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.

A bit of rain landed in Seattle today, and it was seriously welcomed!  I had to water the new fruit trees and roses this week to make sure they make it through their first year.  The roses look great.  The fruit trees look a little stressed.  After todays rain and cooler temperatures, I’m sure they will perk up, however.

We have wrens nesting in a bird box we set on some shelves outside the greenhouse.  Wrens are my favorite city birds.  They are cheerful and spunky and they communicate clearly when they are annoyed.

The hardworking parents are constantly carrying insects to their chicks.

Geranium x cantabrigiense “Biokovo” blooming under a stand of Voodoo Lilies in the Doug fir bed.

Another photo of the white Hesperis matronalis.

One of the throwback lavender Hesperis.

Linaria purpurea “Canon J. Went” growing in a pot near the Doug fir bed.

We have a couple of rhododendrons outside the living room window.  They were the wrong choice for a foundation planting, as this is a tall cultivar.  We trim them so low that they hardly bloom.  The plan is to move them one day and replace them with dwarf hydrangeas.  The flowers, however few, are a nice orchid shade.

I’m not a big fan of hybrid tea roses–they tend to have gorgeous flowers on ugly shrubs.  I’ve had the above plant for years, though, and while it has the usual faults of a hybrid tea, including black spot and other diseases and pests, the flowers are such a vivid shade that I can’t help but smile when it blooms.  This is “Europeana.”

Another view, with the raindrops on the petals.

This is very interesting.  The clematis that I have on the Jeff Tangen arbor usually has small flowers with four petals.  The first flowers this year at the top of the arbor are these amazingly huge, six-petals, and stunning.  I bought the parent of this cutting without a name, but I suspect it might be “Jackmanii.”

More pictures of the Geraneum phaeum hybrid in the driveway bed…this is out of focus a bit, but the color is captured nicely.

If you look closely, you can see the habit of the phaeum hybrid here in contrast to the G. macrorrhizum at its feet.

The standard Linaria purpurea.  These plants are vigorous, but graceful.  They seed about and volunteer a bit, but nothing like their noxious (but beautiful) cousin, Linaria vulgaris.

You get a feel more for the habit of the plant here.  This is a mature one growing in the ground near the driveway.

The arboretum rose seedling behind Leon’s fantastic Pod sculpture.  This rose is blooming really well this year and the fragrance is subtle, but excellent.

Lazy photographer trying to get the picture without kneeling down with the plant!  But I like this picture, anyway–with Jeff Tangen’s sculpture behind and the fantastic fluted petals of the poppy.

A picture from above, showing raindrops on the petals.  This is a seedling from Papaver orientale “Pizzicato.”

Yet another photo.  The surrounding plants are seedlings of a thug plant sold to me as Dracocephalum moldavica.  These do not actually appear to be that plant, nor any other plant I can identify.  I have to shear them back after flowering to keep them from seeding, as they are prolific and filled with wander-lust.

Goumi berries starting to swell.  These grow amazingly fast into ripe berries–should have some fresh eating by the end of June.

The dwarf mulberry that had been planted in the orchard bed for two years got mowed accidentally early on, and subsequently just never really recovered.  I replaced it today with two Honeyberry plants, “Tundra” and “Cinderella.”  These Lonicera caerulea var. edulis cultivars should pollinate each other and be full of fruit starting in the next year or two.

The miniature rose in the orchard garden with raindrops on it.

This poor little penstemon from brother Tim battles the bindweed every year, but manages to survive.  I’ve increased my eradication efforts this year–I pull the rampant vines up every day to try and get them to disappear.

Raindrops on Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum multiflorum) leaves.

Lovely leaves and stems–a fantastic combination of substance and grace.

More raindrops.  And I’m hoping for many, many more raindrops as I don’t have much time right now to water things.

Such a crazy time in life and in the garden!  Seattle pretty much skipped spring and jumped right into summer.  We had multiple days in the 80’s in April, and it has been really dry, as well.  I will be putting the sprinkler out tomorrow.

I love this blackberry plant for its flowers and the promise they hold.  There were hardly any bees early on, but the last few days this plant has been abuzz with pollinators.

I’ve had this miniature rose since before we moved to this house 20 years ago.  It is finally getting some sun and a chance to flourish after the redo of the orchard garden last year.

The buds are deep yellow, but the flowers fade to a soft cream.

This lovely allium relative has the unfortunate name of Nectarscordum.

The flowers face down, so can  be tough to view…

Close-up.

The deep purple columbines contrast nicely with the bright raspberry foliage.  I keep cutting the raspberries back, but they are always one step ahead of me.  Tough to get mad at them during berry season, though.

The iris that were burned in Leon’s fire accident last year are blooming.  Only the really hardy, near-wild ones have flowers, but there are six spikes this year.  I love the look and the very distinctive fragrance.

The flowers are kind of wilty in all the hot sun, but the way they unfold and refold is interesting.  This was the iris that my Mom grew in her garden in Burien.

The species rose that I grew from a seed from the arboretum is blooming.  I love single roses.  These flowers are superficially similar to the blackberry blooms in the orchard bed.

 

This rose gets lovely hips, too, but I will need to cut it back before it has a chance this year–it is planted in a bad spot at the end of the driveway and it encroaches on the driveway and the street.

Dame’s rockets under Leon’s Miracle Gro sculpture in the Douglas fir bed.

I love how the dames rockets have spread.  They have a nice spicy scent and if I cut them back, they’ll bloom again.

Rhodohypoxis baurii form Edelweiss blooming in the greenhouse.

A larger division of the same clone.

The masdevallias keep blooming…

Freesia laxa with the orchids behind.

Close up of the seed-grown freesias.

 

The pitcher plant in bloom with a hatching of orb weavers behind.

A little more perspective on this interesting bloom.

Gorgeous Hippeatrum “Jade Dragon” in bloom in the greenhouse.

A different view.

The clivia show wasn’t as brilliant this year, but there were still some lovely flowers.

More clivia blooms.

These tiny seedlings of Geranium “Summer Snow” are tiny compared to the meadow cranesbill below that were started the same day.

Mountain bluets blooming in the Doug fir bed.

This is Brunnera “Alexander’s Great.”  So far, it seems okay with the dry, well drained soil of the Doug fir bed.

More pictures of the Miracle Gro with hesperis at its feet.

Close-up of the dame’s rockets (hesperis).  I grew the white ones from seed years ago and they persist as volunteers, with just a few lapsing into the more common lavender.

I love this little hosta in the Doug fir bed.  It has perfect foliage and a neat shape.

Another picture of the dame’s rockets.  I guess I really like them!

 

Lilac “Miss Kim” is a little beauty in front of our living room window.  It stays so low and blooms for almost a month.

All of these flowers, and a fresh fragrance, too.

This happy pansy wintered over in a pot on the driveway.

Here is a flower from the blackberry “Wild Treasure.”  This plant is very happy on the trellis this year and has a lot of flowers.  I’m hopeful for berries this year.

You can see all the flowers on Wild Treasure here.  We should have berries in a couple of weeks.

The Apache blackberry cane that I tipped last year at 6 feet has hundreds of flowers this year.  I’m looking forward to some serious blackberry production this year.

Another photo of Apache flowers.   I love these delicate blooms.

 

Here is one of the Jacob’s ladders I stated from seed last year.  It didn’t look like much all alone, but the photo makes it look pretty showy! this is the only one that bloomed of the 10 or so that I planted in the orchard bed last year.

Sweet woodruff flowers.  There is just a fringe of this ground cover near the arbor.

Detail of Solomon’s seal flowers and leaves.

More Solomon’s seals.

One of my favorite roses–this is Souvenir de St. Annes, I think.  It has the nicest fragrance and wonderful blooms.

The shrub isn’t doing well in a pot, so I  need to move it to the garden–I will look to doing that sometime soon before I lose  it altogether.

Jacob’s ladders of a softer shade.

And more.  These grow along the driveway.

Geranium macrorrhizum blooming all over the garden.  I like these.  They are less invasive than some, but spread enough to cover necessary ground.

Another amazing geranium.  This is a phaeum cultivar.  It grows up nicely through the big foots and blooms for a couple of weeks with these purple blooms.

More detail of the “Mourning Widow.”

This post is several weeks overdue, as the photos were taken a while back.  They need to be shared, however, as there were/are some amazing things happening in the garden.

You can’t escape spring even from inside the house, as the three clematis outside the french doors are blooming.  A pair of juncos is nesting in this particular vine, as well, so not only does it look good, but it sounds like hungry chicks!

The more double of the spring clematis.

 

You can see all three flower types of the vines in this photo–the more dainty single one on the left, the double one in the middle, both alpina clones.  C. montana rubens is to the right.

Montana rubens blooming extraordinarily well this year.  Some years it hardly blooms at all, and other years it is smothered in these luscious blooms.  Their beauty is magnified by the sweet fragrance.

You can really see the perfection of the blooms here.  They last maybe ten days.  The vine is attractive, too, with its darker leaves and reddish stems.  It can be a bit boisterous, but easy to prune back after flowering.

Here is an interesting contrast in the garden.  Two red Japanese maples, one with deeply dissected leaves, the other with the fuller classic maple shape.

For color contrast, the red maple and the golden hop excel.  The hop is becoming a bit of a thug, so we have to guide and prune it to keep it from overwhelming more delicate neighbors.

We have two stands of old-fashioned lilacs in our yard.  They bloomed well this year and very early.

These are blueberry flowers.  I have a couple of these shrubs blooming, so should get some good berry set this year.

A few of the forget-me-not volunteers in the driveway bed.  I love these little guys!

Two sides to camellia ownership.  First, the gorgeous, giant blooms.

Second, the mess!  I inherited this camellia with the house.  I’m not sure I would ever plant one of these big-flowered hybrids myself, since they struggle in the rain, which makes the flowers messy on the trees.  The small flowered species are more to my liking as garden shrubs.

A volunteer golden chain tree grows along the orchard bed next to the camellia.  It makes a nice transition.  I’m finding seedlings all through the new bark I put down last year.  I’ll move some of them to pots for bonsai and potted specimens.

These aronia blooms are really lovely.  This berry shrub is covered with blooms and should provide an excellent amount of berries for smoothies this year.

Another view.

Goumi flowers abound on my one shrub this year.  I love goumis because they are self fertile and prolific and completely trouble free.  The one challenge is the pit in each ripe berry–but I eat them fresh, usually, so it is less of a problem.

Here is a photo of one of the “rounds” I created around the existing plants in the orchard garden.  These are alpine strawberries and Jacob’s ladders.

A close up of the alpine strawberry blooms.  Berries are already setting on these charming woodlanders.

I’m very sad about my apple trees this year.  One of them didn’t bloom at all, and since they require a pollinator, it seems unlikely that I’ll get apples.  I planted two new trees this year, so in the future this may not be as big of an issue.  I saw very few bees this year pollinating the apple and cherry trees, so I took a paintbrush out and tried to pollinate myself.

Cherries have set, for sure, and there are also a few plums on the plum tree and a few Asian pears (above) on the mixed Asian pear espalier.

The bleeding hearts continue to bloom nicely.  This is the golden-leaved sport from sister Cate.

The standard form has become a very robust plant–like a small shrub!

The wall flowers that I started from seed last year look pretty good and smell even better.

Weedy as they are, I love these bluebells.  When we moved to the house, there were hundreds of them.  They’ve dwindled down to a few now, and I look forward to their show.

A few of the perennialized tulips along the driveway.

This beautiful shrub from brother Tim.  I let it grow up this year and tied it to the Jeff Tangen arbor.  It bloomed remarkably.  I will cut it back and hope for more flowers later in the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some more pictures from our recent Arizona vacation.

I believe this was a cholla cactus–the flowers not quite open yet.

 

This opuntia pad and fruits looks suspiciously like a foot with six toes.

I

Large opuntia with the foot-pad above to the left.

This saguaro had been damaged/broken and you can see the skeleton inside.  It was still growing and appeared well despite the huge loss of its entire top.

Open cholla flowers

Delicate petals and deadly spines

Not a plant you want to stumble upon in flip-flops!

More cactus flowers

And more…

And one more…

These are called fish hook barrel cactus–for obvious reason.  Beautiful plants, but somewhat unsociable.

Another view.  Spectacular plants!

The distant hills on one of my walks.  You can see the limestone cliffs at the tops, eroded by rain and wind into beautiful shapes.

Another spectacular cactus flower.

Amazing cactus plant with delicate blooms amid the deadly thorns.

We hear how Saguaros are endangered and getting rare.  And maybe all the Saguaro-like cactus we saw were not Saguaros at all.  But if they were, there were thousands and thousands of them.  Hard to imagine them endangered!

This poppy proved a bright spot in the desert.  This wasn’t a California poppy–possibly a Mexican poppy.

The rocks/stones/boulders are very impressive in the desert.

More impressive stones.

And more–the colors are amazing.

A typical view on a walk in the desert.

Amazing that plants, including cactus and Palos Verdes trees, find a way to grow in these extreme conditions.

I was pretty excited to find tamarisk along the roadside.  Later, I read that in Arizona, this is called “Salt Cedar” and it is extremely invasive.

A close up of the flowers.  This plant would be fine to grow in Seattle, likely, with no worries about it spreading.

Not sure exactly what the name of this daisy is, but it looked a bit like a tansy.  I only saw it in one place.

It can get tiresome to see all the dry, dry, dry and dusty.  So, I walked to the river and the views were fresher!

Near the river, these brave guys were heading straight up one of the steep  hills.

Arliss took us to Quartzite to see the sights.  This was one of the better/worse ones.

Someone had been using this plastic squirrel for target practice.  It was a strange thing to come upon in the desert.

Spectacular views on a walk near Arliss and Mike’s.

Another great view.  I was actually following the power lines so I wouldn’t get lost.

These hills were full of quartzite.

You can see the sparkling quartzite that the earth is spewing up here.

Another view.

And again…

My shadow against the parched earth.

Another fantastic vision.

A dwarf oenothera in the desert.

Close up of the flowers.

Not sure of these flowers, but they reminded me of layias, only one color.

Fantastic cloud formation.