A new year

It's been busy, and summer is already here, long past time for a first post of the season.

I added to my collection of Day Lilies.

New varieties:
Siloam Peony Display, which is (as the name suggests) a double, ruffled edge, this one is apricot.

Nosferatu, single deep purple.

Joan Senior, a while slighly ruffled edge.

Oriental Opulence: Tall, cream and pale pink, ruffled.

Strawberry Candy, pink with a rose throat, early bloomer, and a repeat bloomer.

Sabina Baur, cream with a black/purple throat.

It was difficult finding spots for all of these, I have started pulling out perennials that haven't been successful and replacing them with day lilies.

I also added some bright lime green Creeping Jenny, and an Orange Marmalade hosta to a shade bed that's pretty much solid dark green.

Photos to follow.

Lillies

These lillies were a gift last summer, I planted them in late August. I have no idea the variety. They just bloomed, and I am very very pleased. What stunning colour!

Endless Summer Hydrangea

This is a new variety, introduced a couple of years ago. It blooms on old and new growth, and should have blooms all summer. I put it in mid summer last year, and it's doing nicely. At one point, it had white, pink and blue flowers, but seems to have settled for blue. Most of my garden is fairly low pH, but this spot is right next to a cedar that gets trimmed regularly, so I assume that is adding requisite compost to produce blue blooms. It's hidden behind a vigorous stand of perennial phlox, which I will be splitting shortly and moving some out of the way.

Tomato update

The pictures say it all. I am very pleased.

How my tomatoes grow

I realized when I looked back at last week's photo, that I have bionic tomatoes. This pic was taken on June 17, a mere 4 days after the previous photo. Today, they are all over the top of the lattice.

Fair Bianca

Just stunning!

Mini roses

The mini rose border is spectacular.

Tomato flowers!

The Kitchen Garden

The tomatoes seem to be twice the size already, I had to stake them. And I planted a few herbs in between, which you can't really see here. You can see two cats trying to make a break for it.

Peony

It's in bloom. I moved this lovely specimen in late May last year. Not the best time of year, I was warned that it might not survive. But we had no choice, the house was sold, it was move it, or leave it behind, and we knew the new owners were going to tear out the garden.

So, we're very very pleased that it didn't miss a beat, and has bloomed this year.

Dad's front garden

I am very very pleased with the begonias in Dad's front garden. I am imagining that everyone else in his little condo complex will be copying next year. They are so much more spectacular than the boring geranium/hosta/impatiens variations that the neighbours are using.

Poppy update, and new daylily

Progress report in pictures