The week in the garden- April 28

 Artichokes!  This one tasted great!

 Beautiful chard.  I prefer the red, but this is what grew from a mixed packet.  So pretty!

 Hydrangea opening.  This is the one Robby found for me.  I wanted a white one.

 My favorite rose, Evelyn. 

 Calla lily.

 Nasturtiums going crazy.  Can you see the wheelbarrow down in there?

The back garden with the roses in first flush. Someone is coming Monday to use the garden for a photo shoot!  : )

Sunday April 22, the week in the garden

This is the burgeoning spring season in the garden.  Very soon, if not already we are at the peak of bloom season.  The roses are into their first big flush and other flowers are blooming daily.  

 Crown Princess Margareta, a David Austin rose that grows as a short climber for me.  Nicely fragrant and gorgeous in first bloom.  More photos next week.  Both the individual flower and the shrub are lovely.

 This iris was a gift from Jen.  I am so pleased I picked this one!

My unknown peony from a bareroot start from Costco. 

Foxglove

Dianthus barbatus 'Sooty'.  I raised this one from seed and it is a biennial, which means it takes two years to get this far.  It has the typical clove diantus fragrance.  Worth the wait! 

The week: rain and fragrance

The week in the garden began Easter Sunday in Robby and Candace's garden for dinner.  Do you see Calla?

 I got to see bees swarm in a tree across the street and find a bee man to take them away to make more bees for polinating our valley.

The rest of the week was all fragrance and rain.  Have you noticed how moist air holds fragrance?  So lovely to step out to a blast of delicious smells.  And the rain!  Booming crashing gushing rushing downpours of rain!  So thankful for the water. 

 Snowballs growing bigger, turning whiter.  These are not fragrant.

Annual poppies.  One of my favorites.

 Lilacs!  One of my new lilac shrubs died coming into spring, just when we throught it was about to bloom.  Apparently we have a fungus in the soil.  : (  So sad.  I love lilacs.  Will have to research another blooming shrub.

 A new rose, Charisma. Nice to see it blooming. 

 Nasturtium leaves with water drops. 

 A quiet corner in shade.  Calla lilies, cyclamen, corydalis and azalea.

Shady garden blooms, Solomon Seal, hellebores and Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine', so fragrant!

Resurrection Sunday

Snowballs and lilacs

One of my garden dreams is bouquets of snowball viburnum, viburnum opulus compactus, with lilacs.  My snowball bush is gorgeous this year! I love the little green puffs of flowers that will continue to grow to about 3 inches and fade to white before fading back again to green and then brown. 

The new lilac bushes made it through the winter and this one is blooming nicely.  I can't decide whether I will like the white lilacs with the snowballs or the purple lilac, while the snowballs are still green. If this year is anything to go by, it will have to be green snowballs with white lilacs, or white with purple. Wonderful either way.