It’s time! Yay! Can you tell I love doing these posts? I never get many comments on them, which is weird because 300-400 people visit my blog daily. Lots of lurkers.
Anyway, it’s time to say farewell to the irises.
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Brindled beauty actually might have a couple more buds on it. We’ll see.
New alliums opened up. These are Star of Persia:
You may remember these from last year and how I fell in love with them. I proceeded to buy a bunch of the bulbs for other places in the garden.
In my non-thinking, I put some behind the irises, which block their view from the front since they are short.
Not sure what was going through my head when I put these in there.
The other allium have lost the petals and leave behind a cool seed head:
I love how these look, so I will just leave them up until they completely dry out. Those 3-balled things are the seed pods. I’m not really sure if these will self-sow or not since I always get them as bulbs. Guess I’ll find out.
Last of the rhododendron:
I have not seen as many bees as I had hoped this year. There are definitely less. 🙁
The wave petunias in my tippy pot have started growing.
The color on these is very cool. John’s favorite color is purple, so I got these for him.
The peonies that flank the front walk are opening up. They are Karl Rosenfeld.
This is about as big as they will get, which is okay for the front walk. I can’t even begin to imagine how many times a dog has peed on these…
These got horrible powdery mildew last year, so I have been spraying them with neem oil, which is supposed to help. You do have to apply it again after rain.
Baptisia with more flowers on it.
It’s getting nice and bushy. I think it will end up a foot taller or so at maturity.
Foxgloves:
I think that is some kind of viburnum behind them. Last year I really cut it back and the foxgloves had room. I forgot this year and it already is crowding them out. Oopsie.
And lastly the lupine:
I have not had the best of luck with these. I think I have planted 10 baby plants over the last couple years and this is the sole survivor. I don’t always have a green thumb. I wish they would take because I love them.
Those plants in the background are my neighbors. I really want to put up at least a decorative fence between our properties just for some kind of separation. We use different kinds of mulch, so that pretty much divides the beds LOL!
I love your Friday flowers. I have seen many pics of Allium this year so in the fall I want to remember to plant some bulbs. My problem at that time is our ground is usually pretty hard. My other addition is going to be milkweed. Do you have any experience with that? The butterflies are supposed to love it and I didn’t have any luck with a butterfly bush.
You might want to try asclepias, aka butterfly weed. I have some of those and the butterflies love them. They look less “weedy” than standard milkweed. I had milkweed at our old house. It was there when we moved in and I left it, but it got really ratty looking by season end. When you order fall bulbs, they will ship them for planting time in your area. You can also get a bit for a drill that will dig holes for you. I have one and it works well for smaller bulbs like allium.
I really like the alium seed pods in front of the tippy pots–very structural. The lupines I planted are starting to grow. But will they bloom this year?
I definitely enjoy and look forward to your bloom posts!
My lupines did not bloom the first year, but the next. I had planted them in the spring and they only put on green growth that first year.
I LOVE your blooms!!! I always fund it interesting too Lori with the likes but no comments when I was posting more too! 🙂
I enjoy being a lurker. All the flower and biking info is really enjoyable, you truly enjoy them both.
Coffee and donuts aren’t bad either. Enjoy you summer.
Long time lurker here. I really enjoy your blog!