The irises:
The peonies:
The lungwort:
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| Also known as "Mary and Joseph" (a much more picturesque name), it has both pink and blue blooms on it. Complete with bumblebee. |
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| Without Mr. B, but with more pink. Mine seem to produce the blue flowers first, then the pink ones. Very strange and pretty cool. |
And the butterfly bush:
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| Well camouflaged against the dirt. |
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| Well chewed by a mysterious pest. It's too early for earwigs, the usual culprit, so I suspect ants, of which we have a boatload this year. |
The rhododendron:
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| This was taken in April; it should have been covered in leaves and buds but the deer needed fed and thus it was bare. |
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| It's still pretty bare, but there is hope that it will live, although not bloom. I don't know how many years it can keep up this resilience, though. |
Other peoples' plants are thriving, too. Here is that huge tree stump covered in ivy that I pass on my walks:
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| It will be even more splendid later this summer. Updates will be posted. |
And another tree that didn't look impressive when it was bare:
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| Barely recognizable. A good outfit can cover a multitude of sins for trees as well as for people. |
We are well on our way to summer, if you ignore the 8 degrees C nights (46 degrees F). It's been wonderful for sleeping, so I'm not complaining.
And I just realized that the dead leaves don't really show up in these shots, because the new growth hides them. Meanwhile, those old leaves are keeping the weeds down and feeding the plants as they compost. I don't know how procrastination could get any better than that.
The old plant stalks probably need to go, though. Soon ... soon.
My mom had some rhododendrons up in Eureka, and I don't remember them ever losing their leaves, and at first I thought that maybe that was because there isn't really any winter to speak of there, then I Googled them and found out that some of them are evergreen...
ReplyDelete-Doug in Oakland
Yep, that's what we have. Although I'm thinking about calling them everbrowns as long as there are deer wintering here.
DeleteSoonish.
ReplyDeleteA gardener's work is never, ever done.
Particularly for the easily distracted, book loving lazy people like me.
Funny, I'm all of those things, too ... it does make it hard to get stuff done.
DeleteThat's right, we only had them at the house we moved into in town. No big herbivores wandering around there. Although when we were on the acreage we lived on before then, it was the cows that ate mom's flowers, and sometimes the dogs that dug them up.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Oakland
Deer and cows and dogs - oh my. Not good for gardens.
DeleteNow you are making me feel bad about our yard work. We need to get to it soon as well but I am practicing the law of attraction and wishing that a kind, unselfish gardener will take pity on us. =)
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad! Did you not catch the part about how I haven't done any yard work yet? :)
DeleteGreat pictures of busy plants. I can nearly hear them growing from here. Still a bit of a drought here so Norma makes us buy shredded cedar to spread over the ground.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to follow your lead, Geo. We've used the bark (chunks) and the shredded stuff at different times. It's time for more; the ground is bare.
DeleteStrange that something ate your butterfly bush! We have those and even though pests run amok in our garden (aphids, caterpillars, snails, slugs) nothing touches the butterfly bushes.
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed that it is a target - we just put it in last fall and I was hoping for a healthy plant this year. It's by our front door and very visible. Do you have ants? :)
Delete