Mish Mash Monday!

Good Monday morning to all! I hope you are ready to start another week of gardening fun and of course maybe work. :) It was a beautiful weekend here with the sun shinning, little wind blowing and temps in the mid 60's. Perfect weather to be out side working in and enjoying the gardens.
* this post was written this am, so go with me here. :)




Monica of Garden Faerie's Musing did a post last Monday called Mish Mash Monday and I thought it such a great way to show the odds and ends of photos and to tell of this and that. I don't have too much of this and that and seem to have mostly pictures of coming attractions in my garden, but did want to share them with you. I would have had a few more...but sometime last evening blogger quit loading photos for me. I don't know if this is just my problem or if it is something new (else) with blogger. I suppose time will tell.




Remember my attempt at a rock garden last year? This is Rock Soapwort, Saponaria ocymoides. Covered with these tiny pink blooms, it is very attractive in amongst the rocks. Honestly, I was going to show a full picture of it. When I planted this last summer, it was already done blooming, so this has been a pleasant surprise to see the delicate blooms.

The wild violets are really coming into their own this past week. Who could not love these sweet little mounds of blooms. I do admit to pulling some new starts out here and there, but a few have placed themselves very strategically and add a spot of color to bare areas.

Can you guess what bloom this is?? Of course this is a super macro photo so you know their blooms are very tiny. Give up? It is the flower on my Bayberry bush. The underside of it's arching branches are just covered with these delicate little beauties.

I transplanted a couple of Heavenly Blue morning glories and Moon flowers into bigger containers. It is still a little early to plant them in the ground. Last week I put all my seedlings outside in a semi-protected place. They are getting morning sun and are doing very well.

The cone flowers are sending up shoots in all sorts of places. I will have plenty to share at Spring Fling! Aren't you getting excited about going? I have started my lists of things to take. If I don't make lists, it doesn't seem to get done. I am sure none of you have that problem though.

One of the iris I transplanted from my Mother-in-law's last summer has a bud already. Not sure what color this one will be. And when they bloom this year, I am going to see if I missed getting any colors. It was the middle of summer when I mentioned that I would like to transplant some of these from her yard, but thought I should wait until fall. Lisa commented she thought it would be fine to do it any time and I did-right in the heat! They all grew and I am so pleased. Thanks, Lisa for the great gardening tip!

The cornflowers have triplied in size from the starts I planted that were pass-alongs from my cousin. And now they are getting buds. I am so excited to have these great old fashioned flowers in my garden!

The artemesia is also budding. This was one of the mystery plants that I didn't remember planting and had no clue as to what it was. But thanks to several bloggers it was identified. I still don't remember planting it, but the cousin who gave me the cornflowers says it was from her, also.

And finally, I have buds in my daisies. These were the very dark pink ones that we finally decided were Painted Daisies last summer. The mound of them is getting quite large and I think I will try to divide it after they bloom. I love dividing plants...freebies to plant in the garden.

Hopefully, next post I will be able to upload photos once again. I want to show the 2 new roses we planted and the bluebells my neighbors gave me.

Until then, have a great garden week!

My Early Spring Show and Tell!

I have had these pictures loaded for several days now-just haven't had the time to add narrative. But tonight, after reading so many spring blogs, I so wanted to add mine to the show and tell.



Isn't this a lovely flower? I love the blueness of it. Anybody want to take a guess as to what it is?

The forsythia stems my cousin sent home with me a couple of weeks ago have provided many smiles for me as I do the dishes. I have the vase sitting in my kitchen window and the bright yellow blooms are so cheery. (I am hoping they will take root!)

I did get a couple of flats planted on the 10th. I planted several varieties most of which came through the seed exchange or from very generous bloggers.

Sunflowers are up in 5 days.

As well as several others.

A week ago the these tulips were just a couple of inches tall.

60+ degree temps and they are growing very quickly!

All of the iris I transplanted from my Mother-in-Law's last summer have new growth. I am SOOO happy.

And in the few days since I loaded these pictures, I have seen day lilies sprouting, green shoots of yarrow, and new growth on the Silver Mound Artemisia! Yea spring. I think it is truly here.. :} I hope you are enjoying spring in your gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day-June, 2008

I do have a few newly blooming flowers that I haven't shown and a couple that I have posted, but thought were worth seeing again. I was worried that I wouldn't, but the rain and then the hot sun made them pop just in time.

Yellow Asiatic lily-name unknown. In fact, these and a few others spread around the gardens are DIPT ones that showed up about 5 years ago.

These I did plant and are called Apple Blossom.

My cherry tomatoes, 'Gartenperle', are compliments of Cheryl. I've never grown English tomatoes before.

An annual, 'Penstemon', Phoenix Appleblosson. I am hoping the bees and the hummingbirds will especially like this one.

Of course, I had to show this root stock rose again. It has been in full bloom for 2 weeks! It is definitely staying.

Martha Stewart Heritage has had more beautifully perfect blooms.

One last lone iris. Name unknown and is it just me or does it look a little deformed?

Some of the wild flowers I started indoors. I have them in several spots in the gardens and they are so delicate looking. I am going to try to save some of the seeds to plant again next year.

And finally, false sunflower-I think. I bought one small plant years ago before I knew to keep plant tags. It spread, and spread and then spread some more. I have been trying to get rid of it, but every year it pops up in new places.

Hope you have a lovely Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

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!

Iris, Peonies, Rare Birds!

It is amazing to me how rain and sun and warmth can make a garden grow so quickly. While we have had some very nice days-days that were even hot, our nights have been cool. Down in the 40's a lot of the time. These past few days we have stayed in the lower to middle 60's and the humidity has increased. And no matter how much you water dry and thirsty plants, there is just nothing like a good drink of rain for them. So when you combine all the elements, the garden explodes with new growth, buds and blooms.

Friday felt like a typical July day with lots of humidity and hot temperatures and chances for severe thunderstorms. Just before dark, they came! In short bursts of enormous energy, it rained 2 1/2" accompanied by wind and lots of lightning. Thankfully, we had only a few small limbs down. Saturday, hubby and I worked on cleaning up the outside. We had a trailer full of garden trash from last fall and this spring and of course our ceiling tile had all been thrown on as well. We took it out to his brother's farm and dumped it in a pit to be burned later. To get to the pit we waded water and had mud to our knees throwing the trash off the trailer. While hubby sharpened the blades on the mower, I took a rolling magnet around the yard and driveway to pick up any stray roofing nails. He mowed our hay field(it had been 3 weeks since we had mowed) and I took the power washer to the stone patio. Both jobs took the better part of the afternoon. I finally finished my chore and came in to take a much needed shower. He stayed with the mowing and then broomed the cut grass and got it hauled off. Needless to say, we were both tired. But it felt good to get the yard and outside back into shape.

Today, I took time to check out my gardens as well as the flowers at my Mother-in-law's. I was surprised at how much things had changed in just a couple of days.

I am not too sure what this flower is. I remember planting small bulbs here a few years back but have no other recollection about them. Still, I enjoy their dainty yellow blooms.

A Martha Stewart 'heritage' rose is just about to open. This is a deep red that almost looks like velvet. Maybe the Japanese Beetles will stay away long enough for some of my roses to show pretty blooms.

Good old 'Betty Prior' is full of promise. It is a great standard in the world of roses. She has few petals and looks old fashioned(which I like) and is not a fussy type. Even the beetles leave her alone.

The columbine that I planted years ago, is in full bloom. It has spread from one small plant to several all over the end of that burm and looks such a pretty purple mass.

My Iris has another bloom, and this one is even bigger than the first one.

In my last post, I talked about my MIL's iris and wanting to transplant some of them to my garden to keep them going in the family as she is now in a nursing home. Today, I decided to see just what she had. These yellow and bronze are one of the ones I think of as old fashioned-original iris.

And of course the pale all yellow ones.

These, too, were some of the very first iris I remember as a child in my grandmother's yard. My granddaughter calls these "root beer flowers". She thinks they smell like root beer. Well, maybe a little.

Oh my! Look what else she has in her iris beds. This is a huge rust colored one.

Such a bright yellow!

And these purple and white ones are gorgeous.

This is a pale pink on top with a hint of yellow then a lavender towards the bottom. It looks like an orchid. I am going to be very busy this fall!

I also found more peonies than I remembered. A pale pink double with darker outer petals.

A truly enormous double deep pink one.

And lastly a pale pink to white double. I feel a case of peony envy coming on!

Then as a treat for all you bird lover's, I wanted to show one of my shots of rarely seen birds. Lisa, are you ready for this?

Okay, maybe they aren't really rare. But I did see them in a very unusual spot. We went to a small town ice cream place this afternoon and while sitting out under their umbrella, up walked these two chickens. I think they must have come from the outskirts of the town, but seemed very much at home pecking around the trash can.

The latest update on our roof. The work was completed late Friday afternoon. Or so I was told by the men as they left. However, and this is a big however! The heavy rain we got Friday proved them wrong. I had a virtual waterfall in the front part of our living room. I didn't get a picture of the water actually pouring through as I was too busy setting out bowls and buckets and towels. This picture was taken the next morning. We have a skylight in this area(separate from where we have the new ceiling tile) that lets in much needed light. After moving the love seat and putting down the towels, etc. I called the contractor. He came over in time to see the leak. "Did this leak before?" "Well, yes-a little recently, that was one of the reasons for the new roof." DUH! He did promise to make it right...to his credit, but when? Hopefully tomorrow, before it rains again! I am keeping my sense of humor about this as I have always wanted a water feature. But maybe outside would be a better place for one.

This week is supposed to be a really warm one here. So I am looking for the gardens to grow triple time now. I hope your week is warm and that your gardens grow before your eyes.