What's up in the garden?

I have run out of trays---but got more of the KL trays-----
They are sturdy and will hold the heavier paper cups of soil.
I am going to move some tomatoe plants outside for a few hours today.
It is a busy time now---outdoor flower beds and inside seedlings need care.

I braved the blackflies to take pics of today's new blooms. Now I'm matching them up with their catalog descriptions.

Fritillaria meleagris. I planted 20 bulbs of a mix promising "bronze, grey, purple, and white". The few that came up so far are all flowering purple. They are pretty in a disturbing sort of way.

Muscari aucheri 'Blue Magic'. Said to be "two-toned...with sky-blue fertile flowers on top and white-rimmed dark blue lobes below". If I squint, there does seem to be a hint of turquoise at the top of the flower stalks.

Narcissus 'Waterperry'. Described as "shell-pink cups with slightly overlapped and twisted white perianth". Maybe it colours differently as it ages, but at the moment the cups are pale yellow and the perianth cream. It is a lovely, small daffodil and I like it anyway. In my humble opinion, too many of the newer varieties are "supersized" monstrosities that have lost their natural grace.

Narcissus 'Gentle Giant'. The catalog says it has "a wide, snowy perianth with a frilly-edged bright orange gem at the centre". The cup is thankfully not as garish as advertized. This is one large daffodil that I actually like. It's big without being clumsy or top-heavy.

I am not impressed with some of the modern narcissi cutivars.
One year I planted a number of the "pink" ones.
They were a big disappointment.
Now I stick to the all yellow "Dutch Masters".

I agree, Caroline, the pink daffodils are never much good. I'm even less inclined to grow the doubles. To me, the whole point of a daffodil is a cleanly shaped trumpet or cup, and so I view a split or doubled daffodil flower as an abomination. Some of the new ones look as if they have either suffered a terrible accident or were developed on a nuclear waste site. Call me old-fashioned!

I am old fashioned too!
I am doing a marathon of transplanting today.
Everything seems to need potting on.
And the weather si good--- so maybe I can start hardening off some too.

The heatwave continues here. There have now been 6 consecutive days with a high in the 20C to 25C range, and no rain. Fortunately, the ground is still moist from the spring thaw. Trees and bushes are leafing out, perennials are shooting up - too soon, too fast! The first of the rhizomatous iris is blooming, Iris pumila 'Atroviolacea'. In the rock garden, a short plant with a long name is covered with tiny yellow flowers: Vitaliana primuliflora var. cinerea (I had to look that name up!).

Those are nice spring flowers.

I'm doing my best to enjoy my spring flowers, but the bugs are beginning to get annoying. The blackflies are bad enough, but now there are mosquitoes as well. While I was taking pics this morning, a mozzie bit me on the forehead. As is normal for my first mosquito encounter of the year, the bite swelled up enormously, it itched like crazy, and I had to go out shopping with a big red mark on my forehead. The only pic that turned out OK is of Muscari aucheri 'Ocean Magic'. This Muscari really is two-toned!

My other pics were really lousy. I took close-up pics of a white muscari and a white leucojum, and could not get the right camera settings. I tried reducing the exposure compensation from 0 to -5 and changing the ISO speed from 'auto' to 80, but the white flowers still turned into featureless blobs. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Does your camera have a "macro" setting?
Mine has "macro" and "super macro" which are for taking close up photos.

My camera is a Kodak EasyShare C533. I don't see anything labelled "macro". It just has a selection wheel for the following types of picture: auto (for general picture taking), landscape, close-up, special scene (e.g. snow), and video. There are also zoom-in and zoom-out buttons. On its screen menu there are options for: exposure compensation, picture size, white balance, ISO speed, focus zone, colour mode, and long time exposure. I don't know what half those options are for! The camera is great for landscape pics, but I have to play with the exposure compensation every time I take a pic on "auto" or "close-up" as the default setting usually makes the picture look over-exposed, whether the sun is shining or not. Pics definitely look better on cloudy days, though. Is the problem the camera or the photographer?

Sometime when you have time----maybe just practice taking pics of flowers?
That is the beauty of the digital cameras----you can take lots of pics and do not waste film.

"Like"

Today I practiced photography on Tulip bakeri 'Lilac Wonder', which is growing in gravel that you can't see because it's been covered by creeping thymes. Both these pics were taken in full sun, around noon, with the exposure compensation setting reduced to -1, but one pic is more gray than the other. I moved around to take shots of the exterior and then the interior of the flower. I didn't realize that different angles would make a difference to the colour!

Those are so pretty and your photography is great!
Caroline

Pretty tulip - nice pictures.

Thank you for all the encouraging words! Today's plant was a devil to photograph, as it was half in sun and half in shade, and the fllowers were different distances from the camera lens. This was the best of 10. It's Brunnera 'King's Ransom'.

Gardens are just starting to show color

Hi Betty! I'd like to get a closer look at your spring flowers, but except for number 2, your pics are not enlarging when I click on them. Did you down-size the pics before you posted them? Or has something gone awry with DG?

I will have to see if I can repost.

Today I gathered a few more pics, and a few more blackfly bites. Maybe if we get the wet snow and/or frost that is forecast it will diminish the bugs!

First is Tulip 'Orange Princess'. This is a reliable bloomer for me, going strong 6 years now. I like the plummy shadings on the outside of the petals.

Next is Daphne cneorum 'Parker's Variegated', planted as a wee little thing 8 years ago. It's now about a metre across. It's not fully in bloom yet, but I was afraid that if I waited another day or two before taking a pic, either frost or wet snow would collapse the flowers. The dwarf conifer behind it is Juniperus communis 'Compressa', which usually suffers terribly from wind-burn every winter, and is nibbled by deer, but it refuses to die.

Finally, here's my best shot at Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant', almost but not completely in focus.

Very nice flowers and photos.

HAPPY Mothers' Day everyone!

Love the flowers as well..will put Parker's variegated on my list of wants..just love it!

Drats had all kinds of outdoor " to do's" for the boys this weekend, our annual do as mom asks. Lol but Mother Nature hasn't co-operated, cold and rainy yesterday, this morning it's freezing, winds are high so doubtful any outdoor projects will get done.,

They were calling for some of that white stuff..

Going out to see if I've lost any of my pretties

Happy Mother's Day!

That Parker's variegated Daphne goes on my list too.

Somehow I have potted up 133 tomatoe plants! LOL!

I'll be taking most of them to Community gardens and Plant Shares.

It only went down to 2C here last night, and so far there's been only a few sloppy flakes of snow traveling sideways on a squally wind, so no damage here - yet. Frost is still in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow night. I have covers for the large planters containing my cactus collection on the my rear deck, and huge cloth bags for the oleander bushes on the front deck. I have temporarily stowed all the other potted plants either in the greenhouse or the garage (which has windows). I'm resigned to there being some frost damage to the leaves of perennials such as daylilies, delphiniums, and peonies, which are all twice as tall as they should be for this time of year, thanks to the early heatwave, but all should recover. I'm worried about the local apple farmers, as they lost their crop last year when their trees bloomed early and then got frosted.

Happy Mother's Day to those who celebrate it. No family here, just cats. Although DH and I do refer to ourselves as the cats' parents, they have yet to give us any Mother's or Father's Day gifts other than the occasional hairball.

OMG, Caroline, I can't imagine that many tomato plants! How many will you be keeping for yourself?

I'll probably keep about 30 or so.
Some will be lost or won't make the transfer to outside.
I was not planning for that many because of older seeds.
But since they sprouted----I potted them on.

Not sure how much damage to the gardens with the rain/sleet and snow we've had this weekend..here is hoping your pretties made it through it.

I hope everyone fared well through it!
Today is potting up marigolds and pepper plants.
They are already up to the lights.

Sure a lot of work involved..I picked up lawn furniture all over the place..so many trees down..lots of damage!

The wind was pretty fierce here too, Betty. I had to run outside a couple of time to rescue frost-covers that were being blown away. It snowed on and off all day, and this morning there was a crisp layer of frozen slush on the deck. All the plants look OK, though. Tonight is forecast to be frosty again, but after that we should be getting mild weather again. I feel sorry for the hummingbirds and orioles, which must be wondering why they left Florida. They're on the nectar feeders this morning, but looking a bit stunned.

I have little green fruits on my two potted strawberry plants (which are sheltering in the garage at the moment)! My mouth is watering in anticipation.

How many marigold and pepper plants do you have, Caroline?

In the office, think they forgot to turn a/c back to heater..brrr, can't even feel my fingers..numb!
Calling for frost tonight so will bring in the hanging baskets..normally when May arrives I plant topsy/turvy pots but decided against it this year thank the Lord or I'd have lost them all

I have about 20 to 25 Pepper plants and about the same in Marigolds.
I did not get them all potted on. Moving geraniums outside to make room in the windows.
Then some mail ordered stuff came and had to make room for those.
The flowers beds are not ready!

I have unready flower beds too, Caroline. I spent several hours frantically weeding, pruning, and edging today. The weather has turned warm again, and dandelions and other weeds have responded enthusiastically to the heat. My mail order plants have not arrived yet, but I'm hoping they will be here before I go on vacation in at the end of the month so I don't have to write detailed un-packing instructions for DH to follow. The plant-watering instructions are going to be hard enough to write!

It was incredibly windy here today, so I didn't try to take any pics.

There doesn't seem to be much damage in the garden from two nights of frost. The delphiniums, which had been lured by a succession of warm days into making metre-high growth, shrugged off the cold with nary a shrivelled leaf. I grew them from seed supplied by DG member annabell52 (Ann), in Edmonton, and she did promise they would be cold-hardy.

There is a major infestation of quack grass in some of the beds here.
This year I am spraying it. Digging it, just spreads it further.
Delphiniums are hardy. I have several, and more as seedlings.
We have to watch for that moth which damages delphiniums.
I don't see any evidence of it so far---but I have the talc baby powder ready.
Also the pyrethrum rose spray---but it is expensive and baby powder is cheaper.
I hope it works as well.

This is the first I've heard about delphinium-eating moths, but the leaves on my roses are attacked every year by caterpillars. I'll have to look for some of that pyrethrum rose spray. What are you using to kill the quack grass? The herbicides sold in Ontario seem to be getting less and less effective. Roundup was withdrawn last year, and now I can't find Wilson's weed-killers either. All that's available to the home gardener now are herbicidal soaps that kill only leaves and let the weeds regenerate from their roots. If you're a farmer, of course, you can buy toxic weedkiller by the tanker-load to spray on your thousands of acres. Something wrong there, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

June, thought I saw round-up in the store the other day. will post a photo of a plant that has taken over a few of the gardens..drats, wish people would tell you if it's invasive when giving you the 'pretty'

It's variegated green/yellow and can grow as tall as 5 or 6 feet, large roots that travel underground, been pulling and pulling but no go, more I pull more shows up.

worked a bit last night and omg thank the Lord I put on weight because the wind would have taken me away.

Nature is working hard to catch up after the cold spell. A cloud of blackflies trailed around the garden after me as I looked for subjects to photograph this afternoon. Whoever invented the head-net, thank you! (I'm assuming it was invented by a man, as it looks so awful to wear, but it sure saves me from being eaten alive.) Today's pics are:

An unnamed purple-leaved cherry bush, planted by the former owners of the garden.

Globularia trichosantha, growing in gravel in the rock-garden. This will seed itself quite freely, but is easy to pull up if not wanted.

Veronica peduncularis 'Georgia Blue', possibly. Some plants I bought under this name are compact and some are mat-forming, and I don't know which are the true 'Georgia Blue' and which are seed-grown plants. Or maybe the label got switched at the garden centre. They're all pretty anyway.

Violets. I planted purple-leaved Viola labradorica, but they've hybridized with some green-leaved violets that the previous owner planted, and a small white violet that grows wild in the lawn.

Euphorbia polychroma 'Bonfire'. Very hardy, a show-stopper when in bloom, and I find the dusky foliage makes a good contrast with silver- or grey-leaved plants.

Absolutely WOW

Love the variation of color..don't you just love walking the gardens and seeing new pretties?

After days of muggy, buggy heat and frequent, violent thunder-squalls, today's cool-down came as a great relief. I took a stroll around the garden and then ventured off into the woods (carrying a big stick in case I met the bear that has been sighted a few miles away). Pics are:

Ajuga repens 'Golden Glow'. I've had bad experiences growing purple-leaved Ajuga varieties, which disappointed either by losing leaf-coloration after the first flush of growth, or by becoming too invasive, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 'Golden Glow' will behave better.

Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the Pulpit), growing wild in a wooded valley.

Dicentra spectabilis. One of the common names for this plant is Lady in the Bath. Detach a single flower, turn it upside down, gently pull the side petals apart - and the lady stands up in her bath tub.

Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba'. Possibly my favourite white flower.

Viola pubescens (Yellow violet), growing wild on a walking trail in the woods. This is the only violet that I have been able to identify with any degree of certainty, as none of the purple ones match the descriptions in my wildflower reference book.

You are so ahead of me..enjoying your photos