Wordless Wednesday

Peony Sarah Bernhardt

Elderberry 

Cosmos

Geranium

Campanula

Columbine

Iris and hardy Gladiolas

Painted Daisy

An Early Spring

Our winter was basically nonexistent this year, so we are experiencing an early Spring. Some plants are a few weeks early, while the geraniums started blooming a whole month earlier than normal. I don't think anyone is complaining though. I don't know if this happens to you, but I found some bulbs blooming in my yard that I have no recollection of buying or planting, ha ha. They are called Spring Snowflake or Galanthus. I had one growing beside my house and another underneath our hazelnut tree. The house makes a poor backdrop for flowers, so I experimented with holding coloured page dividers behind the blooms. You can't have spring without tulips, so I added some photos of those along with some others. The Scillas were here when we moved in and they just keep multiplying and spreading. I'm not sure which variety they are but once you have them you HAVE them.  

Geranium Sanguineum 

Spring Snowflake

Spring Snowflake

Spring Snowflake

Glory of the Snow or Chinodoxa

Choisya ternata

Elderberry

Tulip Blue Diamond

Tulips Purple Flag

Scilla

Bleeding Heart Luxuriant

Backyard Blooms

June is a busy month in the garden, with the weeds growing as quickly as the flowers, and the birds waking me up much too early in the morning. Here are some photos taken in my backyard in early June, with the exception of the last three photos which were from May. First of all is my Hansa Rose which I just love for its fragrance and disease tolerance. It laughs at black spot in my rainy garden. Next is a lovely pink Clematis that has snuck beneath the fence from my neighbours yard, thank you neighbours! Third is a new flower I'm growing this year, Anemone De Caen or Blue poppy. This is the first bloom and it isn't even quite open yet but I just had to take a picture.

Last of all are the tulips.  I was scratching my head this Spring, wondering why I had bought yellow tulips, which isn't at all like me. Then as the days went by, a transformation happened, and those yellow tulips started to show more and more hints of pretty pink along the edges. Not only that but each bulb produced  more than one flower, always a bonus if you ask me. What are your favourite June blooms in your garden?

Hansa

Clematis

Anemone De Caen

Gladiolas and Iris

Allium Unifolium

Columbine or Aquilegia

Daylily's first bloom

Elderberry Sambucus nigra 'Eva'

Fleabane or  Erigeron Pink Jewel

Chickadee parent below and fledgling above

Tulips Antoinette

Tulips Antoinette after the transformation

Narcissus Poeticus Recurvus

Summer At Last!

After weeks of rain and the coolest June in thirty-one years, it looks like summer has finally arrived in Southwest BC, much to everyone's relief. While my peas and lettuce were enjoying the cool weather, my cucumbers were at a virtual standstill, and my zucchini and sunflowers were struggling to sprout.  Our old retaining wall along our driveway gave out during one of our rainy nights, and now looks ugly as you can well imagine. I'm hoping we will have the funds to rebuild it in the fall.  Here are some flowers that have been blooming in spite of all the rain.

Cosmos

Feverfew

Dianthus plumaris

Hydrangea Buds

Poppy

Poppy

Virginia Stocks

Lily

Unknown blue flowers with ivy and columbine foliage

Elderberry and birdbath

June Blooms

Hello happy gardeners! I'm sharing my June blooms along with Glenda at Tootsie Time for fertilizer Friday.  Once again I am delighted with the blooms of my favourite rose, a rugosa rose by the name of Hansa.  It started blooming in May this year, a little earlier than usual, put on a big show, and will continue to bloom to some degree on into the fall. The fragrance never ceases to captivate me. The sucker I dug up two years ago from this plant had its very first bloom this year, and I am excited to see how it will balance out my original plant. I   must admit I am a little OCD when it comes to achieving balance in my gardens, or anywhere for that matter, ha ha.

Hansa

                                                                

Allium Unifolium

I tried to wrangle all these little bulbs together in one area, but alas I have given up and let them be.

Sanguineum 'Max Frie'  Geranium

I started with just one of these plants years ago, but with a bit of division and some self-seeding, I now have quite a few. They bloom from May until frost with deadheading.

Aquilegia alpina Columbine

I find columbines difficult to photograph as their heads are always facing down.

Iris 'Blue Ribbon'

A closer look

Argyranthemum Madeira Deep Pink Marguerite Daisy

These are growing in my little green wagon, and once they fill out, I will take another picture with the wagon and all.

Redvein Enkianthus

These are the flowers on a very slow growing shrub I have in the front bed. 

Sambucus nigra 'Eva'  Elderberry

Please try to ignore the ugly fence and shed in this picture :)  This elderberry was such a pathetic looking little thing when I bought it in 2009,  but  now it needs some serious pruning. I am ever hopeful it will attract American Robins when the berries ripen.

Plum

This is my first attempt to espalier a fruit tree, never mind that it's an annoying sucker that keeps coming up right underneath the fence from our neighbour's harshly pruned plum tree.

So what is blooming in your garden this June?