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!