This gardening season has had its ups and downs, as usual, and I want to capture my ideas before they melt into the mist.
Spring brought some lovely blooms. The irises, which I sometimes despair of because this bed is so weedy, were lovely (if a bit floppy). I especially like the blue ones. Wish I still had the white ones I inherited from my mother, who got them from Bob Taylor decades ago. This was in mid-May.
Zepherine Drouhin is always lovely, but after she blooms, she’s a mess. Maybe add a clematis next year so there’s something else blooming there?
Despite my vow to sow annual poppies early, I failed. Luckily, this one self-sowed. I love the delicate shading on the petals.
Sarah Bernhardt was in bloom just in time to take her to Duck for the week.
Allium globemaster looked appropriately modern in a 60s sort of way. Plus, it lasted a long time. This was at the end of May.
The drumstick alliums were not quite what I expected, too tall. We’ll see if they come up next year. I was aiming for something like this
but they were very long-stemmed and flopped over. We’ll see if they come back next year.
By the end of June (after the wedding, and English garden pictures to come), long, spiky blooms appeared on the bottlebrush buckeye. The butterflies love them.
(And note the new fence, raw as can be but it should weather to gray eventually). Here’s one of the day lilies, though they seemed a bit meager this year. I love the dramatic dark reds:
And here’s the gallant calla zantedeschia that came as a bonus bulb from McClure and Zimmerman several years ago. If I’d realized its scale, I wouldn’t have planted it so close to one of the lush hostas, but so it goes. It comes up faithfully every year.
And look what’s popped up! A couple years ago I dug up a couple of plants that were just too big for their britches. This is a helianthus that just couldn’t be killed!
There are also signs that the amsonia is resurrecting itself, too. I may bite the bullet and pull it out, replacing it with a variety that has better fall color. We’ll see!
And this was the flowerpot on the steps this year. The pots worked well, but the railing planters were a mess: very dry, and I didn’t have any good fillers or spillers. I’ll add Soil Moist next year and go for something easy like calibrachoa to add color.
The houseplants enjoyed their spa vacation, as always. Note to self: you can never mass too many pots together.
Since this area is part sun at best, it’s all about the foliage here. Still, it could use a little more color but on the whole I was pleased.
Finally, the hyacinth beans I got on sale from C&T did pretty well, though what is apparently a stinkbug larva liked them, too. Never mind, the colors were delicious.
The other nice thing is that the shades of purple went well with the clematis and the Autumn Joy sedum, almost as though I had planned it (ha!).
Alison’s two gorgeous crab apples are in full bloom right now. In my garden, there are tulips (the pink ones blooming with the Judd’s viburnum, just as ordered), daffodils, squills, ipheion, snowdrops, and more. It is an exuberant time in the garden.
This morning we looked out the window at blue skies and decided to go to the Royal Botanic Garden while the weather held. We walked over to the North Bridge and picked up the bus, with a bit of help from the kilt-clad man at the door of the Balmoral Hotel. When the ticket taker told us the blue poppies were in bloom, that was all I needed to hear. They have a reputation for being extremely difficult to grow, and because they come from Nepal or China or somewhere I did not expect ever to see them. They were amazing, so blue and so many of them. 
A few more images that took my fancy:
though the majority of items were made of stone. Those who are interested can find more images of objects 
Then home to pack in prep for leaving tomorrow.
Meanwhile, as you can see from the fallen petals above, the columbines self-sowed with great vigor. You would hardly know that the 
I am continuing to pull them out once they’ve seeded, so I’m probably not making much progress… I do try to shake the interesting colored ones, like this white one, in hopes that they’ll spread and grow next year.
Caroline's Garden and Travel Record 