This Week in the Garden – May 24

This week in the garden, well the last two anyway, has continued to show me new blooms. It’s exciting for me to ‘discover’ flowering plants, but it’s also fun to anticipate what I know is coming back…

The much awaited “smoke” has started to rise from the Smoke Tree or Cotinus.

I love the puffy little clouds of light pink billowing from the top. Martha Stewart Living magazine had a great little article on these wonderful plants this month.

Growing right next to it was a lone Baptisia or False Indigo plant. I do not recall seeing these pretty little flowers last year, but it is possible I had since I pinned a picture of Baptisia. Or I could have just been wishing to have some and now it turns out I have some!

Nearby are some snapdragons I planted last fall. I was so happy to see them make it- my other two died. I think I may have neglected them too much and an animal helped dig one up.

Also in the front yard, the pink Peonies at the end of the driveway peaked last week. Last year I just had one stalk with three pretty blooms, and this year it exploded! I love how they look and I’m happy to see more of them. I added a little wire cage for support- once they start blooming they just can’t hold themselves up.

The Hardy Orchid’s (Bletilla) are out in full now, and have the most vibrant color.

Moving around to the side yard, the color on the Mahonia drew my attention. The stems for the berries were a hot pink color, with some areas more dark purple.

Even though the columbine are slowing down and most have gone to seed now, there’s still plenty of color in the veggie patch. The roses are still going strong, there’s some Hardy Orchids in the very back, Siberian Iris in the middle, and up front a pretty pink foxglove (Digitalis).

Here’s a detail of the Siberian Iris.

Nearly hidden in the veggie patch is the Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’. I’m pretty sure that’s what it is because I remember seeing a tag for it in the box. It has been so helpful for me to have the resource of the box of plant tags! I don’t recall seeing the blooms of this last year, but I do remember the foliage–I think I just missed seeing it.

Near the patch, this drooping Clematis is blooming. It’s so delicate!

And this Clematis just started blooming on the Fourth of July Roses.

I think I did well with trimming this year, but I want to learn to be better at it.

Lots of Eglantyne roses this year.

Back behind the birdbath, this sweetspire is blooming nicely. I haven’t had a chance to try and get really close to get a good detail of those flowers yet.

Overtaking the hill and the birdbath is some goutweed (also seen here with Houttuynia). Even though it can be aggressive, I think it can be pretty. I don’t mind keeping it around, but I’ll just have to also keep it in check.

One morning while out taking pictures, I saw all these bugs on this one flower head- does anyone know what they are?

This small creeping sedum, also around the birdbath, is blooming. I would love to have more of this stuff- and it stays “green’ all winter long (more or less).

This shot is from last fall when I planted Phenomenal Lavender–it’s grown quite a bit in the last 8 months.

Some of those spikes are at least two feet tall! This plant has grown very quickly, and is as advertised!

I also re-potted this Hidecote Lavender I bought last Spring and had out front. It did OK but I wasn’t totally happy with the location or the pot. This is feeling much better for now.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Lavender Fields Farm, which is not very far from us in Glen Allen. We bought a few things from them, including this beautiful variegated Lavender named ‘Platinum Blonde’. We took a free tour of their farm, which was really neat to see behind the scenes as most of our starters came from them (they sell to Strange’s). They also handed out tickets for free ice cream samples at the end- we tried the honey and lavender flavors YUM. It’s a sweet place to visit, and they have a great little shop filled with all sorts of lavender products as well.

Speaking of the starters… they are progressing well. Everything looks good and healthy and growing! I’m a little paranoid that I didn’t get big enough pots for some of the tomatoes and may put them in something bigger soon… Also need to get a few more tomato cages…

I wasn’t happy with how I had some things, so I repotted the Caladium (it was burning up with too much sun), and I moved all my succulents around.

I’m still trying to get some of the babies to grow in the pot on the left. (They are shaded under the bench there).

With so much going on in the upper gardens, I don’t always make it down the hill. On the rock slide, the delicate little Strawberry Begonia’s are flowering. It took me a while to figure this one out.

Yay I’m going to have some hydrangea flowers this year! This might actually be the annabelle, but I did see some buds on my mopheads. Can you spot the bug in this picture?

This year I’m going to try some Coleus in the planter with sedum.

And last, but not least, introducing the First Daylily of 2015! This year this beauty in the lower garden beat out smaller similarly colored blooms in the veggie patch- which haven’t even shown a bud yet. You know Summer’s coming when daylily season starts!