As the peonies are starting to bloom, I realize that I should have ordered strong peony rings for them as support. Don't know the plant ID yet as they were planted by previous owners of my house years ago. I am looking over various websites that sell peonies to see if I recognize anything that comes close to ours. Maybe it might be best to order in the Late Fall, that way I can see exactly where the stems start pushing through and can put it in place while ground is soft. No worrying about storing the peony rings in the garage over the winter.
I wintersowed some Chinese Forget-me-nots this year and with all the rain we have had this past 4-6 weeks, they have reseeded everywhere, but and I just pulled them all up and they went in yard waste bag to be picked up tomorrow. The Chinese FMN has long draping stems; I can see them being used in maybe a hanging basket or as an edger over a brick or stone wall. I'm sure in a few weeks, I'll see some more pop up as they reseed so quickly. Will never plant them again..Lesson learned!
More oriental poppies popped open today. I wished I had a camera set up to film the opening of the poppy pod. At 6:30 when I went outside to pick up newspaper, I could see a wee bit of orange/red color coming out of the green bulb/pod. I look out the door about an hour later and it appears to be open a bit more, and by 9 when the sun started shining, it was a full bloom. Amazing! I see one pink lupine bloom open today. I think those are the Russell hybrid variety. It is hidden almost by the stems/leaves of " Mrs. Bradshaw" Geum and the oriental poppies opening up. The colors of the Geum and the oriental poppies are so similar, in the Fall, I will transplant them elsewhere together. I pulled up what somebody said was yellow yarrow. Its leaves look nothing like other yarrow plants that I have seen. Goodbye Yarrow! Tomorrow I expect other flowers to be blooming.
This morning we have 2 oriental poppy blooms that were not there yesterday. I knew they were about to bloom because the pods/buds have been there, about to bust open. The ones that are blooming are next to "Mrs. Bradshaw"Geum and are about the same color as the Geum..this tells me that I may want to move those and the Geum to another location, away from all the hot pink colored flowers nearby. The snapdragons that are in bloom remind me of peppermint candy..they are getting crowded out by Becky Shasta daisies, which are about ready to bloom too. I can see some little white buds almost open on them. Since the peppermint snapdragons don't get that tall, they might look good in the rockgarden/flowerbed behind sun room.. Anxious to see the Rocket snapdragons bloom so i can see what colors they will be. We are getting rain today which will help everything grow.
Today I noticed what appears to be primroses blooming in the sunroom flowerbed. A few weeks ago, a landscape man that does a lot of yard maintence for resident was working at my next door neighbors. I asked the niece that works with him if she knew what these plants were..Funny that she should mention that they looked like primroses...I knew that I'd never planted primroses and so I was a bit skeptical about her guess..here wen these show up blooming today, I felt horrible that I doubted her. Here I'd been thinking they were weeds and had been pulling them up..last year there were black eye susans and "Becky" shasta daisies planted there, certainly no primroses.
Saw my first sign of my larkspurs starting to bloom; a beautiful royal blue color. Next should be the rocket snapdragons and more shastas, and the dwarf candytuft.
Just came across blogs on this website..Great idea to post a lot of garden information for myself.
Blooming in the garage flowerbed is Geum(Mrs. Bradshaw)Azalea, Dr. Ruppel clematis, shasta daisies, Silene,(or whatever) and the creeping phlox bloomed for a few weeks and has about done for. Need to sheer the faded blooms off and divide some of them and spread them around the flowerbed in front of the living room window. I did dig up half of a large plant and made cuttings out of it for the upcoming plant swap, and also used other parts to start in the hydrangea bed. The columbines blooming in the front flower bed in front of living room window but the leaves are discolored because of either leafminer or spider mites. Tulips and daffodils have finished blooming and I'm waiting for foliage to die back. I noticed the dwarf fairy candytuft is ready to bloom, and the new snapdragons that was wintersown last year has buds on it so it will be blooming soon. The peppermint snapdragons in garage flowerbeds are blooming, but not all. Maybe they need to be divided in the fall.
Malva Zebrina, and red dianthus and california poppy are blooming in small bed beside of sunroom door. In flowerbed where roses are planted are new perennials this year. carpet of snow alyssum, Emerald Blue creeping phlox, and some pink creeping phlox. Burgundy blanket flower is ready to bloom, and I saw buds forming on the one rose bush. Back of sunroom flowergarden the calif. poppies are still nice, pink creeping phlox are finished blooming as is the pink azalea by the bird bath, and the one under the window.
This is the first year for Mrs. Bradshaw Geum. I will be moving it to a better location as it needs more space. I like it a lot. Saw a small patch of carpet of snow alyssum that reseeded itself from last year blooming yesterday. The calif. poppies should be next. The Azalea in garage bed that has been there for a long time is beautiful. Need to take cuttings and try to root them in the Fall. The small azaleas that we bought from Good Earth don't do all that well. Maybe they need to be moved elsewhere. Would also like to take cuttings for rooting from the Azalea in back of sunroom window.
