This sunny bed is a riot of colour right now.

The pure red in the foreground is Redbirds in a Tree “Scrophularia macrantha”

It is a  rare wildflower from the southern mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, and the hummingbirds love it!

Really came through the freezing winter well.

Here you can see the yellow  Lysimachia punctata  ‘Alexander’ (variegated garden loosestrife)  

The blue is the geranium, and the purple is an Allium christophii.

The pink flowers are silene that have reseeded. There’s a few white ones too.

The other reddish ones are Centranthus or Jupiter’s Beard or Valerian.

Whatever you wish to call it.

And there’s even some miniature roses to add to the picture.

The great thing is most of these plants have a long blooming time, especially if I deadhead and cut back for a second bloom.

Such a cheerful bunch o’ blooms!

 

 

 

Allium christophii

I saw this allium in a friend’s garden last summer, and I found something similar at Botanus.

It has purple star-shaped flowers, that have a wonderful metallic sheen.

Slowly, each bud is opening up.

Now they are just about fully out, and they are really big!  I was expecting taller plants with smaller flowerheads,

but these are kind of squat with huge blooms.

 

 

I ordered a new bulb to try this year.

I planted it up earlier in the spring in a pot, and it grew quickly.

This week I got it into the garden bed.

I had no idea really what it would be.  I couldn’t remember what I had ordered.

Yesterday it looked like this.

And today it is blooming already!

It is a Hymenocallis Festalis,  also known as the peruvian daffodil or the spider lily.  It is not hardy, but seems to like this sunny spot for the summer.

There is one more bloom, and then I’m not sure what it will do for the rest of the season.

I’ll have to wait and see.

April was pretty dry here, no April showers to bring May flowers.

May was also dry.

Farmers were able to get crops into dry fields.

Then we prayed for rain in June.

Last week we received 2 inches of rain, which I noticed in my rain gauge.

I emptied that one, but as of this morning, here’s what is in the rain gauge now.

Nearly four more inches of rain!

Even my sandy soil is wet.

Now we are in for a few clear, sunny, breezy days.  Just what we need.

 

The clematis on the pergola really flourished this spring.

Last year was its first summer, and earwigs feasted on it.

But this summer it’s growing beautifully, and lots of flower buds developed.

Big blooms, you can see them across the yard.

I should grow more clematis.  They handle our freezing winters quite well,  die back isn’t really a problem.

Even the centres are so detailed and pretty!

 

 

The compost bin has had fruit flies in it since last summer!

Yes, all winter we had fruit flies.

I would wash it and scrub it clean, and a week later, more fruit flies.

Anyway, I put it out on the back deck last week.

It wasn’t quite full enough to take a trip to the compost pile, but it had a lot of fruit flies.

The next morning, an animal had found it, and dug around for a snack.

We assumed it to be a raccoon.

I emptied it  and cleaned it out, and left it on the back deck to dry out.

The next morning, there was evidence of the critter’s return.

Little paw prints!  But alas, the compost bin was empty.

Definitely looks like raccoon prints. I hope we don’t see much of him this summer.

We already have skunks and groundhogs and rabbits.

The fish were traumatized too, but that’s another story.

 

 

I have three tree peonies in the garden.  This is the most flamboyant one.

So frilly, and delicate, blooms the size of a dinner plate.

The show lasts only a short time, so pictures will remind me of their fleeting beauty.

I planted up some pots, and with these three black pots, I decided to keep to a strict colour palette.

I found these lovely silver begonias.

They look lovely with the pink and fuchsia impatiens.

And with the purple spike, potato vine and other pink begonias it all comes together nicely!

Some coordinated colour for a shady corner of the patio.

I  try to buy shrubs that have blooms.  Right now in the garden several shrubs are showing their colours.

This is a honeysuckle bush.

The lilacs are my favourites at this time of year.

I love this one – purple with a white edge on each flower.

The snowball bush is really full this year.

The Bridalwreath spirea managed to escape the rabbit’s damage.  I love their arching branches full of blooms.

And the weigela is just about all out.

With such a variety of blooming shrubs, there is something for every garden and every gardener!

Last summer I noticed that there were quite a few white flowers in the garden.

And I noticed I had a garden space that needed  a little attention.

So when you put that together….

it means another garden bed!!

I decided that I would plant only white flowers.  And white and green foliage.

Last fall I put in a few bulbs, and the iris.

This spring I have added anemone, phlox, gas plant, and daylily.

There’s a rogue yellow daffodil I’ll have to remove.  I am keeping my eye out for white perennials, and I have seeds for

white cosmos, and white lavatera.   And a few annual flowers  grown from seed.

We will see how year one turns out.