been stellar.
I had a beautiful heritage rose in my last but one house in London. It was called Rosa Tradescantia. Not many flowers, blue green leaves, and a dark red crumpled velvet flower that smelled like raspberry jam. I loved that rose and was very sad to leave it.
I never had property in the US, so no outside plants. When I moved here, I wasn’t allowed to bring any of my huge collection of indoor plants (soil contamination potential). I did stick some cuttings in glass jars with water and hoped. I managed to save a few bits, still going strong 11 years later. I can’t imagine moving house and not digging up most of the garden to take with me, now!
Sadly, in that move, I went from a house to a flat (relationship went south), so I had no garden to put anything. I’d have had the same problem emigrating to Australia, in spades! You can get Tradescant roses here, but they’re hard to grow in this climate – mildew’s the problem.
Ugh, so hard to eradicate it too. Does watering only the ground help at all?
Nope. We get 80-90% air humidity on a regular basis in the summer. Roses + monsoon = mildew disaster area. People do persist, but their roses are never as full and lush as in a temperate climate. I’ve decided it’s more sensible to concentrate on stuff that *likes* this weather 🙂
Looking gorgeous. Surprised your hostas are looking so intact if you’ve got slugs nibbling your fruit. We adore hostas but gave up on them in the UK as slugs won most of the time.
I use slug pellets when they are about to come up, and keep sprinkling them around until autumn. The one is bloom is huge, so maybe it is too tough for them now 🙂
Garden is looking lovely. My lillies are a week or two off flowering yet!
I’ve got some others that are turning colours, so any day now!
My father is forcing all the strawberries in the world on me my last two visits home.. it’s that time of year again! 🙂
Yum! What a hardship 🙂 Strawberry ice cream is fantastic home-made!
That’s not a sterling silver rose, is it?
I love all the pictures, as usual, but especially love the berries this time. Yum!
You mean the species? I don’t think so. I really must look it up.
I really do want to come visit just so I can walk around your garden and sniff everything. 😀
Love the lavender rose. Any flower that shades toward blue is a favorite for me.
I have a TON of native orchids this year – but the pic I took yesterday was terrible. And some blue ground cover thingies 🙂
Grand, very grand. All are so lovely. They say a garden takes on the personality of the gardener. As yours is so grand it shows you have a grand and expansive personality , at least to me. Wonderful. Hugs
What a lovely thing to say. Thank you!