Beautiful day!

The sun is shining, it's about 78 degrees and lowwww humidity, there's a cool breeze, and I'm off from work! What a great day!


The Stoke's aster have finally bloomed!


The hibiscus (taller, reddish leaves) are growing! Another month and they should bloom. They're one of the top three favorite plants I have in my garden.


Bee balm and a St. John's Wort bush (yellow) compete for space. In the foreground, an allium that has long stopped blooming and lost its flower still has a distinctive shape.


The hollyhock are doing great! There are now 4 different colors blooming (from 3 different plants). It's hard to see, but the white one (in the middle) is probably over ten feet tall, and doesn't even need to be staked. I definitely plan on continuing my hollyhock experiment next year, as this year has worked out so well.


Tomato! I can't wait until they grow and ripen, as I won't buy them from the store due to the salmonella outbreak.


Hydrangea in the front yard. The blue flowers will turn pink over the course of the summer.


Astilbe in front of the hydrangea.


Mum (I don't know why it's blooming now!), Easter lily, salvia, and winecups (Callirhoe). The winecups are also in my top three favorite plants in my garden.


Salvia and winecups from the back view, with as yet unbloomed Stoke's aster in the foreground.

Lovely morning

Hot as Hades but beautiful flowers this morning...

Full of life

Everything is coming up so quickly these days. Flowers that I thought were going to bloom much later in the season are already open. My mum (yes, the same ones that you put out in autumn) is blooming, for crying out loud!

I'm really pleased with how full some of the flower beds are this year. There's still a lot of work to be done, but that's the joy of gardening - you can change whatever you want!

(Have to use my camera phone now - my digital camera is so old that it doesn' work with Vista. We're an all-Vista household, now.)


Hybrid Tea Rose "Secret" that we bought, in honor of Joe's mom, who loved roses. Planted in back by the fence. Smells absolutely divine!


Climbing roses and clematis. Both were planted when we moved in. The only maintenance we have to do is tying the rose bush back or it'll take over the whole walkway.


Center bed in the backyard where we grow the veggies. I'm trying to fill in the bare spots with more flowers.


The other side of the center bed, with irises, sedum, and evening primrose (I think! My neighbor called them buttercups; I think it's the same thing.)


Amsonia "Blue Ice" - a small little plant with pretty blue flowers.


Backyard - iris, beard tongue, spiderwort, yarrow "Paprika", Stoke's aster, and Oriental poppy.


Closer image of the Oriental poppy, spiderwort, and beard tongue.


Backyard - hollyhock. It's about a foot taller than when I took this picture last week. My neighbor's roses are also visible.


Backyard - peony


Front yard - Salvia (purple spikes), phlox (finished blooming for the year), Easter lily, mum, aster "Alma Potschke", Lamb's ears in the back.


Front yard - other side of the steps. Salvia, purple coneflower, Black-eyed Susan, phlox, allium (finished blooming for the year, but still neat-looking.


Front yard - Evening primrose (from Grandma's garden by way of my mom's garden), sedum, hosta, salvia, forsythia.

It's amazing how much happens in just a few days...

Forsythia in full bloom now


Creeping phlox over the weekend...


...and then again today.


Bleeding heart a few days ago...

...and again today.


Tulips just starting to open...


...and closed down for the evening


Veronica "Georgia Blue" - new to my garden this year


Wood spurge. The foliage was really pretty over the winter, and now the green "flowers" are arriving


Oriental poppy foliage looking healthy!



Hyacinth creating a beautiful perfume indoors



I love the colors of forsythia in a blue glass vase. I know it's spring when I'm able to bring this arrangement indoors.

Signs of Life

Spring 2008!

I finally raked up the leaves today that were covering my flower beds. I'd left them there over the winter as a kind of mulch, but it was nice out today so I decided to get rid of them. The tulip and daffodil leaves have been obviously sprouting out of the ground, but after removing the leaves I found a lot more signs of the flowers to come.



The tiny red thing in the middle is the start of a peony in the backyard.



Another peony - on the side of the house.



The red and green lettuce-looking things are a type of evening primrose.



Dwarf iris



Sedum



Lilac bush on the side of the house



New daylilies growing among the debris from the old daylilies



Forsythia - always the first to bloom



Tulips sprouting among the creeping phlox - front wall



These daffodils and hyacinth were planted before we moved in and are always among the first to bloom



Heuchera sprouting by the iris by the front porch



Bleeding hearts - they surprisingly do okay in the front, even in full sun



Crocuses (crocii? what is the plural?!) in my neighbor's yard