Flowers Of The Changing Season

Peony bloomed May 23rd 2019

Peonies have always marked the end of the spring season and the start of summer for me. The reason for it is fairly simple. In my home state of Wisconsin peonies were always in bloom right around Mid June naturally lining up with the summer solstice anyway, but also because by then usually the first bouts of hot humid weather starts to arrive at the same time. There are multiple different types of Peonies but for me its the old fashioned standard peony that is the first flower of the summer. This week has proven the flower choice was right with the season choice, we've had some pretty humid days but over all it hasn't been very hot yet except for just one day or two. Instead its been mild and raining nearly every day the last couple of weeks and we've had scattered days with storms that have been strong and brought winds. We have seen over 4"in the last couple of weeks which is way over May normal total value.

Iris Bearded bloomed May 26th 2019

 The Iris also bloomed this week. I have not added very many of these to my yard but I am starting to wonder why because they really are quite beautiful and the fragrance is amazing!  I think I need have to go ahead and add a few colors to garden maybe purple next time.

Rhododendron 'Rosum Elegans'

Azalea 'Gilbrator'

 Azaleas and Rhododendrons have bloomed nicely this year considering the winter extreme lows we had. I'm a bit late in showing these on here, however they are still in bloom as of current. The Korean Azaleas as expected only bloomed below he snow-line since the temperature killed off the flower buds. The good news however we had very high snow depths most of the winter so the snowline was 2-3' high leaving a good show on most of the plant. The big leaf Rhododendron and the Azalea 'Gilbrator' which are Minnesota totally handled the winter just fine because they are used to it!

 Korean Azalea 'var. yedoenese poukhaense'

Hosta 'June'

Hosta unknown variety

I grew many Hostas at my hometown house growing up but I never really got back into them much until last year. I really like the minis and the ones with nice thick foliage, which seem to be better for keeping slugs off. I also have a treasured Hosta called T Rex that fits into my dino-theme which is supposed to get huge but it was a young start and will be awhile before he really starts to roam over the garden. Has anyone noticed how the Hostas have been very colorful and lush this year? The reason is because we have not had  many hot sunny days before the trees leafed out. Last year we had a high near 100 one day before leaf out and the plants burnt up making them look like they do in August even before the start of June. This year the cool wet weather this spring has allowed them to be extra colorful and nice this year!

Woodland Garden

Redbud in bloom 4/27/19

When I moved into my house I inherited a big mess in the area behind the garage. It had an ugly rusted metal building along with many honey suckle and other non desirable trees like Mulberry to which I had at least 10 of growing in the fence, really anything that the birds graciously "planted" over the years. First thing I did was clear away all this and I decided pretty quickly the area was so shaded by other trees this space needed to be a woodland style native garden. So I visited several parks to see what plants grew in woodlands around here and started adding some based on what I saw in that pallet. Redbud was the first thing I added as a really nice somewhat shade tolerant tree that have such nice blooms .The fallen tree trunk in the back was here when I moved in so I decided to leave it since it is common to find rotting trees in the wild woods and I thought it really added to the scene back there.

Weeping Redbud 4/27/19

Just before my prairie garden starts in between my house and the neighbors which is half shaded by a Silver Maple tree I decided there needed to be a short tree and so I choose weeping Redbud they grow downward which means they won't get any taller then 5' for so. Weeping trees to be usually look sad or grow in such a strange way it is un appealing. However with Weeping Redbuds I found this not to be the case. There is something about the lovely leaves and flowers actually make this tree look elegant when in weeping form!

Woodland Garden 5/2/19

I added a step stone path last summer and this spring I changed the plastic edging to a natural stone one which I believe does this garden much more justice then the plastic did. I added a lot of Pennsylvania Sedge to this garden, like over 200 of them! This grass-like sedge makes a wonderful low groundcover which is very shade tolerant. I needed a plant like this to tolerant the dense shade that my low-branched Sugar Maple produces. Some day this will cover the entire garden but the other plants wont be crowed out and over time there will be no need to mulch this space anymore! Many of my woodland flowers will go dormant after blooming so adding a few Hostas in the garden even though they are not native will keep some interest throughout the summer months.

Woodland Garden Phlox/Trillium

Bluebells 5/1/19

Here we have a small collection of my woodland garden plants. Notice the fallen branch. When branches fall into the garden just like a real woodland they stay because they are consider to be a natural part of the landscape now. The same goes for trimming plants and leaves. Everything stays and this garden mostly is designed to take care of its self. Rabbits have unfortunately discovered the Woodland Phlox finally and they likely wont have blooms on them for much longer since they seem to really like those. They also like the Solomon's Seal for some reason. One thing they don't seem to like are the bluebells, after a nibble they have since left them alone for the time being.

Woodland Violets 5/1/19

The one flower I had not added was these Woodland Violets. These came with this house and come in colors of purple pure white and a really cool white/purple mix. Last year I caved a little and decided my native garden needed to have a Hosta bed. I dreaded having to pull all the violets to make way for the new Hosta bed until thinking to myself why did the violets really have to be pulled? My earlier thinking made me assume right away that the Hosta bed had to be completed devoid of any plants accept for the kind I was planting... Hosta. So instead the Hosts went in integrated both together with the violets and I must say they go together really well and bridge the gap between the 100% native woodland and the new "Hosta" garden.  I have since went a step further and even added my sedge into the Hosta bed to bridge the gap even more. Also must add these Violets are a pretty nice groundcover and they have leaves all summer even under a thick Maple tree so I guess they really need to be appreciated for how tough they really are!