While mowing the yard the other night, the vibrant green of the lawn and all the plants in the garden beds seemed to radiate growth. We’ve gotten about 2 inches of rain over the last week or so, and the plants have responded with enthusiastic growth.
The borage I planted next to my vegetable garden last year shot up about a foot overnight, going from a pleasant, if nondescript, mound of green to a monster herb in full bloom. I’m glad it’s happy in its place.
Nearby, the Jacob’s ladder has been covered with purple-blue blooms for almost three weeks now. Its variegated foliage perfectly compliments the Garden Glow spireas in front of it. The tree peony nearby finished its flush of bloom shortly after the rain this week. That is the nature of peonies, a splash of rain and they melt. But before that happened more than 20 big, fluffy deep pink/red blooms with yellow centers covered the plant. The bees were very happy.
Up front, the weigelas have more blooms than I’ve seen before, pink trumpets covering the plants. The chives, as always, bloom prettily this time of year and I will be needing to thin them shortly. For now, I let them run wild. Hummingbirds have been visiting them the past few days. One of them buzzed my head the other night — I think I was between the bird and its meal.
My new bigroot geraniums are living up to their reputation of being super hardy. The bright pink flowers were a surprise for me — I bought them mostly as a foliage groundcover.
Finally, the baptisia, which for reasons I can’t figure out are more contained than usual, are just beginning to open up. This is another favorite plant of the bumblebees.
Spring has definitely sprung in my garden. How about yours?
We are finally getting rain today. Weeks without rain have been really hard. Meadowsweet, chives, rhododendrons, tree peonies (probably dashed to pieces by now) and some rugosa roses in bloom We are in the process of moving to a slightly warmer clime – down in the valley. I think next year things will be a lot further along.
I also have borage and am so amazed every year at how fast it comes up. It’s a great plant, but it does grow and get out of hand if I don’t thin it out. Your other flowers are also very pretty and I’m sure they loved the rain you recently had.
Mary, I enjoyed our bus talk about gardens and so many other things. I’ll be subscribing to your blog — I know I’ll enjoy reading about your northern garden.