End of May blooms.

First I wanted to say thank you to everyone for all your really nice comments on my recent posts!  I've been very slowly trying to make my way around to visit, it's been very busy here (as I'm sure it is with everyone else this time of year), but I'm enjoying seeing what's blooming elsewhere in the world.
Our weekend ended up being a great one, very productive around the yard.  The weather was mostly overcast, but at least the temperatures were in the low 60's and it didn't rain more than a few sprinkles.  The plants are slowly but surely catching up to where they should be.  I had wondered a month ago if June would look as good as it normally does in the garden, and it appears that it will be just as pretty as usual. 
Over the weekend we replanted many of our vegetable seeds, I'm beginning to think birds are part of what's causing the new sprouts to disappear.  Hopefully the bird netting will help with that.  It doesn't help that our dog and the neighbor's cat also enjoy lying on the warm soil in the raised beds.  I sowed many seeds with the Littlest Gardener; 3 types of Sunflowers, 2 types of Cosmos,  3 types of Zinnias and lots more.  I think I need more seeds we planted so many in just the new beds.  We also took a trip to the Antique Rose Farm and bought a new David Austin rose 'Harlow Carr'.  It will go in the entry bed, hopefully the rose will motivate me to start working on it.  We repaired and restained the raised beds in the side yard too.  Even better is that my husband seems to have adopted the front raised beds.  I see him out there checking on things, watering and he even came home from work requesting fish fertilizer and kelp after talking about vegetable gardens with a friend at work.  I knew the scientist in him would show up one day in gardening.

Here is some of what is blooming now:

Meadow Rue

Lots of Columbines with the Meadow Rue.  The yellow Columbine lives up to it's name 'Yellow Spotlight'.  I started it from seed last year, it's about 4 plus feet tall.

Clematis 'Miss Bateman'

Lilac 'Ludwig Spaeth'

Geranium 'Johnson's Blue'

Spanish Poppy (Papaver rupifragum) that I bought at a plant sale earlier this year.  I'm going to try to save seeds from it.  It reminds me of the color of orange sherbet, I just love it.

I think 'Gertrude Jekyll' will be the first rose to bloom this year.

The Pink Flowering Dogwood still has lots of pretty flowers left.

I added a couple Snow in Summer in front of the picket fence along the sidewalk.  It seems to love where it is.

White Columbines.

Irises, peonies, lupines, Clematises, roses and so much more are ready to burst open.  I hope you all had a chance to enjoy your gardens this weekend.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Fertilizer Friday - May 21st.

Another week has flown by and it's hard to believe it's already Friday again. The last couple of days we've had some crazy weather. It started off beautiful this week, but as the week progressed we've had some heavy rain showers and quite a bit of wind. Some of the plants got a bit beat up between the rain and wind. I'm just waiting for a nice quiet day to get out and do some work now.

In the front yard the white Lupine is blooming with more Allium 'Purple Sensation' as well as daylilies and lots of Columbines.

Foxgloves are really close to blooming now and I'm excited to see just how many there will be. I've found lots of little seedlings which I'm leaving so they can bloom next year. Baptisia is on it's third year here, and it has begun to leap.

I showed rose 'Abraham Darby' just opening a couple of days ago and now it's in full bloom. There are many buds coming too.

The birdhouse behind the pond has Clematis 'Ville de Lyon' going crazy on it. This is one of my favorite and easiest Clematis. I had tried to tie it up a little, but the wind really blew it around. The Chickadees are busy flying in and out feeding their babies so I'll fix it when they have moved out.

'Ville de Lyon' will open more, but I was so surprised and happy to see them starting to bloom I had to take some pictures.

Clematis 'Miss Bateman' is blooming great too. Clematis 'Alionushka' is the other vine growing and it was also blown over by the wind. I spent part of yesterday going around and tying plants up. The Snowball bush (Viburnum opulus) is so loaded with flowers that they are bending to the ground. I've cut quite a few to bring inside.

Another Clematis 'Crimson King' was doing great. This picture was taken a few days ago, but after the wind beat it up the flowers and quite a bit of the vine are very droopy, I think some stems may have been broken.

Penstemon heterophyllus 'Electric Blue' is a new one that I just planted. It's just started to bloom, maybe it liked the wind.

Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' was moved to a sunnier place and already looks much less leggy than it did in the previous spot.

I appreciate all the comments and am doing my best to get around to visit everyone. It has been very busy around here with little time to get on the computer let alone get in the garden. After this weekend things should start quieting down, and I'm sure looking forward to that.

To see who else is "flaunting their flowers" visit Tootsie at Tootsie Time who hosts Fertilizer Friday each week.