Rolling On Into Summer

Peony bloomed May 21st 2020

The old fashioned peonies are blooming, my signature flower that the season has changed and moved on into summer. Why the reason for this particular plant? A couple of reasons actually. One is that in my hometown ( 340 miles north ) Peonies bloom middle to end of June- just in time for the first day of summer. The other is that once these bloom right on cue sticky summer-like air always seems to arrive right about when they start to bloom. Peonies are always something that's been in my garden, in fact all but 1 house I lived in had one somewhere. When first moving into this house there was a line of them out front. It wasn't quite the look I was going for so all but one was removed and given away. It sat pretty lonely in the lawn until the new garden that was added incorporated it right in.

Amsonia 5/27/2020

Baptisia as of 5/27/2020

Also in the garden with the peony is this amazing Baptisia also called False Indigo. I wish I remember the variety because I love it! There was another one of these up by my house which was my first Baptisia which is nice but the color is very muted. On this it is amazing and an intense dark blue. The bark blue one comes from Jenkins Garden Market in Carlisle. The Amsonia was from the same place, this is a fern-leaf type which I've noticed does much better then the other type. At least in my garden anyways.

Iris 'Dividing line'

Iris 'Stars and Stripes forever'

Just like always the Iris are in full glory right now which always happens right along with Peonies. Both of these were gifts from a co-worker and one Stars and Stripes forever has gotten quite large. I was a fan of the blue and white coloration. The other is a smaller Iris so the requested was made to get one. It's very nice but both are!

Salvia 'Color Spires Pink Dwan'

So something has to be made clear here, I am NOT a fan of the purple Salvia! Its something that has always passed up for other flowers because it just never interested me- not even a little. Then I saw this color type, I had to have it at first glace, the small blooms are larger and a pleasant light pink color. Another two-toned one was added near it this year. I'm hoping the stronger flower stalks will help with the issue of falling over which is very common with these. finger crossed!

Hosta varieties

Rhododendron 'Rosum Elegans' 5/27/2020

So another thing that was hard for me to get into was needle evergreens. there fine but feel they are more meant for northern climates which doesn't fit in a heartland area in my opinion. So what I do is add boardleaf evergreens. There are three types of Rhododendrons in my lawn this was is large-leaf type variety Rosum Elegans which is superior for hardiness because typically you would not see these in our region. The late blooms are nice surprise color going into the warm season a great shrub for a shaded space. Speaking of shaded space, My Hostas look downright fantastic this year! The "mild" spring and lack of heat has really brought out their color and nothing has faded yet as it typically does around this time of year. These have been filling in nicely and getting larger. The green one on the top of the hill is my favorite for its name, 'T-Rex'

Columbine in the woodland 5/27/2020

Prairie Garden 5/27/2020

The prairie garden doing its typical early summer fast growth and its filling in quite nicely. The bearded tongue is about to begin blooming. This garden has much of its color in the middle to late part of the season since all these plants are native and they tend to bloom out in the heat of summer. A plant blooming now though are the Columbine which are over in the woodland garden. They really look nice this year and they are starting to seed in other areas, which of course I want.

Woodland Garden 5/27/2020

While I'm showing off the Woodland Garden I must say how proud I am of how this garden is finally taking off! It took a couple years but finally everything is starting to fill in. This is an extremely dense shaded part of my lawn and not suitable for mowing so I planed lots of Pennsylvanian sedge which is a native grass that thrives in shade and fills out. I mixed Hosta into the violets which were already there and added a few other woodland natives. The two Dinosaurs in this photo that live in the Woodland Garden are Little Lucky the T-Rex and a new arrival to the garden Petra the Pterodactyl. The ferns really kick of this garden and give it that extra prehistoric look!

Shaw the Spinosaurus & Late spring blooms

Shaw ( Spinosaurus )

A new week, a new Dinosaur! However this Dinosaur is very unique and cane when a big job to do. I have a really ugly gas meter inconveniently located smack dab in the front of my house. Why they didn't located it on the side like all the other homes on my street is unknown to me! I tried for the past few years to plant in front to screen it, but because it is quite shaded for a large chuck of the day nothing would get tall enough. So I decided to have a dinosaur made just for the purpose of hiding it! I found a facebook ad for Dinosaurs art and ask if they did custom jobs and I was pleasantly surprised when they said they did! I gave the measurements and I'll say this was a challenging space since it was so teight to the deck but the team at Skjordal powder coating near Indianola was up to the task! Being local it gave me the option to choose which type of Dinosaur that could be made, so Spinosaurus my favorite type was chosen!- A kind that was never available to me until now. Everything was done virtually through messages and surprisingly ( to me ) it fit perfectly and did the exactly job I was intending, changing a gas meter to a cool feature and he is so skinny I can easily still have plants in front! This guy was named Shaw after the street in which he was made on. With the great work they did, it was easy to have them be the place that makes Thujas features which is currently under the process of being designed.

Prairiefire Crabapple 5/7/20

The Crabapples have been blooming wonderfully the past couple of weeks. This variety was a new addition to the backyard, variety Prairiefire, this type has dark pink that don't fade and the overall look is airy, a feature I really liked in a woodland garden setting. Strangely this is the first Crabapple I've owned- I really do like them however and enjoy their fragrance.

Geranium Cultivar

Wild Geranium

Now all the early-mid spring flowers like Tulips and Daffodils have long faded are we doomed to have no color until the summer flowers kick in? Actually that really is far from the truth. There are lots of other flowers that bloom between then. The key is to find them, I've been slowly adding things over the years. The above are both types of Geraniums, these unlike many others are strait or cultivars of the native Geranium. They are native to shaded/woodland gardens making them a good choice if you have some shade. The blooms last for about 3 weeks and leaves look nice all summer long. These have been slowly spreading for me and I don't mind at all!

Hosta 'T-Rex'

Hosta 'First Frost

Hostas look fantastic this time of year- their fresh leaves unfold out in wonderful shades of yellow, blue and green and they are not marked up yet! I have about 30 Hostas mostly in my Woodland Garden but also scattered among other beds. Unfortunately mine are usually hit pretty hard with slugs in the coming weeks which enjoy moist mulched environments. I discovered a Hosta was named after T-Rex so for obviously reasons I had to have it! It is supposed to be a very large type, I bought mine as small start a couple years ago and it is finally start to get a bit of size to it. They can grow to be 4-5' in size!

Amethyst Shooting Star

Prairie Shooting Star

 Shooting Stars are really unique looking natives and I never knew how fragrant they are! They are bee magnets which is of course good. These plants are true ephemeral and will disappear once it really starts to get hot, they of course return next spring. Amethyst Shooting Star is more of a shady woodland flower while Prairie Shooting Star likes full sun.

Jack In The Pulpit 5/7/20

Trillium 5/7/20

A couple more Woodland Flowers- Trillium are fantastic in full shade sites in late spring. They a pricey and hard to establish in the garden but are worth it once you get them down. These littered the forest floor by the hundreds in Northwest Wisconsin where I'm from so its nice to have a little slice of that. Jack In The Pulpit is another cool native shade dweller the really speaks for its self. Allow it to seed to you can keep having new ones because the mother plant eventually will fade away. They like wetter sites if possible.

Woodland Garden as of 5/7/20

I'm very proud of how the Woodland Garden is coming along lately! After 2 years of work and allowing to grow everything is filling in very nice. The Pennsylvania Sedge is starting to look as it should and is doing its thing. There are mostly native plants in this section, but It can be really hard to find color in natives so you will also find Hostas for the added color. Eventually this woodland garden will expanded to the entire area behind my garage.

The last photo for today is of one of the flower pots- It is time to change over things from spring to more of a summer! I have no pots truly in full sun- I have part sun or dense shade to work with. This year I choose Sunpatients, Some Star Calibrachoas, Eucalyptus and Torienia as a spiller. I'm sill learning colors but I feel things are coming along nicely, this combination looks great! Now it will get the true test to see if it still looks nice as we go through the season.