The Bouquets of Spring and Summer 2021

We had a wonderful spring and summer filled with flowers.  
We began in April with daffodils and forsythia.

April 10

 April 12

The late daffodils are ending in May

May 6

May 6

This includes azalea.

 May 15

The rhododendrons are blooming in June.

 June 2

Oooh, and the peonies!  Backed with hosta leaves.

June 14

A rose purloined from a neighbor's bush.
June 15

The spiky purple flower is allium.

June 19

Aaaaahhhh - the sweetpeas have begun.

The dahlias are doing well, too.

 June 30

July brings great variety.

An arrangement of white zinnias 

with drumstick allium and garlic scapes.
July 7

Dahlias, snapdragons, hosta leaves.

July 17

Sweetpeas.
July 26

Gladiolus, white marigolds, white and pink snapdragons, red zinnias, red dahlias.

July 26

Snapdragons, hosta leaves.

July 26

Snapdragons, glads, dahlias.

 July 26

OOoooh  - the sweetpeas. . .
July 26

We found ourselves with more flowers than places to put them.

Such a problem!
July 27

The lisianthus is still blooming - 

here with white zinnias and

white snapdragons.
 August 21

The glads are so dramatic!               

 September 11

More lisianthus with white snapdragons 

and one pink dahlia.

 September 11

We were very lucky with frost this year.  It will be November 3 for our first frost.  This is very late for us.  Last year was September 18.

Lisianthus, dahlias, zinnias, snapdragon.

October 14

Lisianthus and zinnias.

October 14 

So fun to have bouquets this late in the year.

I had sorted through the 79 favorite bouquets to find these 23.  They brought joy.

Garden in the First Half of June - 2021

Winters in upstate NY are long, cold, and snowy.  We look forward to plants and flowers and sitting out in the yard enjoying them and listening to the birds.  It's the joy of June.  There are few biting bugs.  The temperatures are mild but not too hot.

The daffodils are finished and so are the tulips.  It's the season of the iris and the peonies.

. . 

Along the base of the hedge in the background (above) is a border of hosta.  Between the hosta are pulmonaria, but they are finished blooming.  There are also begonias.

 . . . . 

We have white bleeding heart.  

But the greatest joy of June is the strawberries.  Years ago, we discovered Mara des Bois berries from France.  Although they have spectacular flavor and are lovely, often completely red inside, they are not grown commercially.  We learned why!  Within a day or two of picking, they are spoiled, mushy, moldy.  So - you have to eat them!  And they are wonderful.

In the first half of June, after cleaning, we ate or froze 28 cups (That's 7 quarts!).

If you are wondering how much property we have, the lot is 99'x90', with a house, garage, sidewalks.

D has become an expert at space utilization!

Along the front walk are iris on the right and daylilies on the left.  

Near the steps are chives (Thanks, Karen).

In the foreground above are three different types of allium.

The tomato plants are blossoming, and there are a couple of tomatoes.

We are growing Cherokee Purple (a reddish/black), Azoychka (a blush yellow), and one new to us - Berkeley Tie Dye (a pink).

I have saved a lot of pictures for another time, including alliums, peonies, astrantia, Itoh peony.  There were 13 that I selected but did not use here. . . Not counting the hundreds. . . 

And to whet your appetite for the next post, here's our first dahlia.

2021 Garden Pics

March

April

May Part 2 and Part One

To see 2020 garden pics:

Second half of September

September 1st half.

Second half of August

First half of August.

2nd half of July.

First half of July garden.

Garden at the End of June

And the first half of June is here.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

Here is the first week of May

Daffodils 2020

The middle of April is here.

First week of April.

Garden in the First Half of June

At the end of May the tomatoes were planted in the front yard, since that area gets the most sun on our little property.  They will be supported by fencing as they grow.  In the immediate foreground, with a stake, is a brugmansia, which is this year's learning project.

 The beginning of June is dominated by iris.  We were surprised at the number of blooms on the yellow siberian iris.  These plants were transplanted from the farm last year.  There they rarely bloomed, and never in profusion.   The purple siberian iris are also doing well this year.  The little iris are new plantings.

 We are delighted at the number and variety of birds enjoying the birdbath.  Some just perch on the edge to get a drink.  Others flutter and bathe.  Fun to watch.

This is a powerful purple.  Especially lovely at dusk.

A year or two ago a friend gave me a large clump of chives.

We divided them to spread around the garden.  

They have been wonderful!

 We have made chive blossom butter and chive vinegar with the bounty.
Check that out in the blog post on experiments with extracts.

Pansies are such a happy flower.  D grew them from seed, and there are 4 different ones.

 We have tried a variety of alliums this year.  This one is Allium Bulgarica.  It's a kind of rangy plant.  Current thinking is that they need to be massed alone.

The white bleeding heart has very few blooms this year.

Years ago we discovered Mara des Bois strawberries.  They taste like real strawberries.  They are everbearing, which means that after a bounty in early June, we may get a few berries all summer.

Looks like we picked 180 berries.  About 12 cups of sliced strawberries.

By mid month the peonies were blooming.

We put in five plants.  Three bloomed this year.

This white one was the first to flower.  

It will be followed by two light pink ones.

This is the first brugmansia to bloom.

Actually, we were not expecting any blooms this year.

To get an idea of scale, that is not a flower pot - it is a waste basket half buried in the soil.

They must be watered at least once a day, and sometimes two or three times.

At least they droop and tell you it's time for more water!

They will be brought in for the winter and taken back out next year.

Does he look scared?  That is a huge bee in the rhododendron by his ear.

The Garden in the Middle of April 2020

Mother Nature has a sense of humor.  

We have two kinds of daffodils blooming now.  At least I think we do!  On April 16, we woke up to this view.  The disk on a pole is the sundial, and at the base of the sundial are crocus.  With a lot of imagination, you can see a daffodil or two.  The basil and parsley are on the windowsill, hoping that the sun will appear.

Here is a still-life with forsythia and daffodil.

The daffodils were brought in yesterday because the wind was knocking them over.

D is making a lasagna bed with cardboard and barn clearings from a horse barn.

We have caged lots of plants - after a critter gnawed down a bunch of tulips.

The tall leafy plants in the picture above are fritillaria, Crown Imperial.

They look like they belong in a medieval tapestry.

They smell like skunk.

We caged this new peony - they tend to be floppy, and this may help.

It will be nice to have some warm weather to enjoy the garden.

Right now it's lunchtime, snowing, and 34º.

For now, I'll be content with the view from my window.