Hippeastrum mandonii that I grew from seed three years ago. These were expensive seeds and I wasn’t confident that I could get them to grow, but they sprouted and grew nicely.  I actually sprouted them in water, which is what I read online.  Who knew?

Here is the potential the bulbs hold:

One reason I thought I might be able to grow Hippeastrum species from seed–the red and white hybrid clone I have set seeds a couple of years in a row and I threw them around into pots in the greenhouse.  Here are three of the offspring.  There are at least two others that I haven’t potted individually yet.  It is always exciting to find something that likes the greenhouse environment.

A luscious, somewhat shy gesneriad.  This from brother Tim from the gesneriad club sale from years ago.  It has fantastic leaves and gorgeous flowers.  I think this is a Kohleria–but no longer sure and didn’t see the label.  It has a significant tuber at this point.

Speaking of tubers–I wasn’t expecting to see a big one attached to this Aloinopsis rubrolineata that I grew from seed, maybe seven years ago.  It just seems to moulder away on the shelf in the greenhouse, so I gave it some new soil and a new position–maybe that will cheer it up.

Amazing surprise, as I was trudging through my greenhouse chores today, I moved the huge Coelogyne cristata hanging basket and right behind it, previously hidden, the glorious Sinningia tubiflora was strutting its stuff.  The photos aren’t great, due to the bright backlight, but I’ll try to get better ones tomorrow.

This plant has required a huge amount of patience.  It has grown well and filled a gallon pot with dozens of tubers.  But it has only bloomed once before, with just a few flowers.

Because it is hardy (or said to be), I have threatened it frequently with being planted outside.  But I can’t figure out where I would put it–probably in the Douglas fir bed…but not sure it would thrive in that dry, root-filled environment.

The best thing is that, because there are so many tubers in the pot, I can divide it up next spring and give some away or try a few in the garden.  The flowers are said to be fragrant, and I remember them smelling like vanilla the first time the plant bloomed, but this year I can’t smell them at all.  Not sure if it is my blind nose or the time I was sniffing them.

I believe there are three pots of Ferraria crispa now.  I got them from Ebay back in 2012–almost four years ago.  One of them grows pretty well, but to my knowledge it has yet to bloom (tough to be sure, as it is a winter grower and I’m not always looking in the greenhouse in winter).

These tenacious plants really needed repotting today–their roots were exploring outside the pot and the soil was completely depleted.  These are seeds from Africa that were the free gift with some other seeds I ordered.  There are two plants here, but they’ve grown together and I didn’t want to upset them by tearing them apart at this late date.

From Wikipedia, here is what the flowers may look like in another two years or so:

I bought this Vetheimia bracteata from Sky Nursery three or four years ago–it was half off ($7.50), which seemed like a steal for  a blooming-sized bulb.  Since then, it has spawned a pup.  It needs to be repotted, but I didn’t have the time or energy today–maybe this fall before it leafs out.

Another Ferraria crispa bulb.  These plants are really unusual, with pretty iris-like leaves and fascinating flowers.  Sometimes called starfish flowers.  There are a lot of clones that have different looking flowers.  I can’t wait to see what mine look like!

I ordered more than one species of Ferraria.  It is possible this is NOT crispa.

 

These seedlings don’t look like much right now, but these are some more winter growers.  This clump includes a mix of Babiana hybrids.  These are two-years-old from seed.  I divided the seedlings into three pots and they seem to be doing alright, though they haven’t bloomed yet.  Babiana leaves are pretty cool–all pleated and crinkly.

This cactus has been with me for what seems a lifetime.  It does get flowers in a double ring towards the growing end.  I think this may be Mammillaria matudae, not super happy in low-light Seattle, but muddling through.

Gasteria “Marble” that I’ve had for a few years.  This is a plant family that I can’t resist.  They are completely carefree and the flowers are interesting and the leaves are fascinating, too.

Another view.

And the tag.

Another Gasteria–this one came from brother Tim.  It is prolific–look at all those babies around the parent!

I will pot up a few pups this year so I have some extras to give away.

This is a Sauromatum venosum bulb that I ordered from eBay and planted in October 2014.  This voodoo lily is new to me and it will be great to see it bloom one day.

Originally from the Flower and Garden Show–I think from Edelweiss Nursery, these Freesia laxa (syn. Anomatheca laxa) have been consistent in coming up and blooming–and spreading seeds all over the greenhouse!

Another Gasteria–this one came from sister Cate many years ago.  It bloomed already and it is throwing another scape.

I only have one Pancratium maritimum seedling left–originally I had potted three of them on.  I’ve always dreamed of having one of these bloom in the greenhouse.  I really hope this one makes it!

This fuchsia plant, a cultivar called “Rijs” has charming, smallish flowers and has survived a sunny shelf in the greenhouse until now.  This one came from brother Tim, from a fuchsia sale he attended several years ago.  I pruned it back, gave it fresh soil and moved it out of the sun!  Hopefully, it will get back to blooming before cold weather sets in.

I lost two of my pitcher plants this year, but still have this–and it happens to be my favorite.  I need to make sure it has enough water all the time, which I haven’t been as good about this year.  It usually sits in a water-filled tray, but the water-filled part was harder to maintain this year for some reason.

This seems to be an iris seedling, but no idea what kind.  I grew dozens of seeds three years ago and this is one of the few left in the greenhouse.  It likes water, so I keep it with the pitcher plant.

Pelargonium “Grossersorten” cutting, with some small “Petals” cuttings in the same pot.

Leon got this Haworthia cutting from a friend.  It was a lot longer, but I cut it off where the stem was bent.  Right below the bend, there are fresh starts coming out among the leaves.  I think this will do well in the greenhouse and nicely complement the Gasterias.

I’ve had this Pelargonium for a long time.  It is possibly from City People’s on the back of Capitol Hill.  I suspect it might be carnosum, but it has never bloomed–maybe someday!

Here are a couple of Amarine bulbs purchased online several years ago.  Amarine is a cross between Nerine and Amaryllis.  These bulbs haven’t been super happy since I’ve received them.  I’ll move them outside this year and let them fend for themselves.

Pelargonium papilionaceae  cuttings.  My older starts of this species are five feet tall and bloom impressively in the greenhouse in spring.

My first thought regarding fertilizing my potted plants now in trays on the drip system was to drop some granular fertilizer in the trays. But then I found these in the greenhouse:

 

After visiting cousins Ralph and Brenda in Lodi, I was convinced that even I could install a drip irrigation system.  So, I ordered this from eBay:

Rain Bird Grdnerkit Drip Irrigation Gardener’s Drip Kit | eBay

Here are a few more plants in the greenhouse.

Brugmansia grandiflora bulbs that I got from Strange Wonderful Things (Ebay) 3 or 4 years ago.  They survive, but don’t thrive.  I top dressed them.  Maybe that will help.

Here is the potential they hold.  I should work harder to grow and bloom them!

Here is a picture from years ago of what I believe is an Echinocactus.  It has HUGE flowers, but not every year.

Another of the cactus collection, with large-ish flowers, though I don’t remember what color.  It hasn’t bloomed for a while.

This was many years ago.  This cactus has grown substantially and it has grown horizontally, rather that upright.  The greenhouse doesn’t get enough sun to make cactus totally happy.  They survive, though, and they bloom sometimes.  This one gets rings of smallish cerise flowers around near the top.

Here is a seedling succulent–now probably four years old (picture is two years old or so).

Here is the tropical succulent vine I’ve had in the greenhouse for ten years.  Brother Tim got a cutting from it to bloom one year on his hot balcony, and it bloomed once for me, too.  It has fringed tiny flowers like a mignonette and is sweetly fragrant.

Here is a close-up of Albuca setosa bulbs.  I grew these bulbs from seed many years ago.  They bloom regularly

One of the Plectranthus cuttings from years ago.  I have kept a couple of these going for many years–they have handsome leaves and they will bloom in the autumn if kept in the greenhouse all summer.

This agave was smuggled from Spain when we came back from our trip 20+ years ago.  I want to send it to Lodi to cousin Brenda’s place–she can grow it in the ground and make it smile.

Oxalis triangularis regnellii.  I’ve had these for many years and they are a wonderful plant that doesn’t ask for much and give double rewards with amazing leaf color and graceful flowers.

These Dierama mixed hybrids are from seeds that I grew last year.  I have an affinity for these plants, but I’ve yet to get one large enough to bloom.  I’ll keep trying, though.

Another mystery seedling that came up last year.  I think it is from seeds from Arizona.

“Light of Buddha” Clivia that is really pot bound.  I’ll mix up some Clivia mix soon and pot on dozens of my seedlings.

Persicaria capitata that brother Tim passed from Bette Higgins many years ago.  I have two pots of it–love the leaves and the flowers.  I can cut these way back and they only get better looking.

Another brother Tim plant–this Chinese Wisteria has been with me for 20+ years.  This plant bloomed one time–maybe 15 years ago.  I remember it smelled like grape KoolAid.

One of the smaller Rhodohypoxis baurii divisions.

Tree peony seedlings.  The seeds were planted in 2013, but they came up last year, I think.

Fern sporelings that came up around the greenhouse.  I like to grow these on a bit and then plant them under leggy plants like the shrubby geraniums and tree fuchsias.

This seedling is labeled Libertia grandiflora.  I hope that is right.  Here is what it may look like someday:

 Another Masdevallia division.  This one isn’t quite as robust and I think that’s due to the orchid pot it is planted in!  All of the books and advice say that orchids should never stand in water, but the only way I’ve succeeded with these  is to grow them in a tray that I fill with water regularly to make sure they have enough moisture and humidity.  My Restrepia guttulata is also in that tray and it does really well there, too, even with the extra water.

I’m going through every plant in the greenhouse and potting them on and cleaning them up and throwing out all the empty pots.

I knew there would be some surprises!  Here are a few:

This was my favorite surprise.  I THINK this is a seedling of my Sinningia leucotricha.  You can see the tiny little caudex forming just where the stem meets the soil.

Here is a loganberry seedling–now in its second year.  Loganberry is a hybrid between a particular blackberry and a raspberry.  Rubus × loganobaccus.  The question I wonder is, does it actually come true from  seed?  Regardless, I’m a berry freak, so no matter what this cane produces in the next couple of years, I’ll probably love it!

I took cuttings of all the flowering maples last autumn when I put them to sleep in the greenhouse.  Many of them struck.  I haven’t done much with them since, but they are starting to bloom in gallon pots.  This is a cutting of the species that brother Tim gave me last year.

This is a second-year seedling of Geranium maderense.  The way this plant grows is interesting–it wants to use its old leaf stalks to hold up its main stem.  This is tough to accommodate in a pot, but I’m trying!  I’ve always wanted to get one of these to bloom–maybe next year.  It is supposed to be biennial, but things grow slowly for me…but they do grow!

These are three-year-old seedlings of Daphniphyllum macropodum from seeds borrowed from the arboretum.

This shrub came up from a seed mix called Andean shrubs.  It superficially resembles a currant, with some soft spines all over the stems and leaf buds starting from almost every leaf axil.  I looked around the web to try to identify it, but I was unsuccessful.  I’ll keep looking.

I am the worst when it comes to labeling–and these seedlings are from seeds planted years ago.  One is a palm tree, but I have no idea what the other one is.  It looks tropical, and somewhat like a citrus, but it is getting a strong branch from below the ground.  It will be interesting to see what it becomes.

Here is one of my two divisions of Restrepia guttulata.  The flowers are spectacular, but I’ve only had flowers develop once or twice.  The plants are growing well.  I need to read more and use more orchid food to see if I can get flowers more often.

Another labeling mystery–another second year seedling.  This could be a campanula.  Or almost anything else.  I suspect it will bloom next year–then maybe I can tell what it is!

One of three Rhodohypoxis baurii divisions.  I love these bulbs–they have nice, soft pink flowers and are low maintenance.

Ferns volunteer in the greenhouse pretty often.  Here are a couple different kinds that came up in one moist pot.

This seedling of Albizzia is about six years old…it keeps trying to grow, despite a fair amount of neglect.  I unwrapped some wire from it that was on too long–maybe that will help it grow a little better.

Here is one of the grape vines I grew from the seeds left over from giant grapes we ate at the cabin one year.  This vine is probably six years old.  I planted one of these out in the orchard garden and it is growing well this year–might get grapes in a year or two (or three or four).

Here is one of the Masdevallia divisions I split off two years ago.  There are three of them left.  They bloomed nonstop for a really long time (six months or more), but are finally resting.

I potted on about a dozen foxgloves–both the annual type, Foxy, and the biennial type, Apricot Beauty.  There were also 4-5 columbine seedlings, both Crystal and McKana’s Giant mix.  These will all go out in the Douglas fir bed next spring.

This geranium cutting was languishing in a 4″ pot, so I moved it on.  It is red with just a touch of orange–a tough color to mix well, but it is a bright light in the greenhouse where it doesn’t really have to blend with anything else.

Here is a pot with three Pleione bulblets–from the mix I got from an Ebay seller.

This is a scented geranium I bought a couple years ago.  the delicate leaves are like a more graceful chrysanthemum.  The flowers are even more delicate–just wispy, bright petals.  I grabbed a cutting off of it to see if it will root.

I started these cycads from seed about five years ago.  They are a bit anemic looking, so I moved them into more shade and top-dressed them.  Hopefully that will help darken them up and get them healthy again.

More label free mystery seedlings.  These are second year irids.  I suspect Dietes, but the leaves are bluer than the grandiflora that I grew from seed ten years ago.

Not a great picture, but this is the recently cut back Plectranthus effusus var. longitubus from Plant Delights.

Geranium “Petals”–cuttings that I just trimmed back.  One of the sprouts has reverted.

This cutting was growing nicely in the greenhouse and starting to flower.  “Petals” has amazing leaves–just incredible!  The challenge with this clone is the straggly growth.  If I had been more diligent with the pinching, I think this might have been an award winner!

Here is my main Pleione formosana group.  I started with one bulb about four years ago–and now it is probably 20 bulbs.  I’ve taken bulblets off the top of the old bulbs and potted them on.  In 3-4 years, I should have 30 Pleione flowers in the greenhouse!

The garden continues to be filled with berries (black and rasp) and flowers (mostly the annuals Leon added to the pots around the patios).

I plan to do some organizing and repotting in the coming weeks.  As part of that process, I decided to increase my favorite plants through some starts from Ebay.

There are sellers that will send streptocarpus leaves for cuttings, and I ordered a dozen of those.  Unfortunately, they landed right before I went on vacation.  I potted them up, but when I got back they already had wilted and some had shriveled up to nothing.  This is especially sad, as I received leaves of some awesome cultivars.  Hopefully some of the survivors will root, but it seems unlikely…I might need to order them again when I can take better care of them.  I’ve had great success with leaf cuttings before.

One of my favorite and successful greenhouse plants are the Pleione orchids.  I only have Pleione formosana, so thought I would try some different kinds.  One seller had a batch of ten bulblets for a reasonable price, and he has some nice species and cultivars, so I ordered them.  Today they landed and I potted them up.  Here are some Pleione pics to give an idea of what possibilities exist.

I’ll post another update this weekend, once I start to repot and get organized.  I expect I’ll find all kinds of treasures I’ve forgotten about.

The rain lilies in the greenhouse bloomed really nicely the last week or so–more flowers than I’ve had before.  These are seedlings I grew of Habranthus robustus.

 

The dahlia bulbs that Leon’s friend Gudrun passed to us are flourishing.  I planted them randomly, as many did not have labels.

The challenge with not knowing which cultivars were which meant that some shorter ones ended up in the back and taller ones in the front.  I’ll fix it next year when I’ll move some around.

The enormous Echinops ritro grown from seed many years ago is coming into bloom, to the bee’s delight.

The detail of these flowers is spectacular and intricate.

And the honeybee agrees.

Leon has been gardening in pots this year and they are starting to come into their own.  These are just outside the front door.

One of the rain lilies has been fooled by my overhead watering in the greenhouse and is throwing a spike.  These flowers are delicate in color and constitution…I’ll be lucky in this busy season to catch the flower open.

This Eucomis is blooming in the greenhouse.  The spikes are unruly, but the florets are starry and bright.

This rather blurry photo is of the Coelogyne cristata that I plan to try and sell on Craigslist.   It has grown well, but is shy to bloom.  I suspect it would be happier in a warmer greenhouse.

A clearer picture.

The Clematis seeds are glistening on the vines.

 

 

 

July is probably my favorite month for the orchard garden.  I’ve been harvesting berries every day, including two big bags of chokeberries (aronia) for smoothies.  It was really sad–there were three GIANT berries on the Prime Ark blackberry cane, but when I got back from the cabin over the 4th, they were gone.  It is blooming again, so there will be more in another month or so, but who knows if they’ll be that big and juicy.

The Apache blackberries are ripening now, at the same time as the wild Himalayan blackberries around the neighborhood.  It is early for them all–I guess the early warm months got them off to a fast start, because it hasn’t been particularly warm in June/July.

Here are some of the standouts in the garden this week:

I really love this perennial geranium that I started from seed this year.

Another view–there are dozens of flowers coming on, too.

You can see the way this plant grows–the leaves are pretty cool, too.

Crocosmia “Lucifer” shouting loud and proud in the orchard garden.  These are from sister Cate.

You don’t often see the yellow form of the butterfly bush.  I’ve had this one for 25 years or so–pruned it way back this year and thought it might die, but instead, here it is!

Another view.

Here is a more common purple hybrid, with verbascums underneath.

White butterfly bush.  This one has particularly generous flower spikes.

These are graceful when they aren’t quite open yet.

You can really see how exuberant this hybrid is here.  The fragrance is wonderful, too–reminds me of my childhood.

I’ve had this phlox for 25 years, too.  It is crowded a bit right now and doesn’t get the care it should, but it still blooms.

Here are some of the white alpine strawberries I grew from seed last year.  These berries actually taste BETTER than the red ones and they are fairly prolific–much more so than I was led to believe.

This is the Acca sellowiana I bought from Hirt’s this year.  It is growing well, but slowly.  There are purple Jacob’s ladders here between the geranium seedlings, all in a ring around the Acca.

One of the grafted branches from my espaliered asian pear tree.

There are a few other pears on this tree, but by far most of them are on the Shinseiki cultivar.  My brother helped me prop up the branch and I lightened the load by picking three of these today.  They are ripe and wonderful–not a strong flavor, but fantastic.Apache blackberries ripening.

Clematis is still blooming and graceful.

Still quite a few flowers…

Crocosmia always make for some interesting photos.  I would expect hummingbirds to hang out around these, but I haven’t seen them here–they love the fuchsias much more.

Clematis “Rooguchi”–first blooms.  The vine isn’t strong this year, as it has been moved around and the vines broken.

Same flower with flash–I really like this photo.

Daphne blooming really well on the back patio…and, oh, the fragrance!

Streptocarpus blooming in the greenhouse.

One of the abutilon seedlings blooming.  This is a favorite, with the darker veins on cream petals.

Another of the abutilon seedlings.  This one is a mauvey pink.  I’m struggling with these water lovers this year–they need to get potted on in bigger pots, but I’m not sure how much room I want to devote to them…and then the flowers start and I think no amount of room would be too much for these cheerful blooms.

One of my Clivia species…I think this is gardenii.

Another Madevallia bloom, just for the record.  I want to be able to look back and see how long these amazing plants have been blooming.

I planted some nasturtium seeds that I’m growing with pole beans in a pot in the greenhouse.  The strange thing is that they are supposed to look like the flower below, but they are a mix of all different kinds–semi-doubles, singles, etc.

This is what the package showed.  The petals are pretty interesting–a nice take on an old favorite.

Here is the veggie garden…full of flowers.  I think I’m not much for growing vegetables.  But there are some beans in there somewhere, and they are blooming and setting beans.

A Cymbidium still blooming under the Douglas fir tree.

One of my favorite combinations…aucuba and goats beard.  Even after the flowers have turned brown, they still work in the garden.

Acanthus blooms close-up.

More detail of the Acanthus spinosus flowers.

Dahlia out in the front garden…these were from Leon’s friend Gudrun’s ex-boyfriend.  I sprinkled them around a couple of months ago and they are rewarding me now.

Malva blooming in the front garden–another volunteer from plants grown 20 years ago from sister Cate.  Amazing how the seeds rest in the soil and pop up just every so often.

Here is the wild rose (seed-grown from arboretum seed) that I butchered a few weeks ago.  You can see it is responding with a huge flush of new growth.  If I remember, in a couple of weeks, I’ll tip it back again and try to keep it short and bushy.

This dahlia was pictured above–it is a nice salmony pink and looks to have a waterlily form.

The phlox are loving the wetter spring/summer this year.  I had gotten some tiny starts from mail order years ago and I just stuck them in together.  They have grown up a bit, but haven’t been as robust in the driveway bed as I had hoped.  Of course, they probably could use a little TLC and maybe more food–so I fertilized them more this year and they responded.

Here is the other cultivar that got crammed with the lavendar/white one.  It is interesting–the flowers open darker and fade, or open lighter and darken.  I’m not sure which.  But I like it!

A little closer up…

You an see the colored leaves here…and the flowers are really big for a perennial phlox.

Even closer up.

The wonderful fragrant rose on the Tangen arbor still has some flowers and fragrance, though it is past its prime.  I need to prune it once the floral show has past to keep it bushy and in-bounds.

The sun came out today and stayed around until evening.  I took a few more pictures, starting inside the greenhouse.

Hippeastrelia blooming.  The pot of bulbs had two flowers so far.  Striking and large flowers.

Rhodohypoxis baurii blooming beautifully.  This is the largest of the divisions.

The smaller divisions stopped blooming already, but this one just keeps going.

Gasteria flowers aren’t super showy, but they have a grace and style that showier flowers don’t possess.

Sinningia blooming so much more than it ever has before.  Love this caudiciform.

Closer picture.

And from above–showing the interesting way the flowers are produced and the gorgeous furry grey leaves.

A scented pelargonium that I bought at the Fremont nursery before it closed.  The flowers are really cute/interesting.

I’ll have to look back at posts, but I believe these Masdevallias have been blooming for at least six months, maybe longer!

Hippeastrum “Santiago” blooming.  It has an interesting form.

 

Another view showing both flowers.

Streptocarpus blooming.  They are a little yellowy green this year, so I just put some compost tea in their trays.

I tried to get the color of this one by using the flash, but it still isn’t true.  The actual color is a very deep velvety maroon-black.

Abutilon “Bella Series” grown from seed probably seven years ago.  This one has particularly nice, large flowers.  Some stray Hippeastrum seeds found their way into its pot and now two big bulbs are stuck in there with this struggling original.  I’ll do some repotting before I put these all away in the fall.

Another view, showing how light shines through the papery blooms.

You can really see the “Light of Budha” variegation on this seedling Clivia.  I can really understand why the breeders selected for this trait, as it is extremely attractive.

There aren’t too many plants that have naturalized in the greenhouse, but Freesia laxa seedlings are coming up all over.  Here’s how–these gorgeous reddish, shiny seeds!  They are welcome wherever they pop up.

On to the outside world.  Here is a closeup of one of the matricaria seedlings outside the greenhouse.  this one is nicely doubled.

About half of the feverfew seedlings are singles, like the above.

Close-up of the clary sage.  You can really see the flowers here among the bracts.

Campanula porscharskyana flowering prolifically on the Doug fir wall.

Another view of the Acanthus spinosus–it has about five spikes of blooms.

Some cleaner pictures of the wild salvia popping up all over the yard and even in the lawn.  I just looked online and this might be Salvia forskaohlei.

Here is a pulled-back photo of the Malva showing just how many flowers it has this year.  I’m hoping to get some seeds from it.

Lady of Shalott a day later.

Close-up.

This plant is floppy, but the flower is showing promise.  This is rose Fighting Temeraire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.