I found some time today to do a few chores in the garden.  The main big job was to prune the rambling rose and the forsythia which are on either side of the driveway.  The rose gets an annual pruning–back to about 4 feet.  There really is never a good time for pruning this shrub, which I grew from seed from an arboretum specimen.  This year, I let it bloom fully, but I ended up cutting off all the hips, which is a shame, as they turn bright red and are festive through the winter holidays and beyond.  I finished the chores in a thunderstorm, which was refreshing until I was so soaked with rain that it wasn’t fun anymore!

The clematis on my Jeff Tangen arbor is blooming beautifully.  This photo was with a flash.

We had quite a bit of rain the last few days, and you can see raindrops on these clematis flowers.

More raindrops on clematis.

Here is the arboretum rose, blooming up a storm.  The fragrance was a little subdued today because of the cold/rain, but I could still smell it enough to make me smile.

The clematis and the rose are covering the Tangen arbor.  This rose opens a light apricot yellow and fades to creamy white.

 

I don’t recall Europeana having this many flowers at once before.  The new growth and flowers have kept ahead of the ugly black spot that you can see just starting on the leaves.

Such a bright spot in the garden, this rose has won me over this year (after 20 years of allowing it to exist in the garden!)

Here is Malva “Mystic Merlin,” a volunteer near the house in a gravel bed.  I cut it back because it had pretty bad rust, but it came back and bloomed with these showy flowers.

The blooms are so exotic, they look almost like Salpiglossis, so rich and velvety.

The David Austin rose–Lady of Shalott.  I already love this new addition, although the rain has kept the big flowers from looking their best.

Another view.  All of the Austin roses are blooming, which is great.  They are a bit floppy–I need to tie them up tomorrow.

Another sumptuous Austin rose.

A different bud from the same shrub.  The flowers have a nice orangey tint before they turn soft pink.

I suspect this will be Olivia Austin, once it gets to open.  Hopefully, the weather will allow it to bloom all the way.

Goumis looking like little jewels in the orchard bed.  I have eaten bowls of these already this year and there are lots more left to pick.

Goumis at various stages of ripeness.  I can understand why these haven’t caught on commercially.  They do not keep well (maybe a day or two after picking), they have large pits, and there is probably no way to commercially harvest them except by hand.  They also come off with stems and the old dry flowers clinging to them.  But I love them.  They are easy to grow, flavorful and nutritious.

Just love these berries!

Here are the aronia berries, still green, but plumping…I can’t wait to plop some of these soon-to-be-ripe berries into smoothies.

Tayberries ripening in the orchard garden.  I’ve plucked over a hundred of these berries already and there still are more coming!  They are delicious!  They turn a matte mauve color when ripe, the same color as their parent, the red raspberry.

A near-ripe Tayberry.

Berries are a passion for me.  I love to eat them and I think the plants are great and the flowers lovely.

Here is a tayberry in front of the mass of blackberries (Apache, I think).

Here are some berries on my “Wild Treasure” blackberry.  I’ve picked a few ripe-ish ones already, but should have waited another day or two for them to get sweet!  It is so tough to wait!!!

One of the cottage garden verbascums that I grew from seed last year.  The flowers are HUGE for a mullein–two inches across or more.  The color is pure.  I’m pretty happy with these–there are about three of this type, along with a standard taller one and others that haven’t opened yet.

One of the butterfly bushes has a couple of flowers on it.  I pruned the heck out of these in the spring, and they are coming back with a little more restraint. Crocosmia “Lucifer” is budding up.  I need to tie these up, too.

A volunteer white foxglove among the raspberries.

The standard Digitalis purpurea.  Another volunteer, and an old friend.

I don’t know which salvia this is.  It was given to me years ago by a gardening friend and it has insinuated itself throughout the garden.  It has a nice combination of showy, big leaves and pretty blue flowers.  Weedy, yes, but worth some space, nonetheless.

 

Blurry pic trying to capture the flower detail.  I’ll have to try for a better picture tomorrow.

This daylily is a bit sad at the end of the driveway.  It has been run over multiple times, but it keeps on keeping on.  This year, it is floppy, but the flowers are still graceful and bright.

Acanthus spinosus blooming in the Doug fir bed.

These flowers are pretty amazing…great color and shape.

Cheddar pinks next to a mint.  These provide a excellent cheer on the wall of the Doug fir bed.  I’m pretty happy that I have color in the garden from February through June, at least.  We’ll see how July looks!

The spicy clove scent of these flowers brings back childhood memories–we had a neighbor woman who grew similar dianthus.

One of the cymbidiums along the Doug fir bed wall is still blooming.

And this one, too.

Oddly, the big story in the veggie bed is the volunteers that have come up there.  Here is a poppy that popped up.

This gorgeous clary sage came up in the veggie bed, too.  I had grown these several years ago, but rooted them out before they set seeds, since they are considered invasive.  I’m not sure how this one survived and came up nowhere near where the others had been growing!  I really love this plant, though, and it was one that Christopher Lloyd  used to great effect, as well.

Here is Royal Bonica blooming mixed with the echinops in front of the greenhouse.  This rose is super happy there, having been moved after 20 years where the Asian pear espalier is now in the orchard garden.  It has several big sprays of blooms this year.  I like it, but it doesn’t have any fragrance to speak of.

Another cheerful spray.

The Echinops ritro that I grew from seed years ago is budding up.  This perennial has the presence of a shrub in the garden–it approaches five feet tall and is probably four feet around.

I always pull up matricaria volunteers and move them to places in the garden.  Here are a couple of them blooming nicely in front of the greenhouse.

I was disappointed with these Myosotis last year when I grew them from seed, but now they have popped up in pots all over the seedling nursery shelves outside the greenhouse, and somehow they seem cuter now.  I had expected larger plants/flowers last year, but had no expectations this year, so I can appreciate them for what they are–tiny, dainty wildflowers.