Poppy Day

This is the most successful year yet for the Oriental Poppies!

The first red-orange ones opened on May 28.

Most of the other buds opened a couple of days ago. Usually we get a heavy rain or wind so that the flowers don't last. This year, they are holding on wonderfully.

And today, the event I was hoping for actually happened. There are red and salmon pink ones open at the same time!

Here are the pink ones alone.

And, hey. On my plant buying search the other day I found one that is supposed to be white. I don't think I even knew there were white ones. So that came home with me.

And just for kicks, a whole bunch of them have naturalized along Freesoil Road. Probably not a good thing, but it sure was pretty.

I walked to the library and did more of all the usual stuff.

Miles walked in 2026: 173.8

See Salmon

Casualties in the Flower Gardens

Not a quality topic, but it sort of goes with the territory of gardening. These three plants which I bought last year seem to be really and truly gone.

Gone is the correct word for this first one. It is apparently also tasty. It was dug up three times last fall by something. Each time I replanted it. And then it totally disappeared. Although I paid a fair amount of money to get this 'Blue Pearl' sedum, I never thought that's actually what I received. See link at end. So, although it's annoying that an expensive one got eaten, I'm not too sad.



The one I'm really sorry about is the 'Deep Red' Rockfoil, Saxifraga x arendii. I think the rock garden was too dry for it. The store had more this spring, but not this color. I might try it again if I can find this one.



The loss of this one isn't a big surprise, but I'm moderately bummed. The Icelandic Poppies did not come back. It turns out that even though they are perennials, they are short-lived at best. I really enjoyed them last year, but I'm not paying money for what are essentially annuals.



I had a terrible time waking up today but managed to keep working on things all morning. After lunch, I realized I didn't feel very well so took a nap. That's really unusual for me. Had one of those strange dreams where I needed to move and just couldn't.

I feel better now. I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow.

See The Mystery of the Blue Pearl

Is It Spring Yet?

I don't know about you, but I am absolutely ready for something a little more spring-like outside.

Meanwhile, it was Easter! A great worship service this morning, and then a very laid-back dinner for Om and me. Just ham, salad, and strawberries for dessert, with the rest of the hot cross buns. Oh, and a little cheese.

What's happening in the gardens? Very little.

The oriental poppies are getting some nice leaves. This will be the red one.

The rock garden is pretty much still dormant. OK, that may be better than having things green up too early, but hey... things are about 2 weeks behind last year.

This is the pasqueflower, trying to get something going.

This is the same one, ONE, mini-iris that came up last year. These don't seem to spread for me either. They just struggle along for a few years and then die. But one is better than none. I used to have purple, yellow, and blue.

It was a laid-back day. I did a few things, but not with much dedication.

See So Early! Too Early?

Various Verdure

I'm making progress weeding the rock garden. The most difficult (steepest) part is done, but I'm not ready to do an entire report yet. Here are some miscellaneous plants to show.

I'll start with a Sedum that is making me pretty happy. This is the 'Cherry Tart,' one of the Sunsparklers. I got one little stalk for $7 plus shipping two years ago. Here's how it looks this week. The color stays consistent all season- this red-purple. It grows slowly, but I'm pretty happy with it.

This is how it looked last year, after one year of growth, so you can see it IS getting bigger.



Now for a big mistake. I've been allowing the weed Silver Cinquefoil, Potentilla argentea, to fill in areas because it has a nice texture and small yellow flowers.

The backs of the leaves are white, thus the "silver" name. This gives it some interest in a breeze.

Turns out it's a perennial with deep tap roots. Once a plant is two years old, it's very difficult to pull it out. It sprawls and fills a much bigger space than expected. If I'm going to let small plants grow in the spring, I need to root them up before July. I'll have to work on eradicating these.

Now for happier topics. The Icelandic Poppy is giving yet another round of flowers, although these are much smaller. It's very interesting that the one is yellow with orange edges.

The donkey tail Euphorbia continues to add interest even after three months. Actually, the seed pods were interesting too. Not sure I showed you those. However, the previously flowering stalks have turned bright pink and almost look like a different kind of flower.

And the new growth in the middle looks compact and healthy. I hope this has babies. Here's how it looked in April, and it's still giving joy in July.



When the gardens don't lend themselves to colorful long views, it's good to focus on small puddles of interest.

The weather was decent (cooler) today. I had an extra dose of editing to do, but spent a decent amount of time working outside. Can't complain about the editing- it's paying my bills!

See Purple Parade

Front Garden Report West 2025- #1

I am SO happy with the way this garden is turning out that I go outside probably twice a day just to look at it (in addition to any work I do).

First a couple of real success stories. I already showed you the painted fern this year, so I'll skip that picture for now. I've compared its picture with some old ones, and I think my attempt to spread it a bit last summer was successful. Maybe I'll be brave and try to move a piece. I hold my breath every year that it survives where it is (it should be too hot for it there).

Another real success is the 'Firefly' Heuchera that Margaret gave me two years ago. I split it into three plants and they have all grown and look great. One is dead center in this picture with the two-toned green leaves and the bright pink flowers. It's the only Heuchera I've seen that has flowers worth mentioning. They are mostly grown for the foliage. I love how the cool green contrasts with my several colors of darker Heuchera. The one behind the flowers is 'Electric Plum.' Down front is 'Amber Lady.'

Another success that makes me really happy is that the 'Cathedral Windows' Heuchera that I bought in 1995, and has never been anything beyond tiny and barely alive since then, is actually grown up and looking great. Maybe I can stop holding my breath to see if it will reappear each year.

This was a plant I bought just last fall at the Garden Club sale. Columbine 'Winky.' It's covered with buds. It's not as tall as I thought it would be. Maybe I'll move some to the middle after it gets established.

Here's a surprise. The Iclandic Poppy 'Spring Fever Mix' is blooming again. It has this flower open and five more buds. I'm a little sorry I bought this. It is beautiful, but when I read about it, I learned that it's a short-lived perennial, so it only lasts 2 or 3 years. I wonder if it self seeds?

I'm the one who managed to damage this hosta. I had a piece of fencing sitting right over where it needed to come up. It's on the mend, thankfully. I bought this in 2000 for full price. It's one called 'Loyalist.' Looks like it will recover pretty well this year. It was one of the plants that more or less disappeared over the years I didn't weed anything, but it has reasserted its right to be here.

That's enough garden talk for today.

I spent most of the day getting food ready for the Adirondack hike. There is one store run in the future, but I don't need to buy very much. Mostly, I can use up things I already have on hand. Some gardening and yard work.

See Front Garden East- 2025 #1

Two Old, One New

 This is the 'Blackberry Wine' corydalis I got from Ester years and years ago. It always looks great in this early part of the season. I might try a little bit in the rock garden, but I think that will be too much sun for it even though it is a perfect height.

Here's one I may get yelled at for keeping. It's Lesser Celandine or Fig Buttercup, formerly Ranunculus ficaria, but now Ficaria verna. It can be very invasive. However, it's always just stayed neatly in this one area. It adds a nice blanket of color here in early spring. I can always start ripping if it wants to branch out, but I've had it for about 25 years. The leaves and everything disappear before mid-summer. I'm going to try again this year to put marigolds in that area later. I started a flat of seeds.

Here's the newbie! Like the Lewisia I showed you yesterday, I have tried to grow this plant before with no success. Although, the other times I tried to grow it from seed. We'll see if starting with a mature plant solves the problem. It's an Icelandic poppy, and the variety is 'Spring Fever Mix.' I love how it has yellow and orange flowers on the same plant.

I edited and worked on plant records for indoor work, and did a little gardening and a lot of autumn olive removal outside. Of course, you can hardly tell I worked on the autumn olive. I have taken a "before" picture, so maybe in the fall it will look like I did something.

See Blackie Finds Pinkie

What's Blooming Today

 I've been working on weeding the front flower bed. Not done yet, but this one is much easier than the rock garden. The Fleeceflowers are still looking good, two weeks after the first picture from this year. Wow. I don't care for this very much, but if it's going to be this nice, I'll call it a winner. You can see that things behind it are somewhat weeded.

Also in the front bed is the white deadnettle I got for free a long time ago when someone threw a planter from the cemetery into the gully. This only thrives when it's weeded, but I guess it decided I'd done an adequate job last year. I like it for the white leaves, but the white flowers are nice and bright too.

Of course, the best of the front bed at this time of year is the poppies. This year, both the red and the salmon ones bloomed. This one skipped last year for some reason. When it blooms, it has three flowers. Always... three.

The really good news is that the other Brunnera that I thought hadn't survived the winter was just hiding. Hooray! The leaves aren't white when they first come up, so I just didn't see it in the weeds. It's smaller than the one I've been showing you, but fine.

Now we'll go out to the bed that only was partly weeded last year, and hasn't been touched yet this year. There are two perennial Salvia, also called Meadow Sage, out there, both purple. I had a pink one too, but I think that's gone. If you deadhead it, it will bloom a long time.

This is not an actual rock garden report, but there are a few things blooming. The magenta and pink geraniums are all over, but they keep blooming a long, long time. They kind of provide a backdrop for other things.

First, I want to show you the Red Mountain Flame Ice Plant again. I am SO excited that this is happy. What a burst of color.

I decided to get another, but this one is 'Ocean Sunset Orange Glow.' It's not as well established yet, but I have high hopes. Can you tell that the flowers are orange in the middle, but magenta on the margins?

This is another new plant. I've killed one before (maybe not this variety), but this was inexpensive, so I decided to give it another shot. This is a Sea Pink, "Armeria maritima." variety 'Dusseldorf Pride.' It's supposed to be a rock garden plant, so perhaps this one will shape up. It only grows about 6" tall.

And we will end with a rock garden surprise. The last time I saw this plant was in 2016 when I blogged about it (link below). This is supposedly a perennial Dianthus, but mostly it just self-seeds and comes up wherever it wants to. The variety is 'Brilliant.' The flowers are tiny, about 1/2" across, and this picture is in dappled light, but they are bright, deep pink. There are two patches of them in the rock garden. They are just starting to bloom. You can see there are lots more buds.

The thing about plants that are pretty but self-seed all over is that you never know where they are going to come up, and it may not be in a suitable place. I used to have California Poppies all over the rock garden too. When I was happy to have anything at all blooming, they were OK, but I'd rather have plants stay where I put them. Anyway. I'll take them. If the other Dianthus like this one, 'Arctic Fire,' ever shows up again, I'll be really happy. Also last seen in 2016.

The Dianthus 'Kohari,' and 'Red Dwarf Eastern Star' are also blooming. Some of the sedums are just beginning.

I edited about 4 hours, and worked on the gardens. I still have some things to get ready for the vendor event tomorrow. I have to get cracking and get them done because I need to leave here at 7:30 in the morning.

See I Used to Have Nice Plants

What's Blooming Now

 I have to lead with the stunner, the oriental poppy. This is a great success story. I rescued this nearly shaded-out and dead poppy from the hedge down below when all that was left was a tiny sprig. That was only a few years ago, and look at it now!

While we're in that front flower bed (which I have begun to weed), let's look at the Heuchera. I really don't care much about the flowers, but they are the reason that the common name is "coral bells." The wonderful 'Peach Flambe' plant has light pink to white bells. You can barely see them on that tall stem. Remember the song, "white coral bells upon a slender stalk?"

This Heuchera I got from my friend Margaret. I don't know the variety, but it's similar to one called 'Firefly.' The flowers are actually attractive in a darker pink. Behind it is the dwarf Solomon's seal. I've shown you that quite often.

Now let's move to the totally un-reclaimed flower bed out behind the house. Much to my surprise, the Star-of-Bethlehem has survived. I think a few of these might get moved to the rock garden. They are not supposed to like shade, but that's about all they are getting where they are now!

This is one of the Dianthus I bought last year, 'Kahori.' I discovered this year that it was in the same space with all the N. canaliculatus daffodils. Not an attractive plan as the daf leaves linger. The dafs were too tall for that space anyway, so I've dug all the blubs from under this and will move them. Despite the disturbance, this is very happy. It's covered with buds.

Here's a plant I wish I'd never bought. It's everywhere, and I have to just keep ripping it out. I've left a few clumps. It's variegated vinca. The flowers are twice the size of the regular vinca (creeping myrtle, periwinkle), and it's not quite as invasive, but it's a pest.

Speaking of nuisance plants, I'm working on keeping the Bloody Cranesbill geranium controlled to certain areas of the rock garden. Meanwhile, I have to admit that it does fill things in beautifully with color. The flowers are the magenta. The lighter color is a pink geranium I got years ago for free. Maybe G. cinereum. It's not nearly so invasive. Right now, the rock garden is primarily magenta and pink with these plants. I have put a few plugs in the new section because I want it to look balanced in the long run. Even the pink one that was a tiny sprig I moved last fall is blooming already this year. They all look brighter in person.

Finally, this is one of my last year's purchases that is making me very smiley. This is the Red Mountain Flame ice plant. Instead of one reluctant blossom at a time, it's going to just bust out with color!

There are several other plants with buds on them. Very exciting!

I edited other people's stuff and my own stuff today, and went shopping. Big vendor event tomorrow and Sunday.

See The Rock Garden Eats More Plants and Rocks