Flowers that Thrive on Neglect

I've heard that the acidity of the water you put on hydrangea makes the color.  So no water at all must mean bright blue. This one is at our old house, and I can barely keep up with watering at the new house in this hot dry year.

I used to have over 50 different dahlias, but I used to dig the bulbs every year and carefully identify them and store them in the basement.  When I quit digging them, the varieties narrowed to the ones that can survive in the ground all winter.  This is one of my favorites - Called Key West when I bought the bulb years ago.

This one is called Oenesta - very hardy and the bees love the abundant blooms.

This dark red nameless dahlia came from my friend, Bill.  It is very hardy, has abundant blooms, but kind of weak stems so it isn't that great for bouquets.

Plate dahlia - I've forgotten the name - very strong stems, lots of blooms, and it comes back every year.

Duet - I used to have a plate dahlia with these colors, but haven't seen it bloom for several year.  This one bloomed for the first time this year after several years without blooming.

This one might be a cross - don't recall it from the past.

My friend, Karen, gave me several lilies, and I'm just loving them!  Easy to grow, they smell wonderful, and they are very drought tolerant.

Gladiolas are showy and don't require much tending.  I have many varieties blooming and many more that haven't bloomed yet.  It really is my favorite time of year, even though it keeps me very busy keeping some water on everything.

Flowers, Fruit, Veggies, and Visitors

In the Pacific Northwest, summer is when we meet ourselves coming and going.  The days are long, so we don't sleep much, we cherish every day of sunshine, and sometimes think wistfully of winter when we can slow down.  The true sun worshippers live here - when the sun shines, we can't bear to waste a single minute inside.

A wonderful variety of flowers are in bloom 

My sister, Molly, introduced me to dahlias and gladiolas many years ago, and I can't imagine summer without them.

I used to dig the bulbs every fall and replant in the spring.  However, one year I didn't have time to dig them, so I mulched them good, and they have continued to come back year after year without digging.

Most of my flowers are in a swath along my garden fence, but I've moved a few to the front of the new house.

I've added a few new colors this year and planted some along the front of the new house.

When I choose bulbs in the spring, I usually forget what colors I've picked, so it's always interesting to spot new blooms and marvel at their beauty.

My friend, Karen, gave me a bunch of lily bulbs this year, and they just might be my new favorite flower.  They have come in a variety of gorgeous colors,

My entire garden is engulfed in the wonderful aroma of lilies this year.

With the spectacular weather we've had this summer, my garden is overflowing with produce.  The corn should be ready next week, and I already have 8 quarts of pickles in my pantry.

Wild blackberries are ripe, so I'm fully into my jam making season.

And it's the perfect time to enjoy some of our stunning parks and beaches with visitors.  Our granddaughter, Sara,  her husband, Dan, and their wonderful little munchkins came to visit last week.

We started in Granite Falls at the annual car show, "Show 'n Shine" and then went to Deception Pass State Park for a picnic and some beachcombing.

It's so much fun to watch a toddler choose rocks and sticks to collect. Even Grandma brought home a new rock collection.
We love summer!

Garden Update July 5, 2017

The old saying is your corn should be "knee high by the 4th of July".  Some years that's tricky, but this year, we are well beyond the knee high mark!

It grows dramatically when we have sunny days.

We use a lot of onions so it's nice to have them ready to use. 

Cucumbers are starting to bloom

The dill will be ready when the cucumbers are ready to be made into pickles.

I'm leaving the tomatoes in the greenhouse, and they seem to be doing well - no ripe tomatoes yet, but lots of green ones.

Raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are producing lots of fruit.

The apples are really looking great!

Both edible pod and regular peas are producing nicely.

I have a bunch of small kohlrabi ready to pick.

And squash and pumpkins - if all goes well, I should have a huge surplus of many different kinds of squash.

The green beans and I have been fighting off the slugs, and I think we are finally ahead of them.

Today I trimmed about half of the grapes.  I hate that job as I know virtually nothing about how to prune them.  My late friend, Steve Smith used to prune them for me, and he painstakingly separated every single vine and had a formula for leaving buds.  Ron watched a movie where they had a vineyard and he said they trimmed all the leaves once the grapes had formed.  I had a real estate client one time who owned a grape orchard and he said "it's easy, just trim them to where a harvester can pick them at 36" height.  So I use a mix of all those methods - basically pruning them savagely where they intrude into the driveway and the garden, chopping off every vine that points down, and clipping the ends off every vine to leave visible grape clusters at about 36" height.  I think the key for me is to have enough that it doesn't matter how I prune them, there will be grapes!

The flowers are mostly either in bloom or budding and ready to bloom.  It will be very colorful around here in about another week.

My Iris Garden

The iris might be my favorite flower!  I just love the time of year when most of them bloom.  I still have a few that haven't burst into bloom, but there are quite a few in full bloom.

They are easy to grow, send out new tubers every year, and some are even fragrant!

This one is not just delicate and beautiful, but also fragrant!

This dark purple has multiple blooms per stalk.

When I originally selected these, they all had names - unfortunately, I didn't keep track of the names.

These are from my Mom's original iris garden.

This one is tiny - about half the size of most iris.

Not open yet - but nearly black and huge - one of my favorites!

Every Blooming Thing

One of the lovely things about Spring is that suddenly, everything has color.  After the grays and browns of the winter months, along with sunshine, we find every color.  Starting with green

of the lupine leaves, and a silver drop of water from all the recent rains.

Asparagus spear - one of the real signs that spring has arrived.

Rhododendrons blooming in so many colors,

Apple blossoms bring a promise of fruit in the fall.

Perennials like "Shooting Star" and

Lily of the valley, and many others.

Also time for beautiful Mother's Day Baskets!