Summer is officially here and the daylilies are putting on a show!

There are so many more blooms than last year!

There are several blooming in the Veggie patch…

In the lower garden…

Out front…

In the side yard…

By the bird bath…

And in the front side yard. Here they look dwarfed compared to the Trumpet Lilies. The taller plant is probably over 5 feet tall.

Some of the colors are wild. So many different colors, shapes, and sizes.

Boy am I lucky to have this view.

And this flower, that I thought looked lily-like is actually a member of the same family as Irises. Crocosmia is native to Africa.

Lilies are not the only flowers going gangbusters right now however…

Several varietes of Hostas are putting on a show. Which, oddly enough, are also called Plantain Lilies and used to be classified under the family Liliaceae (essentially Lily family).

Big and small hostas…

The color is quite striking en masse.

Some have already come and gone…others haven’t even started.

The crape myrtles are blooming- this one was the earliest to bloom and already has subsided.

The garden phlox is just getting started now…

I’ve managed to keep the phlox bugs a little better in check this year- meaning I should have some more blooms this year!

Lots of these blooming whatever they are.

This little pale rose came back this year nestled in the yew bush.

The white blossoms are turning light green now on the Annabelle Hydrangea. I finally cut some to have some room on the path.

Swaths of the Gooseneck Loosestrife are in full bloom now.

A few weeks ago my parents came for a visit, and I took a few minutes to gather some Columbine seeds for my mom. These little seed pods rattle with all the tiny beads nestled inside. They self-sow quite freely here so I have high hopes that they’ll take in my mom’s garden.

The first few Cleome or Spider plants! The tall one is much bigger and prettier than any I remember from last year. It may be partly due to the rain we’ve received this year compared to last. Lots of rain this year.

Found this guy after a wet day. It was about five inches across on the top!

As always, a garden is a work in progress and there’s still plenty to do! I need to weed the path again, but most of the time I just go down and just look around. As bad as my allergies are, I can’t stay away from all this beauty.

 

 

Living here for nearly two years now (in about three months), I can say that I’m starting to feel a little more confident in taking care of the garden, and making decisions about what direction I may want to take with implementing changes. I also feel as though so far this year, I’ve had to do less work to just be able to relax and enjoy the space. As we head into summer (and there are many plants that already think it is), it seems as though something is blooming and changing every day. This post is going to be another picture heavy post, especially since I missed a week.

The lacecap Hydrangea has more color this year, more blooms, and is really starting to stand out in its spot.

I think the area just behind it is still a bit overly weedy for my taste- but it’s really difficult to reach. It’s a very steep slope.

The Bluish mophead Hydrangea is gorgeous, and more and more blossoms are opening up every day. I love the color of the flowers and I really wish that more of them would bloom. Unfortunately, this is the only mophead that has any flowers on it.

The Annabelle is blowing me away with the size of the flowers this year. They are huge! And the whole plant it trying to take over the path. Gee Darn, I’m going to have to cut some of it back…

Some might see chaos, I see a lush landscape with lots of interest. This view of the ‘Hosta Stairs’ you can see plenty of ferns, hosta, hardy begonia, hydrangea, leucothoe, azalea, and houttuynia.

Here you can see the other annabelle Hydrangea in the front yard, it grows bigger every year too. These lighter pink roses are blooming in force now, along with a few other varieties. I think I still need to do a bit of trimming back of most of the bushes.

Going back to the lower garden, I’ve been enjoying just sitting here on the bench.

The first daylily of the year was down here, next to the bench, and now I’ve got this pink beauty that popped.

Weeding is the never ending chore, and here you can see the lower path before I pulled most those red shiso seedlings.

I left a few seedlings that I’m hoping to transplant- Cardinal flowers and columbine mostly. They reseed themselves rampantly here.

This white Astilibe bloomed for about two weeks, a nice textural difference amongst all the houttuynia. The houttuynia can be pretty, and this variegated variety is called Chameleon. But it’s just too aggressive and the overall effect is not one that I want in this garden.

There are a couple other Astilibe plants blooming right now, a few of them in the veggie patch.

This darker pink one is especially fuzzy.

Veggie update! I’ve got lots of little tomatoes growing….

I’ve got lots of little peppers too, yay! And now, back to the flowers.

Last year I only had one or two of these spindly stalks that had bent over, but this year I have several tall stalks of this purple bellflower.

Down the way I have masses of Spotted Bellflower. They are heavy with blooms and cannot stay upright too well on their own.

The Phenomenal Lavender is blooming now. I’m surprised at how spindly the flower stalks are, and I assume that as the plant grows larger it will fill out better.

Lavender is one of my all-time favorites. Other bloomers right now include:

 Gooseneck Loosetrife, or Lysimachia clethroides

Rose of Sharon, Rose Mallow, or Hibiscus syriacus.

Lots of Hostas are blooming now.

This unidentified pink flower came and went a week ago. I believe it’s in the mint family because stem is square and the leaves are in opposite directions.

Here’s another unidentified- this flower bloomed all summer long last year and I never figured out what it was. There are several more of them this year, and they are also taller and more upright. I think these are a part of the dianthus family, but I haven’t found anything that looks like them.

Any ideas anyone??

Out front is the Coreopsis, Zagreb.

And across the driveway, the Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa, was at its peak this week.

Lots of pollinators are busy right now. I saw lots of bees on the Butterfly Weed, but no butterflies. Last year I saw one monarch.

This year I got a front (window) seat to two little blue jay babies that just started making their way out of the nest.

They were so cute- fluffy little pudgy birds still molting their downy feathers. Momma stayed nearby to supervise their outing.