Spring & Summer Flowers

This week I am so glad it is spring again with temperatures in the 70's & nights as low as 49.

We have a had quite a lot of rain & summery weather this month so things are growing well.

Larkspur & Poppies at the old veggie garden

&

Louisiana Iris in the rain garden

The Magnolia grandiflora is blooming as are the Kleim's Hardy Gardenias

I always think of these as June flowers

Most gardeners I talk to think things are getting hotter earlier

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) with Catmint (Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant')

& if you look carefully, a bee

Tiny White Flowers

Plants with small open flowers good for short tongued pollinators are blooming.

 Above Tiarella cordifolia 'Brandywine' from my friend Teresa is more a foliage plant but these foamy flowers are a delight for pollinators & me. Learn all about these plants from Tony Avent.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Article/Tiarella-Foam-Flowers


Serrisa foetida has done well in my garden although it does lose it's leaves in winter; in spring it bursts into bloom with a profusion of single white flowers. Around the corner from this shady garden the rabbits eat the small divisions I put in there almost to the ground. Each year they leaf out on the shrubby stubs and gain stature but no flowers yet. Maybe next year. This plant is often used for bonsai due to it's tiny flowers & foliage.

Bus shelter, telephone & post boxes with Daffodils

Near Chipping in Lancashire UK which is in a designated 'place of outstanding beauty' on maps I saw this example of how the British delight in making gardens everywhere.

Shrubs on steroids?

After 2 weeks away some of the spring blooming shrubs are in full bloom. 

At the park side in morning sun & afternoon shade the Viburnum macrocephalum 

or Chinese Snowball as it is know has 6 inch balls of bloom. It has grown far too tall & I plan to cut it back after flowering. This shrub, which is protected but trees & other shrubs, often opens a few blooms early in February. I haven't tried cutting this but it looks like total bridal bouquet.

The lime green color when it first opens is most attractive.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/all/viburnum-macrocephalum/

These dusky magenta flowers belong to  the hybrid Calycanthus "Hartlage Wine' developed at NCSU. They are big & beautiful but like so many hybrids no perfume is present. The native Carolina allspice or Sweet Betsy, it's parent, is renown for it's sweet scent. Whether this is an improvement depends on your sensibilities.

https://extensiongardener.ces.ncsu.edu/extgardener-jcra-introduces-hartlage-wine/

Carolina Silverbell

Halesia tetraptera is native to Eastern United States. The one on the edge of the garden I propagated from one I had purchased & grew in my last garden. The seed is doubly dormant & although it does have plenty of seed pods each year I have yet to find a seedling.

I never seem to get a really good photo but this morning just a the sun was reaching it I took these.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/trees/hgic1028.html

Here the hanging branches in front of Viburnum macrocephalum

Kerria japonica pleniflora

This fountaining shrub keeps it's green stems throughout winter. This spring it is spectacular!

It is up on an old dumping ground for large garden discards that has formed a berm. Now after several years & covered in leaf fall & mulch  it must be a fertile spot.

These golden pom-pom flowers appear again in fall but not as abundantly

Daffodils

The daffodils are so abundant this year. Must be all that rain we have had the last few months.

They seem taller & more robust. The trouble with daffodils is hiding the rejuvenating foliage until it dies down. It has been determined that tying the leaves in knots & other neatening methods is unhelpful  for feeding the bulbs. On the driveway Miss Huff lantana ( you can see the stems I left for winter interest) is now starting to grow & will soon cover the daffodil foliage.

Barrett Browning & February Gold are happy next to the concrete driveway.