Beautiful portraits from master gardener & photographer Mike in Oly:
The garden is still in transition, and will be for a few more seasons, but here are some recent flower portraits currently bringing us joy.
At top: Epimedium – Blooming nicely as the deer have not found it yet to eatall the flowers.
Pulminaria – I love this shade of pink so much, and this plant has been tough as nails and blooms for a very long time.
Magnolia – A magnolia tree in my neighbors yard that we had a lovelyview of. The sunlight comes thru it in the evening and lights it up beautifully.
Daffodils – Shining in the spring sun.
More daffodils – This time lit from behind in the late afternoon sunshine as a light rain falls.
Native bleeding heart looking lovely against the bright green of iris tectorum fans.
Leucojum – Sweet little white bells with green dots. A charming bulb for spring.
Iris – I. germanica vulgaris. One of the early blooming intermediate irises. Not a true species, but a wild collected hybrid. Very hardy and found all over the US, as it survives in neglect easily and tends to persist and travel as people pass it about.
***********
Thank you, Siubhan Duinne:
Anthropomorphic climate change is making changes here north of Boston. White Flower Farm just sent me six very leggy, weedy tomato plants, which I didn’t expect for another couple of weeks. Yes, they’re so tall they needed to be sent out immediately, but I’m not sanguine about the 40s-to-50s night temps we’re getting here, and I could do without having to worry about protecting them once they’re in the 20gallon rootpouches, dammit.
So we spent Saturday afternoon buying the necessary bags of fresh potting mix from our favorite local garden shop, and they’ve adjusted the planting schedule, too. Normally the outdoor annual shelves would be nothing but pansies & violas in their infinite color varieties, but this year the full run of spring plants are up: I bought pink dianthus, blue lobelia, white sweet alyssum… and one small, sturdy emergency backup SunGold cherry tomato from the full range of tender veggies set up indoors. Spousal Unit was thrilled to discover four different (clashing) colors of ‘morning glories’, which *never* show up on the shelves around here before Memorial Day!
What’s going on in your gardens, this week?
Gloria DryGarden
I think I recently read that magnolia blossoms are edible. Can this be true?
I love the orange cup daffodils.
sab
I have some silk flowers that I didn’t know what they were. Now I know they are leucojum. Very pretty.
5 a.m. and the robins are chirping in the dark.
The one note bird that I was complainimg about yesterday wasn’t a bird or a robin at all. It was an outraged chipmunk.
Princess
@Gloria DryGarden: the squirrels in my garden certainly think so.
eclare
I love irises…my aunt has the prettiest peach colored one. I don’t have anything to say garden wise, but I had my backyard mowed a week ago Friday, and we’ve had so much rain (Memphis), that I need to get it mowed again.
OzarkHillbilly
Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
It has rained every day for the past week and a half. Not always very much but at least enough to keep me out of the mud. We had light flooding last Sunday/Monday and it has rained enough to keep all the cricks and rivers high, such that with all the storms coming thru here tonight thru Thursday I fully expect more flooding, probably worse. BUT….
Yesterday we only got light rain. Today the sun is supposed to shine. I have my fingers crossed that I can finish sowing my flower seeds. Maybe even get into the veggie garden and get a little prep done. Maybe. If I’m lucky. But I’m at least another 5 days away from planting anything there.
I will harvest another bumper crop of ticks today, so I have that to look forward to.
eta:
What uncultured heathen would even try them???
CarolM
Lovely flowers and beautiful photography! I am so happy that spring is here up in Maine and my native perennials are showing themselves. My biggest frustration is with the woodchuck who moved in last year. He’s woken up, a lot skinnier than he was last fall. Yesterday morning I was admiring the little green shoots of my smooth blue asters, but in the afternoon they were gone!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: I hear you about the rain. We had intermittent rain showers yesterday afternoon, so my garden will be soggy. I have managed to plant my annual bed (red salvia) and have started Tithonia and Alyssum plants, which are showing signs of life. I have some lovely Irises which need dividing, and I have a bed along my driveway where a bunch of perennials I have planted over the last ten summers have gone to die. I’m the only person I know who can’t grow coneflowers and echinacea.
eclare
@rikyrah:
Good morning! Starting to get light here, which I love. We survived another night of darkness.
Spanky
If anyone knows of an online rose pusher who has ROSERAIE DE L’HAY in stock, please let me know.
Jay
@Spanky:
davidaustinroses.com/products/roseraie-de-l-hay?_ga=2.227601565.1003812056.1714907287-78844243.17149…
JPL
Beautiful photos of flowers. Storms moved through over night but today should be pleasant. I’m going to vote early in the democratic party today. Because most races are not contested, voting is light which is unfortunate. There is an important race for school board and an important state supreme court justice race.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lapassionara: I don’t grow coneflowers, they do it all by themselves. Our driveway island is in the process of becoming one big purple coneflower garden. I’ve been trying to get some yellow coneflowers growing but have been unsuccessful. I may break down and order some plants, but not this year. I already blew up the garden budget. A yearly occurrence.
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve tried purple and yellow, with no success. The only plant that grows well in that bed is daylily, the old-fashioned kind that will grow anywhere.
eclare
@JPL:
Haven’t seen you in a bit, how are the grand immps?
Spanky
@Jay: Out of stock.
There are plenty at English, Irish, Aussie, and Kiwi sites, but nowhere that ships to the US.
JPL
@eclare: All is well. Like most of us, I’ve been paying attention to the trump trial, and fear that he’s going to be found not guilty.
JPL
@Jay: Wow! That is spectacular, and no wonder why spanky wants to buy one. I’ve had good luck with knock off roses, but that is it.
Spanky
@JPL: We had Roseraie de L’Hay when we lived in College Park, decades ago, and Mrs Spanky has been wanting them again.
When we sold that house, the new owners wasted no time in ripping out the roses and planting grass.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lapassionara: Maybe you need more clay, chert, and Potosi dolomite in your soil? /s/
OzarkHillbilly
The kind of people for whom the rack was made.
Ken
@Gloria DryGarden: @Princess: The beetles would agree. If I recall correctly, magnolias represent the original flowering strategy, where the plant produces thick edible petals to attract pollinators. The nectar evolved later.
Though one warning, never take “squirrels and beetles eat them” as meaning it’s safe. Squirrels can eat amanita mushrooms, which “are called deathcap, because the people who name poisonous fungi have absolutely no sense of humor” — to quote an author who I can’t remember.
SiubhanDuinne
I am grateful to live in a world that has such beautiful flowers.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: My sister and I can’t remember whether my parents planted a van Fleet rose to mark her birth or mine, but when my mother died and Dad started talking about moving out my sister and I started cuttings.
That was 1983. That rose will happily root anywhere, which is fortunate because some fungus got all of hers and I was able to give her 3 new plants. I’m down to just one here and I’m thinking it’s time to start a new batch.
A long way of saying that those clowns in our old house didn’t get my van Fleet.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Nominated.
delphinium
Stunning photos Mike in Oly! Especially love the Magnolia. I have some Pulmonaria in my garden too (although a different variety) and yeah, was surprised it stays green thru our Central NY winters.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Gvg
@Spanky: greenmantle nursery in California says it has it. Most nurseries online now have it set up so you can be automatically notified when something is back in stock. I would suggest you register your wish at several sites. I suspect they use that to see what they need to restock quickly.
OzarkHillbilly
Good. They are too beautiful for heathens such as they.
delphinium
@eclare: Yeah, it has been crazy here too. Typically don’t have to start mowing until mid or end of May but have already mowed my grass twice now.
And the Lowes near me has had their outdoor garden center opened and operating for a couple weeks now which usually doesn’t happen until mid-May.
frosty
So you both feed AND harvest them. Good to know. I’m stealing that one too, BTW. So far I’ve stayed out of the weeds in my spring birdwatching. Starving the ticks so far and trying to keep at it.
Spanky
@Gvg: Thanks! I checked them and …DAMMIT:
Getting on notification lists is a good idea, and I’ve done it a couple of times. I guess I need to add a few more, but now I’m wondering if I’ve missed everyone’s shipping window.
ETA Really, thanks for the tip on Greenmantle. They look like they could do some serious damage to a garden budget even though their prices look quite good.
frosty
So, my garden.
I haven’t ever done flowers but I have two 4×4 Square Foot Gardens for veggies, which won’t get planted this year because we’ll be on another 3-month Road Trip, this time to the Pacific NW. In lieu of that I did some deferred maintenance* on the raspberry patch that the previous owners put in.
Pulled weeds- this year it was mustard garlic (NEW!). Broke off the dead canes and found that 1/4 of the 6′ x 16′ plot had no raspberries. I bought four new plants and started the prep. Got the pitchfork out to turn the soil and found a 3″ diameter tree root under the dead part. Hacked that thing out, added compost to the soil, planted the new raspberries, then bought 72 bricks and set them in as edging. It looks really good now! Like a real intentional raspberry patch instead of a weedy bunch of shrubs.
It will be a spectacular bird feeder this summer since we’ll be away during harvest season in July.
*AKA 20 years of neglect.
O. Felix Culpa
Good morning! The photos are beautiful. I’m finished planting new perennials in my SW pollinator-friendly waterwise garden for this spring, after having blown the budget on adding drip irrigation, which was pricey but worthwhile. The rock rose (which predates our time in this house) is blooming, and a few early hummers have arrived, with presumably more to come.
I’ve assembled all of my raised bed planters (for veggies) and seeds are starting to sprout. The tomato seedlings are hardening off, and should be ready to go into their buckets next weekend. Still need to put up shade cloth, as the afternoon sun will fry them in a trice. Ms. O gently suggests every year that I give up on tomatoes, but nevertheless I persist, trying new types and strategies. When they fruit, they’re glorious. So hope continues to triumph over experience.
P.S. Anybody in the Albuquerque area need/want tomato seedlings? I had almost 100% germination this year, far exceeding expectation, and can’t plant them all.
pieceofpeace
South of SF, my roses are in full bloom, greeting yesterday’s rain/wind storm….
Thank you for these garden ideas as I always enjoy finding new plants to put in the garden.
stinger
@Spanky: Looks like High Country Roses has them right now.
Old Garden Roses tend to go fast, at all suppliers.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin, y’all!
Normally I don’t comment on the garden/flower posts (but I do scroll through to see the pics).
Spent the last week or so building new flower beds on backside of house and planting hydrangeas (lotsa afternoon shade, area tends to retain soil moisture).
Some of you may remember last year I asked for inputs about my roses – the leaves were turning yellow and some of the plants were dying. At the beginning of the year, I pulled all the mulch out, worked in additional organic material as well as rose food, pruned the survivors and planted new ones. When everything bloomed, it was beautiful. But, alas, I’m starting to see signs of the same problem. So I bought a soil test kit. Roses apparently like a slightly-acidic soil and these beds are built in the red clay commonly used for construction down here (clay raises soil pH). Sure enough, the pH tested around 7.5 – 8.
So … I pulled all the mulch back out, worked in some garden sulfur, top-dressed with lotsa peat moss and remulched.
Fingers crossed.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Yesterday was the annual Free Mulch Day in Denver! Residents (they never check) can go to the nursery (next door to the jail) and they have free loader service or “dig your own” for those poor people who don’t have trucks. People line up starting at 7am for the 8am opening. I was there at 7:15 and was about 15th in line and by the time they open, the line is over half a mile down the road.
Like I’ve been doing every year since we moved, I bring a load home for us, then go back late morning or early afternoon (no lines by then) for a second load for my elderly next door neighbor. For the last 5 years I’ve slowly gotten her perimeter beds beds cleared out of weeds and crap. Her husband died a couple of years before we moved in and she’s something of a recluse and definitely couldn’t keep up outside. Her one adult child lives in southern MD and I think has been here once in six years.
She has one grandson in the area but he’s spent a good stint in jail and while he’s the nicest, buff, good looking dude around, according to her he’s got anger management issues and a host of other things. Plus, when he was staying with her after he got out (I think), he didn’t do anything. So, we do our little bit to keep her lot tidy.
Spanky
@stinger: Sadly, when you choose the size pot (only one quart, some choice) the Out of Stock notice pops up.
I’m on their notification list, so I was prepared to be outraged. No joy. Thanks for the tip, though.
MomSense
Beautiful flowers! My next garden lives only in my imagination for now. I’d like to replace the front and side lawns with gardens and some places for outdoor seating areas. The back yard I will fence in for the dog and hopefully create a patio for a fire pit.
kalakal
Beautiful pictures.
Here most of the amaryllis have finished doing their thing but the gardenia are in full show. We’re desperate for rain so everytime I water the Iris bloom like crazy. The flower for month types like king’s mantle, blue daze, and blue porter weed are starting up. The palms are doing their greeny yellow candelabra thing
stinger
@Spanky:
Aargh. They should update the main page for that variety. That’s misleading.
Wish I had more suggestions. The semi-demise of Vintage Roses has left a big hole.
stinger
@MomSense:
That’s always the most beautiful garden, in my experience!
OzarkHillbilly
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Good on you.
Washington MO has free mulch to all residents all year long… And anybody else who shows up.
Spanky
@stinger: I’m gonna give them a call tomorrow and see if they can cut me a break. It’s only a couple of days past their deadline. I’m happy to void any warrantee if they’re reluctant because of that
Eta I mean I’ll be calling Greenmantle, per gvg’s recommendation.
stinger
@Spanky:
FingersGreen thumbs crossed for you!JAM
Mike, the picture of daffodils in the rain is so beautiful!
I finally planted my tomatoes, in big grow bags instead of their raised bed, and planted some melon seeds in the raised bed. I’ve also planted out my tiny prairie plants, but that’s not much to look at right now.
munira
Beautiful. Love the raindrops on the blossoms.
Gloria DryGarden
@delphinium: does lowes still carry plants that have been treated w systemic neonicotinoids? Kills all the bugs, incl bees, butterflies…
Gloria DryGarden
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I read that we could get a bucket of free compost, but at a different site, and you had to download a coupon for it first. Maybe next year, I’ll do it.
If I had a truck, this free mulch thing would be a lot easier
Gloria DryGarden
@JAM: ooh, which prairie plants? Are you in the wetter, tall grass, or mid grass prairies?
I’ve tried things here in Denver that they say are prairie natives, but they turn out to not be short grass plants, that would survive on natural rainfall. I wish this detail were labeled.
Scout211
Mike in Oly, your photos are gorgeous.
I finally got my winter garden planted with salad greens, almost a month later than usual. The overnight temps were too cold for seed germination this late winter. But I finally did get the seeds in the raised bed and now I have all kinds of wonderful salad greens. Right now there are four gallon-sized zip lock bags in the fridge stuffed with all kinds of assorted greens. Yum.
Most of the rest of my beds are planted and doing well, especially the 6 tomato plants. Every year it feels like this will be a good year in the garden. Spring is full of garden hopes and dreams 😊
Gvg
@Spanky: I have never bought from greenmantle. I think they don’t ship to Florida. They have a good reputation and keep having things I want, which is why I keep getting lead to their site when I do searches.
In Florida old teas, chinas and noisettes do best and we have 2 mail order national old rose garden growers nearby so I rarely mail order roses. Other plants however….Anyway I buy from RosePetals and sometimes Angel Gardens. Anybody who wants old garden roses should also check out Antique Roses Emporium, Rogue Valley Roses, High Country Roses and a reverence for roses.
There is a group preserving the Vintage roses called friends of vintage which has sales of extras locally if you happen to live near enough. Also your local society’s may share plants if they have that one.
delphinium
@Gloria DryGarden: Not sure. I just buy mulch, gardening tools there. Buy my plants at a couple locally owned places or sometimes thru recommended mail-order places.
JAM
@Gloria DryGarden: HI, I am on the eastern side of the cross timbers ecoregion, we get more rain. I planted orange and green milkweed, prairie blazing stars, little bluestem, sweet goldenrod, penstemon murrayanus. Annuals: wine cups, lemon bee balm, clasping coneflower. I haven’t seen any coneflowers, but the other two are coming up from seed I sowed in the ground. I sowed the other seeds in containers outdoors.
Mike in Oly
Thank you all for the kind words about my photos. I am glad you enjoyed seeing a few of the blooms from my garden. As you may recall, I am passionate about irises – historic irises more than 50 years old to be precise. Tomorrow I am leaving on a trip to CA to see two collections of old irises. I can’t wait to share them with you when I get back.