July is almost over

I've been "missing in action" for a month and a half but I continued to take lots of pictures of the garden during this time.  My husband surprised me with an early birthday gift - a new digital camera which in my opinion gives my garden justice (:).
Here are some of my favorite garden views during the month of July.

But where are the day lilies you say? No hemerocallis in this garden?

Here is a bad picture of the daylily bed followed by a nice collage of all the day lilies that I grow.

Till next time, happy gardening!

Heavenly early June blooms

The most beautiful and active month of the year -May is over but June is richer with larger blooms and nice sunny weather.  Kids vacation starts tomorrow and they are so so excited! I am too as I am tired of waking-up early.
Let me show you some new blooms from the week-end and the beginning of the week. The most reliable and the most popular perennials grown in a garden are blooming now like Irises:

My favorite is the white one:

Japanese Iris

Here is a collage of my entire iris collection:

Counter clock wise starting with the white: Japanese Iris, Siberian Iris, Yellow Flag Iris, 3 German Irises all received as gifts-don't know the varieties, Iris cristata 

Simple Peonies

Double red

Love the red double peony as it transforms in a alien flower at the end of the bloom.

Below is a collage of my individual peonies portraits.  Three varieties are missing as the buds are still closed. If you do not grow peonies, you should!  These are the easiest plants to grow! That is not what I said 14 years ago.  I planted my first purchased plant (without flowers or buds -big mistake) and it didn't flower for 4 years.  Then I pulled it out and threw it in the trash.  It might have been a wild variety or I might have planted it too deep.  Every other one that I tried after that was fine  and grew bigger and bigger every year including dormant roots which is how I started 4 of the 5 varieties shown below.

Lupines

Oriental poppies going and going - Papaver "Princess Victoria Louise"

Tradescantia

Widow's tears or Tradescantia

I left the Clematis known as the "Queen of the Climbers" for the end.  There are so many varieties out there. So far I grow four that bloom at different times of the year. I am sure I will continue to add more as I mastered the pruning of all 3 classes of clematis last year.

Clematis "Marie Louise Jensen" and me

Last year by mid June this clematis got a lot of attention when combined with the red rose climber "Blaze"  I posted that combination here and it is by far the most visited post on my blog.  The roses all suffered after the past frigid winter and died almost all the way to the ground.  I have been lucky that all started to grow again including the climber which has buds on one of the stems.  It will take a couple of years to recover to its former glory but I am sure that it will happen.
What is blooming in your garden right now?  If you have a blog, leave me a link to your last post and I will for sure check it out.
I shared this post with Floral Friday Fotos where beautiful photographs are shared by bloggers around the world.

Oh May! - Japanese Primroses

I don't even know where to start!  The garden looks marvelous in May! Especially at the end of May.  I can't seem to keep-up with the weeds but most beds are so grown that the weeds are not so visible.
I can probably write a post a day based on the amount of flowers blooming every day in the garden!  It is insane and gorgeous at the same time.
Lets make the focus of today's post the Japanese primroses which I started from one plant given by my neighbor and friend and a hand full of seed scattered in a moist spot eight years ago.  As long as you have continuously moist beds you can also grow these gorgeous candelabra primroses.
Primula Japonica charms all my visiting friends and gardeners with its showy pink flowers and spreading whorls of bright green, wrinkled edge foliage. It grows well in zones 4 to 9 and it will reach a mature height of 12 to 24 inches.  It is is seldom plagued by pests or disease and will live for many years if kept in suitably moist and shaded conditions.  

Primula Japonica

This spring I noticed so so many new seedlings of these primulas that I decided to build a new garden bed on a lawn spot that was always too wet to mow.  The result?  A stream of Japanese Primrose enchanting us this time of the year:

 See the stream of primulas?  And it is going to get better and better every year!

So I will wrap-up this post with this picture! My favorite garden view so far this year!