Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Today's Blooms, May 15, 2018


I love May. It is the month where my perennials do all of the work because I can't.  This is the busiest time at my job so the only thing I am able to do is rest for a few minutes and enjoy the blooms.  Isn't that what they are for anyway?




The columbines have almost finished blooming but I don't mind because the iris took their place in center stage.


















Three different colored blooms on one Hellebore's stalk.  Isn't nature amazing!


This is the view looking to the right while sitting in the chair under the arch yesterday.  It is surprising to see how much the garden has changed since I shared an exhaustive tour on March 28th.  Within six short weeks, my garden has gone from barren to lush and the weather has gone from winter to summer.  Yesterday we hit 90 degrees, broke some kind of record and today we hit 95 degrees. We didn't have much of a spring this year.


This is the left view while sitting in the same chair.  As of today, the iris are almost finished and the peonies are just beginning to bloom.  


The arch in the corner is not covered in morning glory vines yet. A few have sprouted but that is all.  It is my big goal for the year to finally have the arch covered.  I keep showing it to everyone because it motivates me to haul water up there to keep the seedlings alive.  I want to plant a clematis in this spot come fall and let it take over next year.  Well, at least that is my dream.


Since it is ALREADY too hot to go outside, I will share my garden and enjoy other people's blooms from around the world at this month's Garden Blogger's Bloom DayI invite everyone to join me.

Links mentioned above:



13 comments:

  1. I love peonies and I ran over mine with the mower last spring and they died. I hope to replace this year. I have been busy planting as well. I love making a pretty garden these days.

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    1. Oh,No! It is my husband who usually mows over my flowers. It is the reason many of them are planted safely behind big rocks. He does not mean to do it, he just can't tell the difference between a flower and a weed.

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  2. What a wonderful collection of Iris!
    Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

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  3. In a large landscaped garden like yours , the Iris can reveal their full magnificence!
    As they spread strongly each year, it is a bit difficult in small gardens (like in ours).
    But this way you always have a nice give-away for other gardeners when they are looking for new plants in their gardens.
    Christel

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    1. They are spreading and some did not bloom because they are getting crowded. I think it is time for me to have a big give-away again this year. I have so many because people have shared with me. It is hard to say no to a flower gift.

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  4. Those flowers are beautiful.

    Your weather, on the other hand, sounds a bit too hot for my taste. I hope all your flowers don't come and go too fast. I can only imagine you traveling around to all those events in this heat! Yikes:). I hope you don't wilt!!

    On Saturday, we are going to a parade and iris festival. We have many, many fields around here which are full of iris flowers that are being grown to sell. It can be quite a sight when driving along to see an entire field of the beautiful flowers, all in large blocks. Many fields border the I-V freeway, so they are quite visible to everyone who is traveling along.

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    1. Oh how wonderful! To see all those flowers from the comfort of your air-conditioned car. What a treat. The weather has been crazy this year but at least it has dried up enough so Bill could plow the garden. Yesterday evening we planted the tomatoes and tonight I planted the cucumbers. Tomorrow I will plant WATERMELONS!!!!! I keep checking out other people's gardens as I drive down the road. Everyone else is also late.

      Two more weeks and then work will suddenly drop off. It will only be weekends for a while. The first thing I am going to do is to catch up on my email and blogs. It will be a marathon computer day.

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    2. In the part of Oregon where I live (Willamette Valley--the goal of all those pioneers on the Oregon Trail), we are greatly influenced by the maritime climate from the Pacific Ocean. So, we rarely get up into the 90's at any time and some years we never reach 100 at all. So, when we get into the 80's at this time of year, it's a heat wave. It is also not humid, most of the time. So, I love the climate where we live. That being said, we still run the air conditioner in the car all the time. My husband opens the windows at night, no matter how cool the weather. We would simply never make it in a warmer climate without major adjustments! But, I'll bet your garden catches up and passes mine quickly, as you do have warmer temps, especially at night. Every area has it's pluses and minuses as far as growing goes. I'm glad you got your tomatoes and watermelons in. I have a little scheme for mine. I'm growing the little starts a bit larger in the greenhouse, and then laying down green mulch to see if the watermelons will grow. It's worth a try! But, I won't put them in the garden for another week or two.

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    3. I was overly optimistic and planted three kinds of watermelons. One kind is Cobb's Gem which is supposed to be huge. I was given the seeds a long time ago, have never grown it and don't know if the seeds are viable. They have been in the cabinet too long and need to be used or thrown away. It is a big experiment. I also planted a few Royal Golden which has a rind that will turn yellow on the outside when it is ripe. The seeds are very old also. The last kind is my VERY favorite, Orangeglo, the absolute sweetest watermelon in the whole world, in my humble opinion. When at the grocery store recently they had watermelons in and I wanted to buy one so bad. I knew it would be a big disappointment so I walked on past. Now I can't stop thinking about it.

      Today the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped ("dropped" is a relative term) to a comfortable 80 degrees. That is how I managed to get out and get so much work down. I am getting eager for summer vegetables.

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  5. Hi Jeannie,
    You're 2-3 weeks ahead of us and seeing your garden makes me yearn for mine to get there! You have some really beautiful Columbine! It's amazing how many there are compared to when I started my garden. Peonies are one of my favorites. Lovely tour. Thank you!

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    1. Peonies are one of my favorites also. They come up and bloom every year without any work by me. They smell so good when walking past them. One year Reese cut off all of my blooms, soaked them in a bottle of vodka and made perfume for me for Mother's day. I knew what he was doing because I had to drive him to the liquor store and buy the vodka because he was too young. I also had to give he permission to cut all of the blooms off.

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  6. Absolutely beautiful! I love it when you share these types of posts. So very pretty. So far I haven't killed anything I've planted! Whoo hoooooo!

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    1. So good to hear from you, Thrifty Mom. I claim no credit at all for any of the flowers this year. All I have been able to do has been to plant a little in the vegetable garden and work at my job. This is my busy season and in a few more weeks, it will all come to a grinding halt for the summer. Then, and only then will I be able to catch my breath. I don't see how working moms like you can keep up.

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