Weekend flowers.

What a great weekend in the garden we had.  The weather was pretty good, the sun came out and it was dry.  Lots of new flowers seem to be appearing everyday.  I love this time of year when there are so many daily surprises.  I finally worked on the entry garden and it's looking pretty good so far.  Most of the rest of the time was spent doing some weeding and just enjoying the garden and my family.

There is so much color right now, and there is still so much to bloom.  This is the view from the front porch looking to the right.

I've always walked along the sidewalk of our front yard to see what it looks like to people walking by.  The only thing I wish was different was that we had more vegetables growing.  It's just not gotten warm enough consistently for much to happen yet.

An Iris I bought two years ago finally has it's first two blooms.  This is 'Loop de Loop', it smells almost like lemons.

Penstemon 'Catherine de la Mar' is huge and full of flowers.  Its' the first Penstemon to bloom so far.

Yellow Daylilies that came with the yard.  I'm not sure what they are, but they smell really good.  They are blooming with white Columbines.

The Spanish Poppy has a really nice scent, I love this new plant.

In an earlier post I said I'd post a picture of this new Clematis fully open and give it's name.  I have somehow already lost the tag, so if anyone knows what it is I'd love to know what it's called.  When it first opened it was more red that purple.

Nigella with a little visitor flying by.

Peony 'Sorbet' is having it's best year yet.  These huge flowers were worth waiting for.  Peonies have taught me patience in the garden.  It takes a year or two for the first bloom and then as years pass you will get more and more flowers each year.

A new Dianthus by the picket fence.

This is the entry garden I've been working on.  I dug almost everything up and tried to plant them in a more thought out way.  I put evergreen perennials like Hellebores and Heucheras in front of Hostas and Astillbes so that in the winter there would be something to look at.  In the sunny part I planted a new rose and transplanted a Geranium 'Rozanne'.  I feel like it still needs something tall in the center, but a tree is out.  Maybe some type of trellis?

We have cotton fluffs floating everywhere from the Cottonwood trees, it looks like it's snowing.  I've also noticed there seem to be no honeybees around.  I saw a few a couple of months ago, but none in my yard recently.  Lots of Bumblebees and Carpenter bees though.
All photos and words property of A Gardener in Progress.

Lot's of new blooms for Fertilizer Friday.

I love days like yesterday where walking through the garden I found quite a few new flowers blooming. This is why June is my favorite month in my garden. It's a constant surprise of new flowers opening, many of them are my favorites. The rain held off yesterday and after dinner I found myself going out to cut a few Peonies and that turning into a weeding session. I had scissors and a handful of Peonies in one hand while I crouched down and weeded with the other.

Peony 'Sorbet' was new last year and has just one flower this year. I can't wait until it's more established and I have more flowers from it.

I noticed something interesting about this Peony 'Festiva Maxima' this year. It's normally very white with a few petals edged in dark pink. This year most of the flowers are light pink. I wonder if it has anything to do with all the rain we've had. I have a white rose ('Iceberg') that turns pink when we've had a lot of rain. Updated to add that I just read about cool Springs causing 'Iceberg' roses to take on a pink color, I wonder if that's what happened with this Peony as well.

Geranium 'Rozanne' has it's first bloom. I planted two last year, but only one survived.

Penstemons are another favorite of mine. This is 'Red Rocks'.

Penstemon 'Catherine de la Mar'

Deutzia 'Pink a Boo' is loved by the bees.

My first Breadseed Poppy has bloomed. The color is a much more vibrant, deep red than shows in the picture.

Foxgloves have just started blooming. I've got them coming up everywhere. I love how the bees climb inside the flowers.

The rain really beat up my English roses and turned them into brown mush, but the others all seemed to handle the rain well. This is 'Honey Perfume', the colors of this continually change as it ages.

Rose 'Julia Child'

After seeing how well the flowers were doing it made up for all the weeds that have been growing because of all the rain. I am hoping that early next week I'll be able to really weed and start redoing one of the front shade beds. Once I get a project in my mind, I can't wait to get out and start digging!

To see who else is "flaunting their flowers" on this Fertilizer Friday visit Tootise Time.