poi-son i-va-a-a-a-ay...

This is what happens when you weed-wack in a poison ivy patch - of course he didn't realize until a day or so later...

These pictures are somewhat disturbing. View at your own risk.

We've decided this is a 'Y', for Yvonne :)

life and death of a knautia bloom...

This is when it turns to seed and if you don't want millions of knautia plants growing everywhere, you'll need to deadhead at this point. It's a nearly everyday task from the moment they start blooming at the beginning of May until almost Thanksgiving.

summer blooms...

daylily

This rose (according to its tag) is called 'Chicago Peace'

Love-in-a-mist

I think this is called a 'mop-head' hydrangea.

I had moved a couple of these hydrangea's when we first moved in; four years ago. This is the first year that they actually had buds on them - and plenty! I hope this means that they will be budding every year.

It may have been the amount of snow that we had and the fact that they were covered with snow pretty much the entire winter - so no cold wind could get to them. I think this winter I will cover them, so that it will protect them. You can never count on the Michigan winters to be quite like they were last winter.

my pretty new bike...

lots of pink...

astilbe x 'pink' (spiraea)

I had replanted these two astibles (spiraea) under the magnolia tree two years ago. They had been right in the sun and were being choked out by some property demanding hostas and other plants.

They didn't do well at first - this is the first time I've seen them bloom - and it's quite BIG! I'm very happy and hope they will continue to flourish under this big, shady tree.

There is a white one right next to the pink one that has buds, but hasn't bloomed yet.

As you can see, their neighbors are pachysandras.

carefree beauty (bucbi)

If you click on the photo above, you will see the scourge of the garden - a Japanese Beetle!!! Now all my roses and other flowers are going to start to look VERY shabby. These beetles are relentless and will devour the whole garden. They just started showing up this weekend.
Makes me sad :'(
A couple of pictures before they start looking ragged.

happy independence day...

Some of the flowers that started to bloom over the weekend.

yucca - spanish dagger
lily (not sure what is the name of this one) - see the little bug - cute.
close up of the bear's breech spire - mostly green, with a slight purple on top and a white blossom coming out of the bottom.

good 'ol orange daylily

Also this weekend, I started moving some plants. We are having our garage demo'd (and eventually rebuilt) and the contractors will need to move about 6 of my boulders that are close to the current garage.

There are several plants in that area that will need to be moved; roses, lace-capped hydrangea, yew, russian sage, knautia macedonica, bamboo (and hopefully that will be it). Jerome said that we will have our contractor come out and tell us if we'll need to move more. UGH!

We live on a lot that is 75 X 200 - and we have most every space taken up by some kind of plant. I hope we can find a place for everyone.

I moved three rose bushes on Saturday and they are in shock. I really hope they survive. I just heard yesterday that they crave potassium and that the best way to get that to them is to cut up some banana peels into small chunks and put that in the soil around the rose bushes. I think I will do that right away and see what happens.

Also, pulled out all the "bean" plants. We've been successful eliminating a couple of other invasive plants by just pulling them out. One was called Crown Vetch and the other was called Bishop's Weed or Ground Elder. Every time we saw one poking its little head out, we'd pluck it. Now they are gone. Hopefully it will work the same with the bean.

Summer Stock Sunday.

what to look for in july...

In July, these are the flowers in my garden that we need to watch for since this is the month that they begin to bloom:

Blanket flowers
Dahlias
Lipstick vine
Russian sage
Cosmos
Globe thistles
Morning glories
Roses of Sharon
Hydrangea (mop head)
Chrysanthemums
Clematis

did my walk around...

And look what I found!

"Scentimental" rose (thanks Dynochick!)

delphinium 'magic fountains lavender / white bee'

threadleaf coreopsis 'Zagreb'

we've been told this is some sort of bean...my husband HATES it and we've been trying to get rid of it for a couple of years now - we're just not very diligent when it comes to pulling it up because it's in an awkward place in the boulder garden.

Oh, and look who's here...black and white kitty. He's been hanging around but won't let you get close. I didn't know he was sleeping under one of the Japanese maples when I went to do my tour - I scared the kitty crap out of him!
bear's breech - odd plant, but very prolific. You can take one little piece that you've pulled and stick in in the ground - it will look more than dead for a while and then all of a sudden, you have a new plant.

I answered an ad on craigslist and so I've got a guy coming out today to take some of my perennials because the garden is very OVERGROWN...anyone else?

Update: Dude didn't show...

a lone cosmo...

This was a surprise yesterday. A couple of years back, I purchased a bunch of flowers to decorate our other house when we were putting it up for sale. This was one that I had purchased. After they ran their course, I planted them in my garden.

Last year, this one had leaves, but no flower so I looked them up on the internet. It says that cala lilies don't survive cold weather and need to be dug up every year. So, I thought it was a goner, for sure.

Well, last evening when I was taking pictures, I noticed this in the middle of the Star-gazer lilies!

star-gazer lilies...

when we got home...

These were some of the flowers that were blooming when we got home.

I was very surprised to see that we still had irises...two years ago when we went to France at the end of May, I totally missed the blooming of all the irises and poppies. I think that because we have been having cooler weather, it's helped the lifespan of some flowers.

Oriental Poppies - these are really all one color, but when I took the picture, the sunlight made them look like they are variegated.

Roses

Dynochick calls this Purple Pavement

RhodieSalvia meadow sage ‘east friesland’

Can anyone tell me what the name of this is? It will have some pinky-purpley flowers.  (Update: this is some sort of Sedum).

chateau sun garden...

I am back from France...over a week now.

While visiting a château (Villandry), we came across their sun garden. I couldn't believe the amount of plants that they had in the garden that I also have in my garden.

Of course, they labeled their plants and I noticed that one was named slightly differently than what I thought. The Knautia Macedonia in France was called Knautia Macedonica.

When I got home, I checked it out on-line and it seems that I had it wrong the whole time.

what to look for in june...

In June, these are the flowers in my garden that we need to watch for since this is the month that they begin to bloom:

Lavender mountain lilies
Peonies
Poppies
Roses
Bell flowers (white peach bell)
Lilies (star gazer)
Bear’s breech
Coreopsis
Day Lilies
Delphinium
Hostas