What's up in the garden?

We have a much needed, good solid, rain this week.
I am trying to get seeding done. I wish that I had my vege plot prepared.
But my veges may come from the garden centers this year.
Lost many tomatoe plants over the last week.

I am enjoying your photos!

Wanted to spend the day in the garden but not going to happen!

It's cold and windy.

Bought a weeping pea tree yesterday and I've 2 carpet roses to go near one of the ponds, have to sit and look pretty, they will have to be planted when sun comes out.

All my pots need planting as well but I don't trust this weather so they will have to wait!

Yes, indeed, planting out anything is risky at this time of year. It snowed here this morning! I hope you still have plenty of tomato plants left, Caroline. My "vegetable garden" consists of a planter containing two strawberry plants. They are sheltering in the garage today.

Snow, wow, son just came out but wind picked up..

I should have kept the tomatoes under lights for longer.
Next year I will plan it better.

Now I am running out whenever it stops raining-----to seed wildflowers.
And dumping water from basins of plants which are floating!?

Strange the things we gardeners do.

is indeed..had DG friend who brought along a few friends here for a week..
She taught hypertufa mushroom class for me and I was to teach her rhubbarb stepping stones, lordy have some big ones, each will need at least 1 to 1 1/2 bags but we had torrential rains so no go..but did manage to do a birdbath, no sooner done did it start raining, covered it with plastic as it was dug and made in my driveway lol and filled with water..

sure thought that was the end of it until this morning

went to look, still filled with water, was sure when I dug it up it would be in pieces but not..some of the bobbles and mirror pieces got covered, am sure if I can locate them I can get them clean..

yes, we gardeners sure do the oddest things in the oddest things in snow/sleet/wind/rain...then we wonder why we are chilled..

Nice bird bath!

Thanks, not sure how it survived the elements seeing it was poured just hours before the rain.

Amazing bird bath, Betty! You are a creative person. Me - not so much. I think about making something, but the plan always goes awry. One time, I decided to paint a rock, bought outdoor paints and decorated a small stone to look like a mouse, sealed the paint with varnish, let it dry, tried to pick up the stone and it was glued to the table, pried it up - and the varnish peeled off, taking all the paint with it. All I had to show for my hours of work was a blank stone!

I hope your tomatoes haven't washed away, Caroline.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, away for two weeks. I'm not sure if I'll be able to check in with DG while I'm traveling since I don't have an iPad or similar device, but when I get back I'll enjoy hearing what's "up" in everyone else's gardens. Mine will be full of weeds!

Have a good holiday!
A large number of the tomatoe plants did not make it.
I might purchase a few.

Morning, sorry about your tomato plants!
Now don't you give up on that planted rock, takes time to perfect so do try again.

Listened to the weather before heading to bed last night, frost is looming..
Worked the entire weekend non stop and still didn't get the 50 Perrenials bought at church plant sale Saturday planted..20 are phlox, color unknown which are my favorite.

Hired a young 12 year old to do edging, what a fantastic job he is doing, my first year of running out of endless energy..says he will be back this evening to do another garden,

Well it's time to organize myself, been off work for a week, pleasing to say I can finally get to rest going to work.

It is not in the garden,but the first petunia just opened under lights.
These were started beginning of April from a Stokes seeds pkt called
"Color Parade Mixture".
My baskets won't be colour coordinated as I plant these green.

Guess it is time to get baskets..could it be so, no more frost.

you must get excited to see flowers you started by seed making up your own baskets.
NOT much color in my gardens as yet, anxious for peony to bloom

bridal wreath is flowering well this year..planted it as backdrop for the pond.

will say though with sun then rain then sun, everything is so lush and green, every plant seems double in size

Even put some fishies in the smaller of the ponds..give me and the kitties something to watch while we sit and enjoy the gardens..promising myself this year it will not be all work, want to enjoy

I played my viola d'amore this morning - or at least I put a bow to string. It will be awhile before I know how to play her. I was to have brought her home today, but a sympathetic string broke last night in tuning. Help me name her. I'm down to these 30 names. Want an old-fashioned name that doesn't have a strong personal reference for me. In that aspect, YMMV. Your thoughts?

Abbie, Alvina, Alyce, Amalia, Angeline
Antonia, Augustine, Bernadette, Cordelia, Delilah

Dixie, Emeline, Estelle, Faith, Glenna,
Grace, Gwendolyn, Hannah, Honora, Jessie

Jewel, Magdalena, Marguerite, Miranda, Octavia
Patience, Pearl, Prudence, Serena, Victoria

Octavia Patience, she is a beauty!

Oops. I thought I was on a different thread on the Canadian, forum - the general discussion one, but I guess that's OK if June doesn't object too much.

Hi, I'm back from my travels! i have no objection to your musical musings, ViolaAnn. What did you name your new instrument?

Caroline, you must have more petunia flowers by now, and a lot else besides.

Lovely pics, Betty.

I'm in shock from how much my garden has changed in two weeks. I can hardly see the flowerbeds for the weeds! I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed by the days of weeding ahead of me, and to just relax, be happy, and enjoy the flowers - there are irises, peonies, verbascums, hardy geraniums, nepetas, helianthemums, and chives blooming. This morning, I saw goslings and baby raccoons gamboling together on the lawn, and a snapping turtle was making purposefully for one of my flowerbeds to scrape a hole to lay eggs in. How did the season go so fast?

slow blooming here..I've been waiting forever for peonies (which I do don't well with open)

yes I've been saying the same, in two weeks it looks like a jungle...i even had to pull a full flowers, not a piece of earth can be found..that's ok, hides the weeds.

I've been pulling a few hand fulls here and there, easy does it so my neck and hip don't give out


This message was edited Jun 9, 2013 5:21 PM

June - haven't named her yet. Have been too busy to play her. Had a concert last night and I've spent all afternoon and early evening today in the garden. I'll get at it this week.

Dealing with quack grass here.
No peonies yet although at my daughter's:--
the single pink has flowered and rains destroyed blossoms.
A few more petunias flower----need to get them potted.

Hello everyone. I hope you all don't mind me dropping in on this thread. I'm new here and I've recently moved to Victoria and found irises planted around the property. They're very pretty - pic 1. I've found two beds that were under heavy shade (and a bunch of daisies) that had a bulbous root structure underneath - pic 2. An iris or two were connected to it but they never flowered. One of these structures was over a foot in diameter. Another one is over 3 feet and I don't think I can move it to a spot with more sun without gouging it. What should I do with it? Will irises spring from it with some sun? I've transplanted the leafed irises under shade to another location - pic 3. They look healthy but droopy. I emergency transplanted them after my DH ripped them out. They are gorgeous plants. I would like to salvage them.

It's a new garden. We're still cleaning it out and starting to plant. Much of it is under the partial shade of oak trees - pic 4. We have a lot of deer, too, who enjoy pruning lilac bushes into trees (if they're tall enough!).

Poinget, welcome
Love the iris, wow you sure do have a massive root structure.
ooops got to run, am sure the girls here can help out..

Hi Poinget! You can break up that huge mass of iris rhizomes into bits and replant them where you want them. The best time to move bearded iris is mid-summer, as they go into an almost dormant state after flowering. If a rhizome has long leaves, cut them back by half before replanting, to reduce the stress on the roots. Plant shallow, with the top surface of the rhizome at or barely below the surface of the soil. Good luck!

Thank you! And thank you June, I will do that.

It's peony time! Pics are:
'Clown'
'Do Tell'
'Green Lotus' (If there was ever an ugly peony, this is it)
'Ivory Inspirations'
'Prairie Moon'

Gorgeous..ugly??? not, just different! But I won't rush out to purchase it..lol

My gardens this morning..

front peony (don't have a name)
smaller pond, sat and had my coffee, was so pleasant watching the fishies and tadpoles
back 40 garden area, no flowers as yet other than a few who are popping their heads
Goats beard, I have 3, lordy they grow to giant sizes

Beautiful pics and peonies.
None of my have flowered yet.
I'll take pics, too!

June, the Do Tell and Ivory Inspirations are really lovely. Did you choose green lotus thinking it would look nice and was disappointed that it didn't? I ordered green halo this year, and when I show my DH the pics of the flowers I had chosen he says: "Except for that cabbage, very pretty." :/

Betty, that's a striking peony. It looks huge.

Hi All
My one Peony , From Fancyvan's garden, is just getting ready to bloom. It's Dandy Dan and I will post photos of him.
Nasty Hail yesterday that did a big number on my Hosta's. We will see just how much in the coming week.
Alberta Ann

Betty, you have a lovely garden! Thanks for the warning about goat's beard - when I plant some, I'll try to remember to give it plenty of room.

Poinget, I chose Peony 'Green Lotus' because the catalog described it as "excitingly different" and I'm a sucker for unusual plants.

Sorry to hear about your hostas getting trashed by hail, Alberta Ann, and I hope they recover.

Today's pics are Peony 'Little Medicine Man', and a couple of Oriental Poppies, 'Beauty of Livermore' and 'Little Candy Floss'.

Alberta Ann, so looking forward to seeing Dandy Dan in bloom! Here is hoping the hail won't have done too much damage. What weather!!

June, nice blooms..I just love poppies, not sure why, I've tried to grow them year after year to no avail, not sure why, yours are just breathtaking.

If no rain tomorrow I'm going to dig up back garden, what will live will live..know it's a bad time of year but I've left it too long and now major uprooting is needed

Hostas are majestic plants. It would be a shame to lose them for the year. Good luck, Alberta Ann.

June, I understand the sentiment. I intended to buy cactus style peonies a few years back when I happened upon one in the nursery. I know there are people who adore them, but my first reaction to it was: "Omg! What happened to it?!" I knew then I should stick to the less different varieties. :)

How do you like your Prairie Moon? I wanted to add yellow to the garden and this is on my list for next year. Could I convince you to take a pic of the bush? I'm interested in seeing how it looks overall.

Betty, I forgot to mention that it looks like you have ninebark in your last pic. I discovered that plant for the first time a couple of months ago and loved it. I bought a little one lush with foliage and flowers. I left it outside for less than an hour thinking it reasonably resistant to deer. It is now cozily seated on my deck. Let's see if the deer can jump 15 feet!

Lol, guess the deer want a treat..

Yes, I have about 4 of them, think they were planted near the larger of the 2 ponds about 6 years ago, now they are oversize..about 6'

Should really cut them down as they now completely help hide the pond.

Hail on hostas :-( So sorry to hear that. Hopefully it's early enough in the season that you will get another flush of growth this year.

Poinget, I can't get a pic of 'Prairie Moon' in her entirety as she's closely surrounded by other plants, but I can tell you that she's tall, with light green leaves on stout stems, and has never fallen over in the rain even though the flowers get bigger every year. She's an excellent, strong peony that can cope with encirclement by globe thistles and chipmunk burrows.

Betty, I've had mixed success and failure with Oriental poppies. They disconcert me by going dormant after flowering, and look dead until fall, when they produce leaves again. Sometimes they disappear for good, but once they decide to stick around they are phenomenal. I planted 3 'Beauty of Livermore' in a patch of unmowed grass, and thought I'd never see them again, but four years later I was surprised to see red flowers "floating" above the tall grass. One of the plants hadn't died after all!

Did a lot of pulling out plants in back garden this morning, many painted daisies grew towards the front and hides what else is planted there so I will on my way home Monday will pick up a few Oriental Poppies to add color back there.

I always try by seed, perhaps that is not the way to go..

The peony near the pond next to pea tree is really standing tall as well, will have a few flowers, today one lonely soul opened to say hi

Mine is mostly quack grass still!
But a few treasures:

You have some real beauties, Caroline! I don't see any quack grass.

Thank you, June. I love hearing that it's tall and tough.

CLScott: I'm sorry. I'm not knowledgeable enough about plants to recognize yours, except for the Hosta (at least I think it is!) in the first pic, which is lovely. What is that interesting plant in the last pot?

This is my first finished bed (I still have to clean up the weeds at the foot of the rocks). I don't know if all the plants will work out location-wise or visually. I have Viburnum, mock orange, fuchsia, abelia 'kaleidoscope' (a cultivar that doesn't seem to like the full sun location), amsonia, gaura, dwarf kalmia, elderberry, styrex, sedum, escallonia behind the tree, euphorbia, hypericum, armeria, and artemesia. The foxglove is wild. I'd like to replace it with another flowering plant that grows in spears, but I'm not sure what.

The bed has deer fencing on one side and not the other. It was put there to prevent easy grazing, forcing the deer to work a little to get to the plants. The fence is temporary. I'm hoping that when the plants get big enough, they will resist occasional nibbling and still look great.

*I thought the plants were 3 feet apart, but they were only 2, and so not enough for the large ones. I'll deal with it next year. :)

This message was edited Jun 18, 2013 1:46 PM