June Bloom Day

It's been an extraordinary June, and an all-around extraordinary spring in the Chicago area.  It's been the polar-opposite of spring 2012.  Last spring was hot and very, very dry.  This spring has been very cool, with record rainfall.  

The garden is lush, full, green, and a little bit holey thanks to an old-fashioned thunderstorm complete with hail and a flattened garden earlier this week.  The photos were taken that day, before the hail that left its mark in the garden and on our patio furniture.  The blooms are all still here though, even the bellflowers the bunnies usually mow down.  The ones blooming are guarded with little fences.

  Purple alliums are done, and white ones are just starting.  The bunnies never touch the alliums.

The mini-rose the Lawn Man gave me years ago still thrives, and just gets better every year.  The bunnies prune it for us every winter.

 'Rozanne' is a little slow getting started this year.

 'Marmalade' has been here a long time.  'Mocha' is a more recent addition.  I will admit to a minor heuchera addiction.

Geranium 'Biokovo'  is winding down.  That old potted pelargonium in the background has spent many winters in the basement.

'May Night' salvia

'Blue Hill' salvia.  Might be time to divide these.

'Happy Returns' daylily is staying warm within the foliage this June.

'Black Lace' sambucus is blooming.  Elderberry wine anyone?

Three 'Pure Joy' sedums, for three granddaughters.  Last year at Walters Gardens Media Day, I won one for the pure joy of our identical twins' birth.  This year the nice people at Walters Gardens sent me three more to trial.  The one from last year is for my grandson now, because he's the oldest.  The new ones are blooming already, and the one I received last year is so cute with it's mounded self and pretty foliage.  Sedums do fantastically well in our part-sun, normally very dry garden.  It's not dry this year, and the sedums are equally as happy with all the rain.

I love lamium.  It really lights up a shady spot.

These Alpine strawberries were grown from seeds from Renee's Garden a few years ago.  From sometime in April, all the way through frost these pretty, runnerless plants bloom, and I eat a handful of little berries almost every day.

Geranium sanguineum var. striatum is native in Great Britain, and thrives in our garden.

 

Can't remember now which nepeta this is.  It's shorter than Walker's Low. 

'Husker Red' penstemon in a newer bed way in the back corner.  All the little fences thwart the bunnies.  They work, and we don't see them from a distance.

This gorgeous paniculata hydrangea came home with me from Walters Garden last summer.  It's even bigger and better this year.  Can't wait to see 'Quick Fire' bloom any day now.  It has a little fence too.  It's the only way hydrangeas survive around here.  I've lost a few hydrangeas to bunnies.

Winterberry hollies will be blooming any minute.  This one is the male.  I took this photo yesterday - you can see some minor hail damage on the foliage.  It's mostly unscathed though, since it's in a protected spot.

Dragon Wing begonias . . . love . . .even with a few holes in the foliage now.

We're doing less pots around here this year, and zero impatiens.  But the Lawn Man was looking back at old garden photos and found one of New Guinea impatiens and bacopa in a hanging basket.  He wanted to do that again.  I substituted Scaevola for the bacopa.  I think it  holds up better all season long.  He doesn't remember what that hanging basket looked like in August, but I do.  Next year I might do this again with orange New Guineas and blue Scaevola.  

It's been a very unusual spring in Chicagoland.  It's so, so green.  It's beautiful relief after last year's drought.  We've had more than enough rain so far.  We could do without the hail and severe weather.  I hope it will be a good year for farmers and gardeners. We all could use a break.

To see more Bloom Day posts, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Wild Things

Yep - we're more than just a bit late for Wildflower Wednesday.  We do have a few wild things blooming though.  Just check out these colorful blooms above!   Ed and Zelda have been hanging out here a lot lately.  

Last summer we took down a spruce that died suddenly in September, 2011.   We hadn't noticed anything wrong with the tree, and it was a green as ever.  I was out on the patio one windy afternoon, and suddenly out of nowhere it was raining spruce needles.  Everywhere.  It didn't stop until the old spruce was completely bare about an hour later.  Ed seems to be enjoying the stump.  He rested here all afternoon, after swimming in the swale all morning.  Zelda's there too - beautiful in her own right, just a little more shy than Ed.  They make a cute couple, don't you think?  

They're so much fun to watch.  April's record rainfall, and a full swale have brought them back frequently. They seem to have settled in and made themselves at home.

Spring beauties (Claytonia virginica,) have been blooming for a couple of weeks.  I just love these tiny striped blooms.  The clump has gotten larger this year, and there are new clumps forming in other spots in the garden.  Ants may have planted the seeds for us. 

 Sanguinaria canadensis, also known as bloodroot, came from Mom's woods a few years ago.  This clump has grown quite a bit too - from one small leaf and one bloom, to this nice little clump and a succession of blooms, each lasting only a few days before the petals fall.  They're fleeting, but lovely, and the large, leathery leaves are pretty cool too.

  

Celandine poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) are just getting started.  These are the first blooms.  They'll continue blooming all spring and into the summer.  Celandine poppies are the longest-blooming natives in our garden.  I love the lacy foliage on these plants. 

Tiny bunnies, eyes not even open yet are 'blooming' in our garden this month too.  I have fantasies of rabbit stew, but they're too cute and precious to harm.  I think that now, but those fantasies will be back when they start mowing down the garden.  We don't call this place Bunnies' Salad Bar & Grill for nothin'!

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are just getting started too.  They're among my favorite flowers in spring.  

After a long winter and a slow spring, it's warming up here just in time for May.  After a slow start, the garden has come alive in the last couple of weeks, and everything is appreciating the extra rain after last year's drought and heat.  

I  hope you're enjoying beautiful spring blooms, and plenty of rain (but not too much!) in your little corner of the world.

To see more Wildflower Wednesday posts, please visit Gail at Clay and Limestone.  Thank you for hosting, Gail!

April Bloom Day

Life's been more than a little hectic in recent months, and I've been taking a break from blogging.  All's well here though.  Life has been going on as usual, and spring is upon us once again in the Chicago area.  Snowdrops are fading,

Hellebores are blooming,

scillas too.

 

This hellebore may be reverting to single blooms.  There are more singles than doubles. These blooms are on the same plant as the doubles up above.  Last year this plant didn't bloom at all.  Maybe it didn't like the early-spring heat.

This hellebore is still doing what it's always done.

Warmer weekend weather coaxed a few daffodil buds open.

I love these split-cup daffodils. 

We're way behind in blooms compared to last year when March brought temperatures in the 70's and even 80's.  This has been a more normal spring, actually a bit cooler than usual, and a lot rainier than last year.  I'm grateful.  Last spring's hot, dry weather continued through summer.  A cooler, rainier summer would be nice this year.  Can we order that?  Trees and shrubs, everything flora and fauna could use a break. 

Hope you all here in the northern hemisphere are enjoying normal spring weather, and enough rain. To see more April blooms, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

January Bloom Day

It's another relatively mild winter so far in Chicagoland.  The snow thrower hasn't moved from its storage spot yet this winter.  We've had a few snow flurries, and a little rain.  Drought in our area continues.

Again this month we have no outdoor blooms. A single Helleborus niger (Christmas rose) bud continues growing in the garden, showing no sign of opening anytime soon.  Maybe next month.

We do have this kalachoe blooming in our dining room.   Kalanchoes kept indoors here tend to get somewhat leggy,  and not so pretty when left to their own devices.  So after they bloom I'll cut them back, strip the bottom three or four sets of leaves from the cuttings, and let the cut end dry out for a day, maybe two.  Next the cuttings go in a pot filled with moist soil, deep enough to cover the stripped leaf nodes. The pot will be watered sparingly, but enough to prevent the soil from drying out until the cuttings have rooted.  Then  we'll have more of these sweet, colorful blooms next winter on new plants. The old plants don't seem to recover very well from being hacked, so they'll probably be composted.

Cactus potting soil works well for kalanchoes.  I don't bother with special soil for them though.  All-purpose potting soil works fine here as long as the pots have drain holes.  These get watered once every week or two at most.

Kalanchoes thrive on neglect. They like this sunny south window, and they like to dry out between watering once they're well-rooted.  In December they get a little fertilizer, and by sometime in January they bloom.

The African violet has been blooming for over a month - cheap thrills and winter color. 

The Thanksgiving cactus bloomed on time, and again at Christmas. This month it has a few fat buds and one about to open, with many more small buds still growing. This plant will often rebloom through spring if I remember to fertilize it now and then.

I hope you're enjoying a few blooms this month, either in your garden or indoors.   To see more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Happy New Year

Enjoy - breathtaking, inspiring, and sublime, complements of  Mother Nature, and the indomitable human spirit.

 Happy New Year - one beautiful moment at a time.