Dogwood Blooms!

I was happy to get a break from the rain that was long enough to snap a quick picture of our dogwood. I think it is really doing well!

Lilies

I thought you might like a peek at what the lilies look like in the wild.

Resurrection Lily, Surprise Lily or Naked Lady Lily

This lily really was the most surprising thing in our yard the first Summer we moved in. We didn't see the leaves that appear in the Spring because we moved in in July. Even if we had, we'd still would have been surprised! These flowers are almost eerie, iridescent and a ghostly lavender. They send up leafless stalks about 3 ft tall and then bunches of the flowers appear soon after. Very fun and unexpected.

Coneflowers

They are doing great and attracting a lot of bees!

Blackberries!

Sorry for the lull in posting, but not much has been happening in the garden lately. A lot of growing, but not a lot of flowering or fruiting. Oddly all of the baby plums on our tree have vanished but the blackberries are going strong.

Peony!

The peonies opened yesterday! I am glad they waited until after the rain.

New Plants!

We got a Home Depot gift certificate as a reward from the bank and we had coupons (one for buy one get one free shrubs, another for $5 off) so we picked up some plants yesterday. Unfortunately, we couldn't find 2 shrubs we liked (we were hoping to buy one $25 shrub with our gift certificate and then get a free one and pay nothing out of pocket) so we ended up getting another hydrangea for the backyard and some Spanish lavender. I don't like the fussy smell of English or French lavender, but I found this one to be pleasant and I think it will attract bees and butterflies.

Our pretty butterfly bush that was in front of our house was uprooted last week during one of the storms and is dying so I think we will put the lavender there, even thought it isn't going to get as big as the butterfly bush would have. We do have a spirea and a hydrangea out there now, and a few other plants (Mexican roses, I think? Maybe not.) that are doing well. It is a small space and I don't think we actually need another large plant there. The hydrangea will probably go in the backyard somewhere. It is already quite large and blooming so that's fun. It's called blushing bride and has white flowers with light pink streaks. It's also one of the "endless summer" varieties so it should have a long bloom time since it blooms on both old and new growth.

One cool plant I saw and liked but didn't get was a Pink Lemonade honeysuckle. It was really pretty but it needs a trellis or something to grow on and we just got rid off all those grapes and climbing vines and are in the process of getting rid of the shed, so I am not sure where we would put a trellis. Plus we'd have to buy a trellis and we've already spent way more than I wanted to on plants this year. So, we ended up getting a new hydrangea, the lavender, fill dirt and a tomato cage for only about $7 using the coupon and our gift certificate. Not bad! I'll post pictures once they are in the ground.

Just in bloom: Blackberries!

blackberry bush


I am excited for the harvest this year.

In Bloom Today

Here's a picture of most of our yard. It's actually 90% green and in bloom now.

Mock Apple

After the storms of the last few days (we even lost power for a couple of hours!) we are losing a lot of petals from our various trees. The mock apple is holding strong though, and smells great.