Flowers coming soon!

[afishamongmany]

ok - in my after lunch ambulation couldn't resist some more photo's. My camera is the cheap and cheerful, point and press sort and with the bright sunshine everything tends to over expose but still it give an idea.
This is what as I know as cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), also known as Queen Ann's lace. It's just an ordinary hedgerow plant (weed) but every year I let a few flower and seed. They really are light and lacy and in the right place a delight.
I wonder how many people enjoy and encourage the weeds in their gardens?

This apple tree which shades, our car parking, is now in peak blossom.

With my camera can't really capture the colours and do justice to this bed but if you squint and think bright yellow, warm purple, green tinged white and vibrant reds, pinks and oranges.
And talking of weeds just look at the mass of daisies (Bellis perennis) in the lawn. I keep mowing them off, they keep on coming up and I luv 'em.

Mmmm this is what they call digitally enhanced gardening.

Go well
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[Humble me Lord]

my gladioli seem to get rust :-(

We get rust on lots of plants here, I have discovered H202, food grade hydrogen peroxide. It has been the saver of any a plant and also green bean harvest here.
Love all the spring pictures, as our grass is just starting to get green here, we just had an inch of snow the other day. We have been in a cooler spell lately (40 F / 4C) and windy. The tiger lilies are the only flowers up and trees are just beginning to bud.
Good gardening

 

[afishamongmany]

Have been doing a lot of buying and planting of summer flowers but will leave photos until they get going. Today did a lot of hedge trimming. Hard work but what a difference it makes.
The flag irises are just coming into their show time. The first picture is in the morning light and the second (same flowers, same camera) in the overcast afternoon.
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[afishamongmany]

Summer, summer is peeking in at the door.
Again the bright sun makes good photos difficult. But wow the mesembryanthemums really are a visual wake -up.

Geranium sanguineum 'Ballerina' by contrast a delicate but definite pink.

Plain ol' pot marigolds but bright and breezy.

This is just the wild hedgerow rose, 'Eglantine rose' or 'Sweet Briar'. Another delicate and definite pink. Its thorns though are much more definite than delicate.
Red flowering sage bush in the foreground.

The pink thrift at its best now with the blue aubretia still showing colour and heuchera and ox eye daisies behind. Yes must get the mower out tomorrow and decapitate the lawn daisies again.

All glory to The Good Gardener who planted the first garden!
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[afishamongmany]

Kinophia clumps take up a lot of space and are very untidy but when those flowers come all is forgiven.

The cherry trees around here are all laden with fruit. This is after at least three years with poor pickings.

This geranium was over wintered indoors which is why it is giving of it's best already.

I wonder if anyone recognises this plant and knows its name? We found it growing in the hedgerows. I just can't identify it. It looks like it belongs to the Galium (goosegrass, cleavers) family but neither Google nor my books give me anything.

These two tubs at our entrance are just starting to look good.

Colours and shades and shapes and smells,
Bird, leaf, insect, all do tell
Of Him who does all things well.
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I see that the photo of the ox-eye daisies and the achillea has stayed as a thumbnail for some reason . But it's worth a clic

 

[afishamongmany]

The elderberry (sambucus nigra) looking good. Another wild seedling that I just let grow and trained to be a tree. Left to themselves they become very large multi-stemmed bushes. Tried for a close up of the flowers, which are feathery delicate, but my camera just won't do it.
Good gardening
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[afishamongmany]

So much colour now. These campanula really like the woodland corner.

Roses and first poppies

I've forgotten the variety name of this rose but I call it strawberries and cream, delicious!

This orchid came up at the side of our car parking. I'm so glad it didn't get weeded.
Probably early spider orchid but I'm not 100% sure. The flower looks like a little, fat laughing clown to me.

 

[Humble me Lord]

Looking great my colorful thumbed friend
God bless

 

[afishamongmany]

Stuff in pots is my wife's department. This is one of her best at the moment. Nicotiana with lobelia.

spirea shirobana with a bush rose - bu ou ti ful!

The lilies survived the snails and slugs this year.

Good gardening and glory to God for it all
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[afishamongmany]

Have had a week or so of very pleasant weather with temperatures staying below 26°c/79°f. But the previous heat and dry spell means that most things are flowered-out. I've been cutting a lot of things back hoping for a second flush, maybe in September.

This container though is doing well

and this plumbago (all credit to my better half) is a real show.

Good gardening, go wisely
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[SpiritofaDove]

Your flowers are beautiful. God bless you.

 

[afishamongmany]

The heat and dry seem to be over. Now staying in the low 20s with some rain every few days.
Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' is coming into full show. I like its bright boldness and that its flowering lasts so long. For me it's also a reminder that autumn is only a few more weeks down the road.
Good gardening
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To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1

 

[~Anastasia~]

Nice! We can't even start thinking about autumn yet, at this time of year I have to be happy for whatever hasn't perished in the heat. Most of mine are doing well though. Really only lost a few house plants.

 

[afishamongmany]

Hi Anastasia - yea this more reasonable weather suits me and the garden a lot better. Probably we'll get a few more hot times before September. Are you getting out there a bit?
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[~Anastasia~]

Hi Anastasia - yea this more reasonable weather suits me and the garden a lot better. Probably we'll get a few more hot times before September. Are you getting out there a bit?
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Not much.

I go out to watch the chickens mostly. I'm not supposed to get hot. I have permission to work in the garden for not more than 15 minutes in the very early morning. So far I've always been doing something else. I think I'm going to start going to bed at 8pm so I can be awake for all I'm allowed to do only early in the day.

 

[afishamongmany]

So about one hour to the start of autumn! And yes there you are, the cyclamen are popping up and the autumn asters and sedums are pulling in the butterflies. Even the warmth of the days and continuing glory of the morning glories can't keep the swallows from gathering on the overhead lines. Next week I plan to start cutting up and bringing in the winter logs.
Good gardening
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To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3

 

[~Anastasia~]

Oh I love cyclamen! I usually grow them in the windowsill or porch, but I should put some in the ground. I'd love to see them get established here.

I have at least a flower bed newly planted outside my window that I can enjoy - most of it is doing fabulously well (for the heat here and a summer-just-planted garden). I might have lost the stinging nettles but the rest are hanging in there. Some things I've had in pots for a few years and finally put in the ground instead - if they can survive our mild winter, it may be better than trying to keep the roots healthy in pots through summer. I will try to get a pic if it ever stops raining. It's not a great design (I made mistakes in placing things haphazardly) but it is cheery when viewed from the window.

Other than that, it's my succulents that are doing the best, what with minor neglect and high temperatures. I've been starting trays full of them by placing fallen leaves on soil, and gotten a good many babies started that way.

The crepe myrtles are doing better this year, finally getting a bit taller, though they've about finished blooming. My one little reblooming azalea is finally properly reblooming this year - I think it's fourth year, lol. They are rather pricey and I had planned to propagate from cuttings, but it never performed well enough to try until now.

I've concentrated more on getting some houseplants to thrive. The house doesn't have much natural light, and not in convenient places for plants, so I never really tried. But I keep reading about how plants clean indoor air and there are a few chemicals I'm particularly to watch for that increase the risk of cancer coming back, so I'm adding some. Pleasantly surprised how well most are doing, though I had two epic fails that simply curled up and died within days, lol.

 

[afishamongmany]

Hello Anastasia, Good to know that you're still engaging with mother earth
Don't forget that outside cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) are different from the pot cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum). It's lovely the way hederifolium flowers pop out of the bare ground at this time of year without a leaf in sight.
I planted a crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) this year having wanted one for a long time. It's only about 90cms high at the moment. Larger plants are very expensive. We are at the limits of its hardiness but if I fleece it through winter it should be alright. In french they called indian lilac.
Have you got/tried inside Scindapsus aureus ( now seems to be renamed Epipremnum aureum)? It's a nice looker and grows well in low light. Also known as Devil's ivy, off putting but I just call it Scindapsus.
May your fingers be ever greener,
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[~Anastasia~]

Hello Anastasia, Good to know that you're still engaging with mother earth
Don't forget that outside cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) are different from the pot cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum). It's lovely the way hederifolium flowers pop out of the bare ground at this time of year without a leaf in sight.
I planted a crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) this year having wanted one for a long time. It's only about 90cms high at the moment. Larger plants are very expensive. We are at the limits of its hardiness but if I fleece it through winter it should be alright. In french they called indian lilac.
Have you got/tried inside Scindapsus aureus ( now seems to be renamed Epipremnum aureum)? It's a nice looker and grows well in low light. Also known as Devil's ivy, off putting but I just call it Scindapsus.
May your fingers be ever greener,
><>

Thanks for the reminder re:cyclamen. I read a pretty detailed article and now that you remind me there were two types. I can't remember now what conclusion I drew from it. I know most flowering cyclamen in pots won't come back. Over the years I think I've gotten three or four that did. Lived for years, and kept reblooming, though they take little breaks where they go completely dormant and appear dead. I can't tell which is which unless I keep them through a dormancy into regrowth. I have one that is just coming back ... My first and second were the most beautiful though. I lost the first when I moved from Florida to California, and at the border entry for Cali they saw an ant on my plant and confiscated it. I lost the second when I moved from Texas back to Florida, and a friend kept my plants while I lived in a motel for a few months, and it went into dormancy and she thought it was dead and tossed it.

The reblooming ones are precious to me. If that's the other species, maybe I can find a source and get a few going. I would LOVE to have some in the shady part of the yard.

And if I'm wrong, I'd still like the others in the yard.

The friend who kept my plants for me gifted me a large pot that several trees from her yard had reproduced into. Two of them were Rose of Sharon. I LOVED those. But when I transplanted it from the pot into the yard, the squirrels decided they wanted to gnaw on them, and they eventually killed them both. The third looked like a crepe myrtyle, but I wasn't positive. It just started blooming a few days ago and it is confirmed a white crepe myrtle. Nice ... I have four in varying shades between pink, hot pink, purple, and lavender. They form a long arc around the back yard. I can't wait until they are actually tree size. They've grown well this year. They are mostly around 4-5 years old.

And yes, I have nearly always had some of that ivy. I bought a light green shade the other day since Wal-Mart put them on clearance. I favor the variegated color, but the dark green is nice too. This is my first light green one. I'm trying to grow more house plants, and so far I have some Chinese evergreens and a spathiphylum (peace lily) doing well, as well as a broad leaved dracaena (corn plant) I've had for a couple of years. I keep a fern, African violet, and Christmas cactus in my kitchen window. And I've just added the ivy and a little philodendron, a plant I've forgotten the name of that looks like a tiny elephant ear, and another plant I don't know the name of that reminds me of a tiny citrus tree. Wal-mart was getting rid of plants cheap. I also have a big fern in the bedroom that's done well for a year that is suddenly unhappy and may die if I can't turn it around.

I've always greatly enjoyed plants and animals. I think I just love anything alive.