Spring at last....
June 25, 2011
The week of storm is over (but chance of showers and storms Sunday and Monday - ah, well). The sun came out. Plants are blooming. Yay! Here are some garden photos, to celebrate....
The crabapple and apple trees were the first to bloom, bursting out in floor on a warm sunny day two weeks ago. The light was so golden, after days of rain, my husband walked around the yard taking pictures, trying to capture the light.
6-6-2011
You who are gardeners will be able to tell at once just how late our spring is. Here it is, June 25, and summer is only starting. Even for northern Minnesota, the bloom times this year are at least three weeks late. It's been that cold and wet and grey a spring - no sense even calling it early summer. But we're grateful the flowers are finally bursting out, though only a few so far.
Dutch iris started to bloom less than a week ago. You can see some at the right, behind a dwarf Alberta spruce. The pink-flowered shrub is a northern-hardy azalea.
6-25-2011
Here is another planting of dutch iris. The yellow day lilies in front of them, the earliest varietal of lilies I have, opened their first flower two days ago. The spiderwort, the bright pink-purple perennial in the foreground, started to open just after the dutch iris.
6-25-2011
The Dropmore honeysuckle vine is showing its flame-orange buds, which should open any day. Below them, just opening yesterday, are blue-purple Siberian iris.
6-25-2011
Moving down the driveway retaining wall, here's a new shrub that looks very promising, the reddish one with pinky-white flowers. It's a Coppertina ninebark. (The big, beautiful yellow-green Golden Nugget ninebark that had been there inexplicably died last year.)
6-25-2011
By the big rock are a number of bushes. I love the Bridal Veil spirea to the right, set off by the deep red and purple of the thorned Crimson Pigmy and Cabernet varietals of Japanese barberry next to it.
6-25-2011
A close-up:
6-25-2011
Here are two views of the shrubs taken from the front of the rock. To the left of the Bridal Veil spirea, the Crimson Pigmy barberry and the Cabernet barberry (only planted last summer), is a new Snowmound spirea, not yet in blossom. To its left are two low, round lemon-lime bushes. These are Goldmound spirea. The white-flowering bush to the left of them is a new Firegold spirea. It's very like the Bridal Veil, but its leaves are a more yellow green, turning gold in the fall. The spirea family is very diverse and very beautiful; I'm happy so many of them are hardy to our region. The little yellow-green leafy thing in the back of the bed in the top picture is what's left of our other Golden Nugget ninebark, cut back to the ground to try and revive it after last year's near fatal attack of some mystery mold.
Both 6-25-2011:
Below is my most vivid illustration, to gardeners, of the lateness of spring to our gardens. Behind the stand of dutch iris and to the left, the tall rangy bush with purple flower spikes is a french lilac (syringa vulgaris). It started blooming less than two weeks ago. The rounder bush to its right is also a lilac, a later-blooming varietal called Miss Kim. Beyond it, not visible, is a dwarf Korean lilac. These have not yet opened at all, their buds still tiny and tight.
6-25-2011
And that's the garden news from Lake Woebegone, Minnesota (Lake Superior, in our case), where all the people bundle up and the cats are good-looking. :)
Mechtild
The week of storm is over (but chance of showers and storms Sunday and Monday - ah, well). The sun came out. Plants are blooming. Yay! Here are some garden photos, to celebrate....
The crabapple and apple trees were the first to bloom, bursting out in floor on a warm sunny day two weeks ago. The light was so golden, after days of rain, my husband walked around the yard taking pictures, trying to capture the light.
6-6-2011
You who are gardeners will be able to tell at once just how late our spring is. Here it is, June 25, and summer is only starting. Even for northern Minnesota, the bloom times this year are at least three weeks late. It's been that cold and wet and grey a spring - no sense even calling it early summer. But we're grateful the flowers are finally bursting out, though only a few so far.
Dutch iris started to bloom less than a week ago. You can see some at the right, behind a dwarf Alberta spruce. The pink-flowered shrub is a northern-hardy azalea.
6-25-2011
Here is another planting of dutch iris. The yellow day lilies in front of them, the earliest varietal of lilies I have, opened their first flower two days ago. The spiderwort, the bright pink-purple perennial in the foreground, started to open just after the dutch iris.
6-25-2011
The Dropmore honeysuckle vine is showing its flame-orange buds, which should open any day. Below them, just opening yesterday, are blue-purple Siberian iris.
6-25-2011
Moving down the driveway retaining wall, here's a new shrub that looks very promising, the reddish one with pinky-white flowers. It's a Coppertina ninebark. (The big, beautiful yellow-green Golden Nugget ninebark that had been there inexplicably died last year.)
6-25-2011
By the big rock are a number of bushes. I love the Bridal Veil spirea to the right, set off by the deep red and purple of the thorned Crimson Pigmy and Cabernet varietals of Japanese barberry next to it.
6-25-2011
A close-up:
6-25-2011
Here are two views of the shrubs taken from the front of the rock. To the left of the Bridal Veil spirea, the Crimson Pigmy barberry and the Cabernet barberry (only planted last summer), is a new Snowmound spirea, not yet in blossom. To its left are two low, round lemon-lime bushes. These are Goldmound spirea. The white-flowering bush to the left of them is a new Firegold spirea. It's very like the Bridal Veil, but its leaves are a more yellow green, turning gold in the fall. The spirea family is very diverse and very beautiful; I'm happy so many of them are hardy to our region. The little yellow-green leafy thing in the back of the bed in the top picture is what's left of our other Golden Nugget ninebark, cut back to the ground to try and revive it after last year's near fatal attack of some mystery mold.
Both 6-25-2011:
Below is my most vivid illustration, to gardeners, of the lateness of spring to our gardens. Behind the stand of dutch iris and to the left, the tall rangy bush with purple flower spikes is a french lilac (syringa vulgaris). It started blooming less than two weeks ago. The rounder bush to its right is also a lilac, a later-blooming varietal called Miss Kim. Beyond it, not visible, is a dwarf Korean lilac. These have not yet opened at all, their buds still tiny and tight.
6-25-2011
And that's the garden news from Lake Woebegone, Minnesota (Lake Superior, in our case), where all the people bundle up and the cats are good-looking. :)
Mechtild