Tag Archives: clematis

May17

What’s Bloomin’

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I have my first ever lupin. This baby wasn’t intentional. Himself wanted ‘red hot pokers’ and bought a pack of two (Aldi!). Only one grew, and I knew right away it wasn’t a ‘poker. I planted it last year, and this year I’ve three flower spikes and they are just lovely.

I’ve also clematis. I have four different ones, but this one normally blooms third. It seems to be very happy this year and jumped ahead of the rest. My poor blue one seems to have lost all its flowers due to heavy winds. Aww.

Lastly my beloved bearded iris opened yesterday. It was such a lovely sight to come home to yesterday!

May27

Abundance

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I think it’s been officially feeling like summer this month, off and on. Likely about all the summer we will get! My flowers are loving it.

The first roses of the year. I love them all.



Clematis – top one is one of the new babies from last year. Just opened this morning! The others are growing up the weed-willow I have in the corner, and are the main reason why this grey willow still lives here. That and the birds love it. And I have a wisteria growing in there, too! 


California poppies and a sunflower from seed. 


Something for the bees.


Native common orchids going crazy as usual. They have colonised my garden. I’m not complaining.


English lavender. The bees were loving this today. 


Iris iris iris iris iris iris iris iris iris! They are fantastic this year. 

Jun20

June in Bloom

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Plants got the vote: thank you, Grannymar! What shall I start with, hmmm…

How about my two Duggar species. So named by me as they multiply like crazy – the violas: And the Sweet William: That’s a five-foot long shipping pallet, chock full of William. Only just starting to bloom, it will be lovely soon.

I forgot what these are (again). Not as many of them this year, wonder why?

  Clematis clematis clematis!

 
  Our robin in the grey willow that the clematis is climbing up. He kept me company for hours as I was moving dirt and finding him all types of tasty bug-snacks.  
 Planted this last year from seed, and over-wintered it indoors. Now what is it again… oh great, the tag I made has totally faded! Augh! Just spent about 10 minutes looking through last year’s posts, can’t find it. 

Mutant zinnia. The four flower buds are coming out of the previous bloom’s base, instead of on their own stems. Freaky. The lavender is happy this year.

 The tiny iris are happy, too!  My native yellow iris (dug out of a bog) opened the first bloom yesterday.  Also native – Irish common spotted orchid. I just love the spotty leaves! They moved in, I didn’t plant them – these are growing in my garlic planter. 

More common spotted orchid – this is the first to begin blooming and popped up in the raspberry patch. Simply gorgeous. They are more than welcome to live in my garden!

 

Awkward narrow strip next to the driveway – I pulled all the grass out and this ugly mess is what is left. Put in some nasturtium and nicotania. The ivy moved in on its own – bet my neighbour hates it – and the sweet pea is going gangbusters. Trying to get it to go over the front wall instead of falling into the driveway this year. Wish me luck! 

 

The new ALDI bulbs are coming up! 

  My front door – white-trash alert! Taken to give the size scale of the black lilies and stargazer lilies, which are well established compared to the new guys. Guess what is in the pot to the far right? TIGRIDIA!!!!

 Finally, a rose bud. Lots of buds but none open yet. 

Mar12

More Signs of Spring

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Actually, updates of some of plant pics I previously posted.

The crocus were disappointing – at least for me as I only ever saw them when the sun was just up or nearly down. iDJ got a better pic during the daylight hours last week:

Some kind of critter is digging out the moss along the wall – I’m good with that. Might be starlings, might be a transient hedgehog (hoping for the latter – eat those slugs!!).

Saves me digging that crap or poisoning it, too.

The daffodils are so close to opening! Maybe this weekend. Note the cheeky viola that didn’t bother to die over the winter. I’m rather regretting growing violas – they self-seed everywhere and collect aphids and other nasty bugs.

The clematis are going crazy – well over 6ft high now, and the frost and snow we have had lately doesn’t seem to phase them one bit. I have them growing up a trash-tree that I also accidentally grew (in my strawberry patch) and relocated. My neighbor on the other side of the wall hates this tree! I want my one last surviving lilac from seed to fill this spot, but it is only a couple of feet tall still. I’ll feel bad about digging out the grey willow, as the birds (and the clematis) love it so.

Top pic – first year. Next pic – second year. This is what they looked like February 27:

And a week later:

I’m not sure about all those wee ones coming up. They are so tiny and fragile that the wind we’ve had lately did a number on them since I took this pic. I also picked a rake of little nodules off of their stems last year, and potted them up indoors to see what they might do. They got leggy and soft, so not a great idea!

Still wondering what is growing in that pot that has cotelydons – I’ll leave them until they prove they are weeds.