The Rains Came and The Garden Grew!

With the coming of spring, I had settled into a pattern of posting 3 times a week. This seemed reasonable as I was also trying to work in my long neglected gardens, keep some semblance of order to my home and of course read favorite gardens blogs. All worked well for many weeks, except for the house work. But the last couple of weeks my time seems spent on things out of the realm of my control. For that I apologize. Of course the fact that my Internet was out for almost 48 hrs. again did leave me unable to post. It seems lightning struck the tower we get service from. Therefore, this posting will be full of pictures I have been wanting to share. I will try to keep the commentary brief-I promise.

I was able to get most of my containers planted this week in between the rain and storms. I am mostly happy with them, but we shall see how they look when they fill out. I used a new-to-me product in some of the smaller pots. It's called 'Soil Moist' and is granular form. The idea is to mix a bit with your soil and it soaks up water releasing it when the soil starts to dry out. This sounds like a good deal for someone like me who about the 1st of August gets very disillusioned with watering.

The morning after I potted and after a 2 1/2" rain the night before, I went out to see how the containers fared. I came upon this one and thought, "who put ice in my plants?!" Then it dawned on me, these were the granules full of water! So it does work...and it does look like ice.

This week was moving week. I moved all my house plants out. It always feels so good to get them out of the house-less cluttered looking. I know Carol posted about this and how when you bring them in you take a chance of bringing bugs, but they do so well out there during the summer.

Rose posted about all the rain we have had and how much water there is everywhere, but I wanted to show you the 'Wetlands' area I posted about a few months back. I know there were geese and ducks nesting is this area. I hope they are alright.

Update on roof. Attempt #3 at getting the leaked fixed. It helped. Now instead of Niagara Falls, I only have a dripping faucet. They are coming back!

When plant shopping this week, I saw this tree at my favorite garden center. I had no idea what it was and of course forgot to ask, but another blogger(I'm sorry can't remember who) posted a picture of this tree this week and said it was a tulip tree. Anyone know for sure?

Another mystery bulb has bloomed It really is a chocolate color.

My purple iris show up as blue in pictures and the blue one looks purple. This is on a nearly nonexistent stalk.
Roses are blooming! Betty Prior looks like she has 2 different colors, but I'm sure the red ones are from the root stock. Not sure what to do about it though.

This is growth from root stock and a long gone hybrid tea. I posted earlier this year that I had several of these in my gardens and wasn't sure whether I was going to leave or remove them. This was the only one that came back this year...problem solved.

My 'Double Delight' is blooming, but I am going to have to move this one as she is now in a lot of shade.

Martha Stewart's 'Heritage' yesterday.

'Heritage' today!

One last iris picture, I promise!! (well 2 last ones)
This is supposed to be white like the next one. I think it must be cross pollinating with the purple ones.

And if you need rain-give me your zip code and I will try to send you some. Have a good gardening weekend!