Belated Bloom Day July '13

Left my camera home when I was at the Cottage yesterday, so I'm catching up today.  I have not yet visited Carol's May Dreams Gardens to connect with many other Garden Blogger Bloom Day posts.  Check it out on the 15th of each month.

  The hot, muggy weather here is fine with most plants... roses and day lilies are thriving.  Lot's of things putting on a show.

 I'm so glad last year's seedlings of cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) are doing so well.  The plants are certainly robust, and just starting to bloom this past weeekend.  I will need to move them before next year.

The blooms of agave-leaved sea holly (Eryngium agavifolium) are subtle, but the structure of the whole plant is spectacular.  Growing perennials from seed is encouraging when a neat-o plant like this arises!

     A weed I collected this spring that is not too common in the province is viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare); it's great to get another true blue flower.  No offence intended toward good ole Clematis 'Jackmanii'.

 

I will say the day lily season is starting with a bang.

 

The bleeding heart, below, should bloom for quite a while.  Collected from my parent's home, it likely was planted years before by my paternal grandmother.  I like to think so, anyway.

I love the late-blooming azaleas, so I bought this reddish one just the other day.  Has a nice fragrance too.  I think it is named "Millennium."

     And the roses keep blooming... This is a moss rose I collected in a nearby ditch a decade ago.

 These final shots - for those who are curious - are of dyer's greenwood (Genista tinctoria).  A couple seedlings were kindly given to me by some friends here in Hants County.  First saw this plant blooming in Cape Breton, where it is wildly prolific in one North Sydney neighbourhood.

Good luck gardening AND blogging.  I can't seem to catch up with either... but am having fun trying!

Canada Day Weekend

On the past weekend - sometimes windy and quite wet - I discovered my roses at the Cottage doing well.  The unnamed yellow is just starting to open up, and Crocus Rose, below, is very happy.  Doesn't mind the wet weather at all.  I saw this variety first in a friend's garden, and liked it so much I got one for myself.  Its' great to have a friend who knows his roses.  I just send off an email asking for advice on my next purchase.

Seven Sisters is just coming into her glory, and is even chatting with a pink peony.  

Some of the peonies are weathering the weather remarkably well.  A few, like this pink one above, are fairly new to me, and really blooming for the first time this year.  We can all count on downpours when they reach their peak, eh?  Below is a crashing peony, with flattened carnation pinks.

My wife noticed what I did too... rather a lot of pink in bloom at the cottage just now.  Not intentional .. just happened.  One delightful pink rarity is the showy lady's slipper, Cypripedium reginae.  So glad it keeps growing, despite the weeds!  Got this through the mail a few years ago.  It grows wild, and quite luxuriously, in a local provincial park.  

And what Canada Day weekend would be complete without strawberries for shortcake!  There is a long tradition, at our particular cottage, of BBQ and shortcake on this holiday.  We happened to dine a day early, June 30.  It was the best weather day of the weekend!

Happy 4th of July to you gardeners "south of the border."

Garden Party in Upper Falmouth

Time for our Garden Club's closing dinner party, this year at the home of Roxanne, one of our members.  She and Paul have  a great property, and the evening was beautiful.  

Everyone ooohd and aaahd at the Black Lace Elderberry... and quite a few other things.

It's always fun touring a garden with the gardener.  Lots of shared wisdom, experience, successes, and failures.

The sun was bright, after a full day of dark clouds.  

Everything was quite lush.  Well, we have had a good share of rain, all spring, and a heavy shower just yesterday.

One member asked me what gardens we are going to tour this summer.  I guess I'm still on the planning committee!  I'd better get to work.  There's so much to see, in our own neighbourhoods.