Memorial Day Moss Garden Massacre

Oh, that's a shame...do you have a pic of it in it's full glory?
I wonder if you put some type of bird netting over it...tucking it in and tying it down somehow so it doesn't really show. Would that keep the robins out?

Robins did that?!?!? Wow!

The iris bed is heading towards full bloom. It's finally, almost beginning to look like something, but apparently I really, really need to keep the festuca glauca seedlings under control. It's been more than 5 years since I totally redid that bed, and the middle part still isn't performing. The first winter, almost all of those varieties rotted out, and since then it's been rot, borers, general unhappiness. Maybe next year I'll find out if some of my old favorites survived.

Tree peonies and the Shasta viburnum are blooming. The Claire de Lune clematis planted with them is blooming. It's pinker than I expected, but still quite nice.

Practically every day more of the early roses get started. The blooming order is a bit confused. The rose that I thought would be an early one, so I planted it with the early ones, is blooming with the early ones for the first time in 5 years.

I really wish I was better at picture taking. I was sort of getting somewhere with the old Nikon, but of course had no idea what turned out until the film was developed. Now I have a fairly standard digital, and just can't get it to do what I want it to do. The biggest problem last year was focusing. This year it just may flat out be light. A lot of my garden is in dappled shade, so the camera adjusts for the shade, and the lighted parts totally wash out. When you see it in person, it's sometimes a very interesting effect, but I can't capture it. So right now I'm looking out my window at the iris bed. There is a big clump of Quaker Lady literally shining in a sunny spot, like a spotlight is turned on it. Quaker Lady is irridescent, so when light hits it, it literally glows. But the camera can't see that.

My irises are getting ready too:

{{gwi:1070104}}

Off the top of my head, I've got:

violets
euphorbia
dicentra
centaurea montana
veronica(??)
sedum
creeping phlox
a few daffs and tulips hanging on
weigela just starting
columbines
tiarella
azalea
deutzia

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but that's the bulk of it for now.

:)
Dee

Okay, I knew I forgot something! My geraniums are in bloom, and sweet woodruff is blooming also.

:)
Dee

Blooming now in Metrowest:

Centaura Montana
Allium ÂPurple SensationÂ
LadyÂs Mantle
Clematis ÂMontana RubensÂ
Pulmonaria ÂAlan LeslieÂ
Hardy geranium (unnamed)
Veronica austriaca ÂRoyal BlueÂ
Salvia ÂBlue QueenÂ
Bleeding Hearts (spectabilis & eximia)
Columbine
Lily of the Valley
Violets
Coral Bells (old fashioned)
Heuchera ÂPlum Pudding (sending up buds)
JacobÂs Ladder Âreptans (starting to pass)
Brunnera ÂJack Frost (starting to pass)
Lilacs (starting to pass)
Siberian iris  lots of buds!!
Azalea
Rhododendron

Hostas are coming up and taking shape. ÂPaulÂs Glory has soft color differentiation starting to come through. Last year it didnÂt color until August.

IÂm anticipating with great excitement the bursting forth of budding peonies! And lots of buds on campanula percicifolia.

My most repetitious activity: pulling out random single shoots of grass that poke up in my lasagna beds!

Judye

The flowers on my wisteria pseudo-standard, which doubles as a suet feeder, are elongating and just thinking about opening.

Otherwise, I have

one lilac
Spanish bluebells starting, white first, blues and pink next
late daffodils (Sir Winston Churchill, Hawera...)
a few muscari
Polemonium "Stairway to Heaven"
Geranium macrorhizum Ingwersen's Variety
Beach plum
various dicentras, pink and white
leucojums
a few siberian iris blooms in a warm sunny microclimate
a few half-open buds on Rosa rugosa Yankee Lady
Bearded iris buds all over
one eternal hellebore
ajuga
azaleas
Canada Mayflower
wild strawberry
violets
cotoneaster
peonies all have buds, some almost open

There's going to be a fine crop of bird-sown sunflowers this year.

Claire

I went out to get the paper this morning and saw my first bearded iris in bloom!

and the first peony (Silver Dawn)!

I love the look of hosta leaves when they first unfurl:

Guardian Angel

Big Daddy

Unfortunately, when I look at Big Daddy I start thinking about slicing it up and adding a little mayonnaise .... Maybe I should eat breakfast before I go get the paper....

Claire

What a glorious day today. Spent too long spreading mulch (still) and mentally planning next year's big shrub rearrangement and perennial divide. I am making myself wait, tho I wonder if I need to.

My favorite combinations right now are:

First peony of the year, with blooming weigela and spirea behind:

A bunch of nice textures with ajuga, hellebores, ferns:

They line this path:

On the other side of the path, Salvia n. 'Caradonna' is just starting to bloom, along with the Kousa dogwood:

And I love this aquilegia 'Lime Sorbet':

Especially with this white-leaved hosta and white azalea:

Just a few more pics of things I am loving:

A nice big bleeding heart with heucheras, etc., with my new Cercis 'Forest Pansy' behind, tho not in this photo

And various geraniums:

And, lastly (unless you visit my album to see too many more pics!), a new Exbury azalea 'Gibraltar', with another Geranium phaeum (anybody know this cultivar?):