Life is Good in Color

Just thinking this morning that Life is Good! I was in my chair with a cup of coffee, doing my wake-up computer tasks. The deck door is open. The sun is shining, but it's cool yet with a light breeze ruffling the quaking aspen. House finches with their bright red-purple heads are enjoying the bird bath. I took my morning "walk" to visit the gardens and see what flowers might begin blooming today.

The rock garden is beginning to explode with the yellows of so many sedums, but this picture I took today has to be the color winner. This is a Red-spotted Purple Admiral on the Creeping Thyme

But back to the yellows. The taller stuff is the Sedum Sexangulare, but there are bursts of the still-blooming Sedum 'Weihenstephaner Gold' to the right and one Ice Plant 'Granita' to the left.

This is the Bloody Cranesbill with Dianthus 'Kahori.'

This one has a whole lot of plants. The purple is Creeping Thyme, Sedum sexangulare to the left, the 'Kahori' is beyond that. Just in front of the thyme is the patch of Sedum 'Atlantis' that is slowing getting bigger. A small patch of dark 'Dream Dazzler' Sedum and more Bloody Cranesbill is on the right.

This one was from last week. The variegated Vinca was still blooming. Now it's trying to spread runners to take over the world. I've been giving it severe haircuts. More Bloody Cranesbill to the right. It is also getting shaved on this pass through the garden.

I haven't mentioned this pink flower yet this year. This is the 'Siskiyou' Primrose. It is fairly nifty, although it, too, is willing to spread everywhere. I've currently let it take over two spaces until I get something else to put in the second space. More Sedum sexangulare. And just starting to bloom on the far left is the Sedum elecambeanum.

Finally, color in the sky last night. Very intense, and making even the clouds in the east turn pink.

In other news: I did all the usual things, plus laundry, and put a piece of decor back on the wall that keeps falling off. Yeah, me. Josh stopped by. He's looking good.

See Mostly Current Colors

Rock Garden Reds

The Dianthus 'Brilliant' from the old rock garden started blooming today. Most of it is this deep rose-red color.

Some of the same plant isn't as deep a red. No idea why. And so far, none of the white 'Arctic Fire' has showed up this year. Had some in 2024. I was gone last year, so I don't know if they bloomed.

And this is the Dianthus 'Eastern Star.'

I also discovered that some of the 'Red Mountain Flame' Ice Plant are opening. The Ice Plants don't seem to like my rock hill. But it's alive.

It has been hot and muggy miserable today. We are supposed to get thunderstorms tonight and the next couple of days. That's probably OK. I need to seriously get busy on some overdue project needs. I actually started working on one of those today in addition to editing. Spent about an hour on it. Not nearly enough, but getting started is often the hardest part for me.

And I figured out why the last plant I ordered hasn't arrived... I forgot to push the order button. haha. Now it's on it's way.

See Orange and Gold

Mostly Current Colors

Another post with combinations of color.

This is the two purples in the driveway bed. The iris are mostly done now, but what a show! The other purple is Meadow Sage.

In the rock garden, The Dianthus 'Kahori' is in the lower left, Bloody Cranesbill at the top, and the Creeping Thyme is starting to bloom purple at the lower right.

This one was a few days ago. The Moss Phlox is just about done now, but this is phlox with the Variegated Vinca in front of it.

This is also in the rock garden, and it's more about texture than color, but it's part of why I love the Pasqueflower so much. It starts blooming in early April, and now in June we still have the showy seed heads.

And I'm going to share one more shot with a Poppy in it. This one does a better job of showing the various colors of foliage behind the Poppy and the Fleeceflower. I like that there are enough interesting plants to have a depth of field to the color.

It turned out to be a rather unproductive day. Just never got moving, really. I finished cleaning the edges of the front flower bed and watered it. Edited. Mostly read a book.

Tomorrow, I need to be out the door by 8:30 in the morning. Stay tuned!

See Fresh Color

Bright Pink

Today we will focus on bright pink. First, the two best successes. This is the Dianthus 'Kahori,' purchased in 2023. It has continued to spread by at least a third each year. Look at it go!

The other one I'm quite happy with is the Sea Thrift 'Morning Star Deep Rose.' It is just loaded with flowers.

The other Sea Thrift is struggling. It is a smaller plant, but it only has one flower so far. Last year it had two. This is 'Dusseldorf Pride.' I think there might be too much clay in the spot where it is. That edge of the garden needs some soil amendment. The leaves look like the other one. This close view of the flower came out pretty well, so I'm using it.

Now for the weird one. This is the Bloody Cranesbill geranium. It doesn't look this color at all in real life. It's pretty much the same color as the Sea Thrift, but the camera doesn't see it that way. I tried to get a better look inside a flower. This is blooming all over.

Final show-off for the day is the 'Firefly' Heuchera in the front bed. This is about the only heuchera flower that I think is worth bothering with. The color is lovely and contrasts with the green leaves.

The temperature and humidity were much better today! For my outside work I concentrated on trimming the grass on the edges of the rock garden and cleaning out the spaces between boards in our wooden sidewalk. I'm not quite done but made good progress.

See Pink and White

Final Hurrah of the 2025 Rock Garden?

This isn't a real rock garden report although there is one comparison picture at the end.

There was a possibility of frost last night, but I guess we didn't get it. Nevertheless, I had removed sensitive plants and brought them inside. Covered some experiments with leaves to insulate a bit.

Here's the 'Oriental Dancer' sedum with a bit of color left.

All the rest of the sedums are done, but the faded heads still add textural interest. I'll show you 'Coraljade' again. The Artemesia 'Silver Mound' to its right is lying down, but provides some contrast.

I'll spare you the blanketflower again. It still looks great. But I will show you Dianthus 'Olivia Wild' because the fact that it keeps blooming is a big surprise. I just got it this year.

This was a huge surprise. It must have planted itself, and it's not blooming. Not sure if it will get around to that before a hard frost. One lonely marigold came up and it's quite large.

This is just to point out how changeable the Sempervivum 'Black' is. It went from near black in the spring, to mostly green in the summer, and now it's a reddish-brown. (Note that the two Lewisia near it are still alive. Now we get to see if they make it through the winter.)

Here's the parting long shot for 2025.

October 2024.

October 2023



And July of 2022.

Today, I managed to be quite productive. Did laundry- UGH, the washer needs repair. Worked on my deadline item and other things as well.

See Last of the Rock Garden Color

A Few Re-Bloomers

A few more plants delightfully refuse to admit that the blooming season is over.

The Fleeceflower often gives me a few fall flowers. Only one so far this year, and it's short. But that's OK. This is not my favorite plant, but for now, it's fine.

I really love this one. This is the 'Firefly' Heuchera that Margaret gave me. In the picture the flowers look pink, but in real life, they are almost red.

This is the Dianthus 'Olivia Wild' that I bought this year to replace something else that died. I'm liking it a lot. And it keeps on blooming as well.

Today, day 10 after the oral surgery, I had a salad for dinner. No problem... I just chewed on the other side, and nothing hurts. This makes me quite happy. I've been missing my salads. One stitch is annoying as all get-out, and they don't get taken out for a month. It doesn't hurt, so I can't complain too much. They aren't the dissolving kind, but the dentist said they might come loose on their own. Hoping this one does.

Worked on projects, went shopping, blah, blah.

See Last of the Rock Garden Color

Last of the Rock Garden Color?

Some of these colors will last a while yet, but I think the last of the blooms to peak are happening now.

This is really a favorite purchase from this year, the 'Oriental Dancer' Sedum. I can't wait for it to have multiple stems next year.

It's always interesting how some plants just keep having an occasional blossom all season long even when they are past their peak time. This is the Dianthus 'Kohari.' When I bought it two years ago the patch was about a third this size. It's had one or two flowers open most of the season.

Back to a Sedum. This is the 'Rosenteller' one, and it's past prime, but I like how it's sharing the space with one out of season bloom of the Bloody Cranesbill. I only split this little patch off the big clump last fall, and it's doing great! I also like how it looks in front of that log. In the spring, it should have a little pasqueflower friend which you can barely see below it. I managed to find the one that had sprouted in the lawn and move it to the garden.

The blanketflower, Gaillardia 'Arizona Sun' always looks great from July onwards, and especially so if I deadhead it. I'll be keeping my eyes open to buy one called 'Arizona Red' that doesn't have the yellow on it.

Also, the Sedum 'Autumn Joy' seems to be about at peak. This is one of the old rock garden plants that survived. It was eaten down to stubs two years in a row, but the fencing allowed it to recover this year. You can see that it also has a little Bloody Cranesbill friend.

I don't think there is anything yet to bloom this fall unless I get some sort of a surprise. There are a couple of fun things to show you from other locations, but I have to wait a few days for one of them yet.

Got a fair amount of work done today and did my road walk.

Miles hiked in 2025: 375

See Mid-September Garden Color

Rock Garden (mostly) Report- June 2025

June is bustin' out all over!

This is going to get too long, but it will be the last garden post for three weeks. First, to keep the same reference views going for comparison, here are the top and bottom of the rock garden. The far side of the bottom section has more rocks and fewer plants for two reasons. Some of that is as new as last summer. Also, when I built the first part, I didn't put in enough rocks. I've been contemplating if I should try to fix that. Not a priority.

Sure has filled in from last year! Of course a lot of that is the Bloody Geranium which I rip out by the shovelful when I get something better to put in its place.

Before you get bored and leave, I want to show you the Lewisia again. The lower clump has never stopped blooming since April 25 when I planted it. The upper clump is reblooming. The dark patch in the middle is Sempervivum 'Black,' and I hope the Wandering Jew above it (not hardy) starts to get larger soon. Sedums and Vinca in the foreground.

Let me show you the Lewisia up close. It is stunning! You may recall I tried one of these long ago, and it didn't live. I sure hope these decide they are happy because right now they are my favorite rock garden purchase of this year.

Here's another success and survival story from the original rock garden. This is Sedum kamtschaticum 'Weihenstephaner Gold.' It was almost as robust when I recovered the garden in 2023 as it was originally, but it didn't bloom that year or last year. It's going to this year!

I'll miss the full bloom, but I'm just happy to know it's happy again. In fact, I even split off a chunk and put it in a second location last year. Look at those nifty flowers.

Dianthus has continued to be one of my best-blooming genera. Here are two that also looked good last year. This one is 'Kahori' which tolerated my disturbing it a lot to remove grape hyacinth bulbs that were under it. Still a couple more to dig out, as you can see.

And this one is 'Eastern Star' with foliage friends

Not everything is a success story. Two years ago I bought a 'Coral Reef' Dianthus. It got chewed severely that fall. Looked like it might recover last year. All gone this year. I never even took a picture of it. Oh well. A couple of weeks ago 'Olivia Wild' was half price, so I've added that to the mix. I like the dark bands on the petals. Shown here with 'Dream Dazzler' sedum and some of the Bloody Geranium.

Speaking of the geraniums, here's some of the Bloody one with the pink one which may be cinereum. They do look nice together.

The pink one really has nice detail seen up close. And it's not nearly so invasive. It's also shorter which is good.

The creeping thyme is also blooming. It looks nice with the 'Oddity' Sempervivum. It's another plant that you have to rip out by the handful or it will take over. But I'm getting good at ripping.

Thought I was going to miss these blooming. Nope! They started today. This is the 'Siskiyu' primrose. This is another plant that goes nuts spreading everywhere. But it's easy to rip out where you don't want it. This was one of last year's favorite purchases. 'Lime Twister' sedum behind it.

I can't stop until I show proof that the two Ice Plants that overwintered are starting to bloom. This is 'Red Mountain Flame.'

And this Ice Plant I bought at the Garden Club sale last fall, and I wasn't sure it was going to make it. But here is 'Granita' orange. It's surrounded by Sedum sexangulare, another plant that I really regret. It's only redeeming factor is that it fills in around other plants well. It's getting ready to have yellow flowers which are nice. I will miss those. But its ability to fill in means that you have to keep ripping it out all the time. And after it blooms the long stems are ugly and have to be cut. (Not as bad as Sedum acre- I removed all of that one!)

I have to throw in one picture that isn't the rock garden. For several years now, I've either had the salmon poppy bloom or the red-orange poppy bloom, but never in the same year. Look what happened! I thought they wouldn't open for me to see before I leave, but here they are. And that dumb pink fleeceflower just keeps looking good for weeks while the poppies only last a couple of days.

Speaking of leaving... I have just a few little packing things to do and wash the dishes. Better get at it. Tomorrow morning, I'm on my way east! This is really going to happen.

See What's In Full Bloom?