Donald planted some of our tomatoes and peppers, this past week. All well and good-- until something started felling the delicate plants! Just cutting them off right at soil level and leaving them there. We think it may be a cutworm, so the plants all have protective aluminum (can and foil) collars, now. Fingers crossed against more destruction...
The wild blackberries have been blooming and setting fruit. I wish I liked blackberries more than I do... They're okay, but too tart without sugar-- and the seeds stick in your teeth.
Wild honeysuckle is blooming on the forest-facing fence, where weeds are not entirely under control.
Some of the tiger lilies are looking very happy!
Luna investigating something on one of the paths... If you look closely, you can see that one of the daylilies in the far bed has put up a couple of scapes! Blooms soon!
Trixie inspects the roses. "Looking good," she says.
Another shot from the same general location:
This planter holds dwarf marigolds and a couple (though only one has come up so far) of climbing black-eyed susans. The planter came from Granny's garden, last year, and the stand is from Mom. So many of the plants and pots (and other decor) in my garden have come from family. I've been very lucky to have generous gardeners in my life!
The old-fashioned pink climbing rose (from Aunt Cathy, years ago) has begun blooming. It has such a nice rose scent.
This largest of the yellow Knock Out roses (at the moment) is covered in rosebuds:
More photos of the "KO" roses:
In this one, you can see a little more of the other surrounding plants:
We've had the first two flowers from the new Joseph's Coat climbing rose. They've both started out yellow/creamy apricot, then turned pink and orange. I've read that you shouldn't prune climbing roses for the first two years. (Not sure why... To give them time to get established, I guess...) Cutting off spent blooms is okay, though, and it can encourage another round of flowers.
Some say this rose may not be great for humid climates, as it can suffer from mildew. Well, it wasn't an especially expensive plant (about $5, I think), so it's worth a try! Hey, even the supposedly foolproof Knock Out roses can get rose rosette disease, so nothing is guaranteed to succeed.
False indigo:
One of the other clematis vines from Mom has started blooming. It's a much simpler flower than the exuberant white clematis-- just a single layer of petals-- but the soft violet color suits the delicate form, I think.
The snow-in-summer I planted indoors didn't do well at all. So leggy and spindly and sad! (I eventually gave up on them.) After deciding that the plant wasn't likely to thrive here, I scattered the rest of the seed in a few flower pots outdoors and (apart from watering them once or twice, early on) left them to their fate. Imagine my surprise to discover this weekend that they look to be doing pretty well!
Still not sure they'll have long-term success, but they've already exceeded expectations:
The Luna-dog:
