What's Blooming Tuesday? Easter Lilies,Drumstick Allium, & Marguerite Daisies

Looking at the same plant from the opposite direction, you can see the drumstick allium beginning to turn pink.
You can also see some big spotted calla leaves. Soon some bright yellow calla trumpet-shaped lilies should appear. They will look very nice with the yellow throats of the white liles. You can also see some pink lily buds on the right side. . . This should end up to be a nice little floral vignette, which was a total accident. I didn't plan it all. Earlier in the season, I just stuck a big container in this spot to fill up space. As I look at this picture as I am writing this, I think that this pot is loaded with pink starburst dahlias! I hope they all bloom before the white lilies die out.

Last year I moved some Marguerite daisies in this area. They just started blooming this week.

I am disappointed as I thought the clumps would be much wider. You can see the top of the cage I placed around them because I expected a huge mass that would cover the cage completely. Maybe next year.
Here are the Margeurites looking toward the milk can:


In back of the Margeurite's I have tons of the old orange ditch lilies. I know a lot of people hate these, but I like mine. They came from my Mom's yard and she got them from my Aunt Mary's yard in Sault Ste. Marie, MI (probably 30 years ago). You can't toss out family history!
The creeping Jenny is really taking off in the old milk can container.


Same container - opposite direction.


I have finally remembered to link to Jean's What's Blooming Tuesday? meme. Take a trip over to Jean's to see her gorgeous bloomers as well as the other participants. I have to get to work, so I won't be able to check them all out until later this afternoon. But you all go and have fun while I am working! :)

Spirea Snowmound, a Special Rock and some Allium Molly

I planted this Spirea Snowmound in 1988--a tiny little gallon container shrub.

Whoa! It's not tiny anymore!
It needs a good pruning. I prune it every year and will do it this year as soon as the blooms fade.

Did anyone notice this aqua painted rock in the big arbor garden?
It was given to DH over 20 years ago by his friend who was painting rocks during his alcohol addiction recovery. At that time it was red and had a nice flower on it and was signed by the now-alcohol-free artist. Over the years the original artwork has faded and I've repainted it a few times. I really like this rock.

I've got a lot of this yellow-flowered Allium Molly blooming right now. Last year I moved a lot of the tiny bulbs to the woodland path area.

I like the delicate flowers. I've been giving Breck's a bit of bad publicity lately, but this is one purchase that has given me way more than I expected. The bulbs just keep multiplying.
I can't even remember how long ago I purchased them.

Pea asked if I would be able to get a refund of the items I purchased this year that were duds. Yes, I will. Breck's is VERY good about that. At this stage of my gardening life, I am more concerned with getting quality products. I HATE TO RETURN ITEMS (like at stores) AND I HATE IT EVEN MORE TO HAVE TO REQUEST REFUNDS FROM ONLINE ORDERS. It takes a lot of effort to write a letter or an email -I have to look up the order number, the item number, etc., etc. -- it's a waste my free time--I expect to get what I ordered and I expect it to be what was advertised. If those two requirements are met, I am happy.

I often mention how I now order all my clothes on line. I've been doing it for a couple of years . I order quite often - more than once a month. I have never returned a single item. I have not loved everything I received, but I've always decided I like it enough to keep it rather than to go through the hassle of returning it.

I am, however, big on principles. So I will probably end up requesting a replacement/refund for the dud items because it is just not right to send dahlia tubers that are dead and Elephant ears that are so tiny it will take years before they even resemble the advertisement.

What would you do?

From the Forest Floor

Yesterday after I finished raking, I took a little stroll through the woods next to my gardens. Right away I spotted this big branch.

It's been here for years--all the bark is gone and something has been making holes in it.

Dianne, do these holes look like the ones you posted yesterday?


This branch is quite heavy, but something about it interested me, so I pulled it out and propped it against this pole to dry out (the underside was quite wet)


I am thinking there is some artistic expression (garden art)just waiting to burst forth from this piece. At the moment I have no idea what, but I am going to keep it around awhile and see if any idea comes to me.

Does anyone know what made those holes? I am thinking woodpeckers.

A Few Different Canna Leaves

Tropicanna 'Black' is almost ready to present its first bold, bodacious, beautiful red flower.

'Black' is the tallest of the three Tropicannas.

I love how sculptural this bud looks with the huge black leaves.

Here's another Tropicanna - Tropicanna 'Gold' - which looks totally different. So far this one does not have a bud. That's just another leaf coming out in the center.

Here is the original 'Tropicanna' with its pretty striped leaf. No bloom on this one yet either.

This beauty is 'Picasso'. I love the bold stripes in this leaf. That's a bud almost ready to burst forth with its orange/yellow splotched flower. With 'Picasso' you never know just what the flower will look like as the splotches are always a bit different. I am discovering that any flower named for an artist is a flower I will love. They seem to be different and more artistic, like their namesakes.

This leaf is Canna 'Wyoming'. I just bought it this year. The leaf is not all that impressive. I hope the flower is more interesting.

Here is a much tinier bud. It's special because I believe it will be my first bloom from the zinnia seeds that Dianne, from Dianne Rambling On, sent to me. Does it look like one of your purple ones, Dianne?

Something is dining on this hosta in a container on the deck.

I can't find any bugs, so they must be nocturnal.

On my stroll through the Woodland area last night, I admired the tenaciousness of these little hens and chicks.

Through snow, thunderstorms, even hail, they sit quietly clinging to this old piece of driftwood, never giving me any trouble at all. Every once in a while I pick a pine needle off them. Gardening doesn't get much easier than this little display.

Wild Garden and Callas Galore

About two years ago, I started throwing shovelfulls of plants over the small rockwall garden into the wooded area. I just slung them over. I didn't dig holes and carefully plant anything...just threw it over the wall. I figured a few things would take hold and would provide a bit of color instead of all the weeds that were back there.

I was right.

Just look how colorful this area is today.


As you walk through the arbor, you see billowing masses of white ground cover.

Guess what that is? The dreaded 'coral carpet' sedum that I am trying to remove from all the other gardens! You can see why I fell in love with it way back in the beginning. It's like falling for the pretty boy in high school. After a while you discover he's all about, me, me, me...and you can't wait to dump him for someone a little less pretty, but more sociable.


There are plants growing all the way down the path to the compost pile.


It's pretty dark down that path and I am just amazed that flowers bloom in those conditions!

I often walk thru this wooded area to cut flowers for inside bouquets. That way I don't have to cut from the main gardens.

How about something a little less wild? Just look at the callas!

I wish I had some other colors. Are there red callas? I will have to remember to get some different colors for next year.

update: I went searching for red callas. I found this one called Anneke. It's more purple, but I like it.
They also had this pretty mixture, but I don't need any more yellow.

Rose Campion (Lychnis Coronaria)

Yesterday I got an email asking about rose campion.

I have a question...I bought my Rose Campion 3 months ago and it has not done nothing. When does it start to bloom?....Thanks DRF

Since I had planned to post about it today, I decided to answer the question right here.

DRF, rose campion is a biennial so it may not bloom this year at all. Actually there is some debate as to whether it's a biennial or a perennial, but in my garden it behaves as biennial. The first year it stays small, just a clump of silver leaves. The second year it grows tall and flowers. Good luck -- don't give up hope!

Sylvana left a comment on an old post, too.
I was trying to find a source to buy seeds for this variety, as it is my favorite flower -- and I found this post during the Google search!! It was probably the 5th down too. Seems like you are the place to go for info on Rudbeckia Hirta "Autumn Colors"!
Hmmm, well mine died the first year and never reseeded. I hope the searchers are able to find a more successful source for their info! LOL. I've been blogging for so many years now, that I come up on the first page of lots of Google searches. It's still kind of a neat to see my own blog show up--especially when it's the first one. I hope you found some seeds!

Time to get ready for work. After work today my new mattress and stove will be delivered. I didn't get my quilt finished. In fact I have not even started to sew the binding on. Maybe this weekend. After I go out and remove all the dead areas where I sprayed the Roundup two weeks ago (like the two big spots in the picture above).

Positively Prolific Poppies & Lovely Little Lupine

What kind of a bird makes a nest of twigs like this?

Or do you think it's a squirrel?

I have not been out on the deck for the past 4 days so I don't know what has decided to make this bird house its home.

Maybe I will have more time this weekend to sit out there and see what it is.






We had a great time at the magic show. I am still trying to figure out how he made an audience member's watch appear in a box that was sitting in the corner of the stage (right by me) and he never touched the box. Amazing illusions!



As we pulled into the driveway on Sunday, we were hit with this bold splash of color. Luckily I took a picture....
because look at them after the last three days of rain!
Except for that one moment of picture taking, I didn't get to enjoy them at all.

It's a good thing I have plenty of poppies in other gardens that are just beginning to open. I really like the poppies combined with allium.
See how the poppy has that same bit of purple in it's throat?

The spring phlox is also nice with the poppies. Purple is a perfect complement to the vivid orange of poppies. Both the poppies and the spring phlox are really weeds in my garden. They pop up everywhere even though I never let them seed. I must move other flowers and get a little root section of the poppies because they are in places I never planted them. I spend half of the gardening season trying to get rid of most of them. I like them, but I only want them in certain places.

I was very surprised when I went out Sunday and found this lupine. A few years ago I tossed some seeds, but they never amounted to much. I noticed this one two years ago and have been making sure not to dig it up. It was just a tiny little plant (like 2 inches wide) that never bloomed....until this year........Wow!

Look at it now! I have seen other people's lupines that were certainly bigger and better, but for me, this is a very successful lupine.

The mosquitoes are terrible right now because we have had a lot of rain. I went outside to clean my paintbrush and got 4 big bites. (yes, I am still painting and probably will be for the rest of the summer). It's about impossible to work outside for more than 10 minutes. Although I hate the bugs, I would rather put up with the bites, than have a drought like we had last year.

Lunaria (Money Plant)

Lunaria is grown mainly for its seed pods which resemble a silver dollar. While walking about the dessert (my ultra dry yard) tonight, I noticed many lunaria plants at the edge of woods ready to be picked and enjoyed in their dry dead state.

You need to very carefully rub off the papery outside of the pod to see the silver center. In the photo above you can see some with the papery covering still on and some that I have already rubbed off. I let them all fall to the ground right where I rubbed them so they can self sow for next year. They are technically biennial, but once you get them established they easily reseed and you can be pretty confident that you will have them every year. After I had a few stems cleaned off I decided to use them in some of my deck plants. These wall planters have not filled out as nicely as I would have liked.
so I stuck a few in each just for a different look. Have you ever seen any other plant that looked so good dead? :)
This wall planter is way smaller than I imagined it would be. The lunaria gives it the added height it needs. I had hoped the celosia would get nearly as tall as the money plant is.

Then I stuck a large bunch in the whiskey barrel just because I liked the sparkle.
If we get any rain storms they probably won't hold up well so I will just enjoy them for the short time that they look presentable.

I have a feeling that my modem is about to die again. Does anyone else have Verizon and a Westell modem? I can't get a modem to last. If this one goes, it will be my 4th one in two years. I am telling you this so you will know what happened if I disappear for four or five days.

What's Blooming Today?

I always enjoy these drumstick allium. In a short while they will turn pink.

My hanging baskets are finally beginning to fill out. In another week they should be looking pretty decent (even if they all do have pink petunias instead of purple). The mallow has started blooming. I removed tons of this last fall because it was becoming quite the pest--reseeding all over the place. It's shorter than usual. I have noticed that most of my plants are on the short side this year.

Here's my driftwood with lychnis coronaria and Sweet William blooming in front of it.

I am still amazed when I look through the woodland arbor and see how nice it looks. This is not even part of the garden. Just the woods where I toss stuff out. Right now it's full of feverfew, lychnis and Sweet William.

At the moment I have quite the pastel palette going on.

Except for this:

As you can see some of the orange lilies have crept in.

Lostroses, does this color scheme look familiar? LOL

In just a few days, the colors will change to mostly orange and red.

Sunday morning Garden Views

I went outside at just the right time for taking photos. The lighting was great. I took 116 pictures and almost all of them turned out nice. How rare is that?
Here's one taken through the driftwood in the woodland area. It's a new angle for me and I like it enough to show all of you.

Here I am standing about 10 feet to the left front of the above picture. The New England asters are closed because there is no sun out yet. They make a nice frame for the rockwall garden.
More asters on the other side almost ready to open.

This big pine tree provides much needed shade during the summer months. The glider is placed right under it.

Through the dead lilies


I've planted a few burning bushes in the rock garden for fall color. This one seems to be doing the job quite nicely.


Oh, and DH just informed me a skunk has taken up residence directly under my deck. No wonder the yard was full of skunk holes this morning.