The Flowers Draw Me In

I can see them from a distance. A lush green meadow sprinkled with ever more flowers as summertime begins. White and yellow are the dominant colors for now.

The Persicaria polymorpha has reached blooming height. The Stewartia pseudocamellia is having its most flowers ever. Many springs the latent flower buds get frozen. I should go have a closer look. All the flowers don't show up as well in pictures taken from afar.

Iris ensata, the Japanese iris is the last iris to bloom. That makes it a more reliable bloomer in a high elevation garden.

Clyde Redmond, the Louisiana iris hangs in there. I think they need more elbow room to be happy than I have been able to give them. Still, the Louisiana iris are the second best iris blooming in my garden. Clyde liked Maui better.

Out in the sunshine of the roadside vegetable garden, the feral parsnips are in bloom.

Parsnips will self-sow in abundance if you let them. So will a lot of other weed flowers. The vegetable garden is on light duty this year, so all the flowers can be let be.

The sky blue of chicory heralds a change of the seasons and adds to a growing floral abundance.

I am hoping the Baptisia alba will set seed. I want to plant more.

Hydrangea arborescens 'Haas Halo' gets ready to bloom high on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top. The flowers draw me outside.

June Bloom Day

June is the greenest month of the year when the plants are reaching full size well before many of them bloom. There are plenty of flowers about, but it is not like the big color bursts of spring. The summertime show starts in July.

We can start Bloom Day with Thermopsis caroliniana. It has done much better for me than Baptisia and has begun to gently self sow. That reminds me. A white baptisia I grew from seed is blooming for the first time. I need to go look at it.

Into the chartreuse Lush we wander.

Where the foliage can get mighty big, to see what flowers we may find.

The 'Black Gamecock' Louisiana Iris has started to flower in a week that can only be described as weirdly hot and humid without any rain. My body does not process that kind of hot very well anymore.

The glass is half cracked and the white Iris ensata grown from seedlings have become large blooming clumps. I should have just taken starts of the purple and lavender ones I wanted. Patience doesn't always work out.

The candle stick blooms of Bottlebrush Buckeye prepare to open.

Persicaria polymorpha in full bloom frames the Great lawn where the Louisiana iris named Clyde resides.

Clyde is blue and a sprig is going to go live in a vat of pond scum to multiply. I need more. Funny how that is with flowers. So if you need more, go to Bloom Day Headquarters for flowers from around the world.

I will be outside with Clyde.

The Blue Iris Of Maui

The Louisiana Iris Clyde Redmond I bought mail order from a NY grower has finally bloomed after four or five years and one relocation in the garden. Just one flower. Just three fans. Coming from a NY grower I was hoping it would tolerate my cool and cold a tad better, but it has struggled. The Black Gamecock Louisiana Iris has done much better up here. It came from local stock.

I grew and propagated this blue iris on Maui. It began as a weed in a potted plant I bought at a flea market. I have no idea anymore what the actual plant I bought was. A tiny seedling that looked like a lily of some sort said save me. I did, just to find out what it was.

That weed seedling grew up to be a prolific deep blue Louisiana Iris of unknown parentage that bloomed in abundance and set seed leading to a pure white strain. Iris were not common on Maui. I remember the blue iris of Maui.

After twenty years on Maui, I moved just a bit outside of Clyde, NC as the crow flies. Somehow it became known to me that the blue iris of Maui was named Clyde Redmond. I had Black Gamecock growing here, why wouldn't Clyde? I had to have one through the looking glass. Clyde Redmond liked Maui better. I should take a sprig of Clyde to live beside a vat of pond scum and see if that helps. 

I am the junk man  in blue.

The First Mowing

It was time.

The maintenance gardener finally got around to mowing his own paths. One simple element of order makes a world of difference. There was also some ruthless culling of New England Aster and one kind Goldenrod.

It's still a jungle out there,

In the wild cultivated gardens.

The Mountaintop Gardens In May

I'm doing good to go for a walk in the gardens when my walking apparatus is mostly used up by the time I get home. Little energy remains for putting words and pictures on a blog. It has been a beautiful spring. The daffodil showing has been the only casualty - so far. I can at least show you the pictures I have.

In Bulbarella's garden, the phacelia and rhododendron are in full swing. The Lady in her best Slipper is in the house. The paths have been freshly mowed. Go wander.

My garden is more about foliage. Bloom is a bonus. A lone Black Iris called me into the garden. The first path mowing remains undone. Go wander.

A Few Flowers For Bloom Day

If I told you that today I planted tomatoes and peppers, tidied the roadside vegetable garden and surrounds, slipped in some Blackberry Lily and Gladiola, cleaned the water filter at the wellhead, planted eight baskets and two pots of white impatiens, mowed the paths in the ridge top garden and turned the water back on to the roadside vegetable garden, would you forgive me for not having the energy to take a lot of flower pictures for Bloom Day? Plus, it started raining.

It doesn't happen often at this elevation, but every fourth year or so, the bearded iris buds survive the spring freezes to put up a few blooms. There have been a few extra irises in bloom this year. The Barton's Cypress did not fare so well. They got major winter burn. They should be green by now.

I saw a deep blue columbine close by.

Magnolia 'Jane' is also in bloom. The flowers are just shrunken in size from the killer freeze last March. That is it for my Bloom Day. Visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for more.

Voodoo Rising

The hot is here. Now mind you my hot is 80 degrees, 85 down lower. It's not okra hot. The sweat and sticky still takes some getting used to. I've been acclimated to mountain air. It is good enough to make the voodoo lilies rise. A tropical bulb is waking up at the end of June.

On the Shores of Turd Blossom Lake.

I got a new metal bench a while back, one that won't rot. It needs a cushion. All of mine is gone.

The Lush is in full swing and the big bold foliage is having a hail-less year. So far.

Our hot brings regular afternoon thunderstorms. Some off them can be real gully washers. Drifts of the native Hydrangea arborescens are in full bloom

I wander out there.

In the hot

With iris that came from the swamps.

When a big crack caught my eye

The glass is half broken. Again.

The Doghobble, Leucothoe, seems to like it up here. The lower hedge that began as sprigs is close to filling in and closing off access. You can't walk through Doghobble.

Voodoo keeps rising.