Tulip Festival!

     I went to my very first tulip festival this week and I was in tulip heaven! It was hard to narrow down the over 100 photos I took to these but here they are. They also have a you-pick field where you can pick your own tulips to take home with you, for a price of course. The festival is on until May 1st 2016 at Abbotsford tulip festival

The Wall

     Well, I can hardly believe it but our retaining wall is finally done! With our old wooden wall, we had a mini mud slide every time it rained, and that was even before it fell down. Keeping our driveway clean at the bottom of our front steps was next to impossible. Now that I've finally gotten the mud cleaned up, I hope it will keep the inside of our house a bit cleaner too. The heather plants weren't very happy about being moved mid-bloom, and I probably lost a lot of bulbs, but I still think it was well worth it.
     My roses are blooming earlier than usual, along with some other flowers that usually bloom in June. I'm also sharing a photo of the plant that I bought for my mom for mother's day. I found the colours quite unique and beautiful for a Chrysanthemum. I hope you all have a lovely long weekend whether you're celebrating this weekend or the next!

Rose Hansa

Rose Therese Bugnet

Chrysanthemums

Choisya

Chives

Tulips Blue Diamond

Tulips Antoinette

Tulips Dream Touch

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

April Blooms

Here are a few of the flowers that have been brightening up my yard recently. It was the best season ever for camellias. Usually most of my blooms have ugly brown edges because of all the rain, or temperatures a little too cold, but this spring was just perfect for these early blooming beauties.
      The city workers have yet to set foot in my backyard to work on the manhole cover I mentioned in my last post. I'm hoping my passionate plea to save my shrub scared them off for good, ha ha.  Not likely but one can hope.
      Oh, and that innocent looking little sweet woodruff in the photo is quite the spreader. Consider yourself warned :)

Camelia

Tulip Purple Flag

Tulip Tarda

Sweet Woodruff

Anemone Blanda Bud