Summer Birds and Blooms

Blooms from my summer garden and a few of my favourite visitors

Cosmos and Yarrow

Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus 'Fugi Blue')

Bud of the Balloon Flower along with some Alyssum

Daylily bloom, the last of the season. In spite of struggling with gall midge, this daylily still manages to wow me every year

Daylily 'Strawberry Candy'

Shirley Poppy

Sweet Peas with a lovely fragrance

Everlasting Sweet peas. I was a little disappointed to discover these didn't have any fragrance but they are pretty nonetheless.

Oriental Lily 'Acapulco'  The fragrance of this lily is amazingly potent

Cerinthe Purple Bells for the hummingbirds

Hydrangea macrophylla Nikko Blue This shrub is in the bed that will have to be dug up this fall to replace the rotten wood ties that collapsed recently.

My gardening buddy enjoying the morning sunshine

Steller's Jay enjoying the sun after too much rain, sitting on my patio fence

la la la la la

Chickadee busy with second batch of wee ones.

This Downy woodpecker became a regular this summer, and even brought his or her young. In fact this may be the young, I can't tell.

April Blues and Greens

       As you may have figured out already,  blue is one of my favorite colors, even if the "blue" of flowers is more or less purple.  I finally found a decent bloom on my camellia this year!  Most are tinged with brown spots or brown edges. The sweet woodruff is one of those plants that can get a little aggressive in the growth department, but it makes a lovely ground cover for shady areas. I love the interesting spring growth on columbine and balloon flower. Thanks for stopping by!

Anemone Blanda 'blue star'

Glory of the Snow Chinodoxa

Hyacinth

Grape Hyacinth (Muscari)

Camellia Pink Perfection

Bright red growth on  Pieris 'Forest Flame'

Chive buds

Sweet Woodruff

Columbine (Aquilegia)

Balloon Flower (platycodon 'Fuji Blue')

Birds & Blooms in my Summer Garden

The Summer weather has finally arrived much to our delight here in the Pacific Northwest. A visiting chickadee considers a bath, since the water is just about perfect. This is my first time growing Cerinthe, and I am happy that the hummingbirds like feeding from it.   The Monarda looks like a flower one might find on an alien planet. Last of all is the one Jay who figured out how to get the peanuts, from the bird IQ test (feeder) I made recently.  What birds & blooms have been gracing your space lately?

Chickadee considering a bath

After his first dip

Cerinthe

Monarda or Bee Balm

Perennial Dianthus

Balloon Flower Bud

Shirley Poppy

Dahlia

Stellar's Jay