What's Blooming on Shore Drive - June 3rd Edition

Earlier this week I was afraid that nothing new would be blooming in my yard this and I would enter one of those dread "non-blooming" periods in the garden. My goal is to have something blooming all summer long. Its easy in the spring, but it gets harder as summer comes. Instead of flowers, things are starting to create fruits, which is great of course, but selfishly, I want flowers too!

But just when I was starting to worry that I wouldn't have anything to show for this week, all sorts of new things started blooming. Another example of worrying for nothing....

I planted this Yarrow in 2010, the first year that we had the new deck and patio. I swear, after that first year it disappeared, and I haven't seen it since! And I think it was multi-colored too. Now here it is again, after 3 years, and all yellow. I'm not complaining, but I am a little bit mystified. Where did it come from, and where has it been all this time?

I have a tomato blossom on one of my six plants! Very exciting....

The Peonies are starting to bloom. I love them; they're so showy, and they smell sweet too. By next week they should be going full steam.

Here's my pretty little Dianthus. Unfortunately it doesn't bloom very profusely anymore. I'm going to try fertilizing it this year after it finishes blooming. And in the fall I plan on giving this flower bed a healthy dose of compost. Maybe that will help.

Here's a new plant, Jacob's Ladder, that I bought at the Windham Garden Club sale this spring.

My roses have acquired a pest of some sort. I planted roses for the first time ever last year, jealous of the beautiful flowers my neighbors have. I've always avoided roses, knowing they could be finicky. Well here is the first proof that they aren't so easy to grow successfully. The plants all over-wintered very well, but a little flying beetle is eating them up!

A relatively unscathed bloom

The culprit

I went to the local garden center and asked them what I should do. They suggested spraying them with something called spinosad, but told me to avoid spraying the blooms because it is toxic to pollinators, so that's what I've done. Hopefully it will work, and won't kill any bees in the process.

I have to brag a little bit about how nice the rhododendrons look along the driveway right now. I'm so happy I planted them. I have fantasies about how amazing they will look in around 10 years....

I thought all of the spring bulbs along the driveway were finished for the year, when up popped this hyacinth, hyacinthoides non scripta to be exact. Its the last one, however, before its time for the day lilies to start their part of the show.

I have iris on my hillside this year that are actually blooming. I've still got a long way to go before this steep hillside is covered with iris like it is in my imagination, but I've got a good start. I add a few more plants each spring. Its just a very hot and dry location, even with the sprinkler system, but iris like this sort of thing.

I was just mentally complaining that all my neighbor's spirea were blooming and mine wasn't when mine decided to join the show. These bushes frame my front porch. I pruned them heavily last year so they may not bloom as much this year. But they are really big for the space they occupy. I probably should prune them more this year after they finish blooming.

And finally....my pink dogwood is just starting to bloom. This is a BIG dogwood, planted by the previous owners in the northeast corner of the house. Every year I am astonished by how late this dogwood blooms. It starts in early June, and there will be flowers on this tree well into July. The flowers are just peeking out now...they haven't even turned pink yet.  Next week I should have pictures of showy pink blooms covering this tree.