Oh, good! They're much smaller when they post. So I'll continue with a few more...

The edge of the dry garden with Hedy's Salvia pretenses in front of Iris that came with the house.

White Salvia opening at the end of the garden.

And a visitor in the H.F. Young Clematis.

Beautiful photos, molie - I particularly love the peonies and the iris. Do you know the name of the iris?

You don't have to resize the photos anymore, Houzz does that for you (at least I think so, since my photos are resized automatically when I export them from ImageBrowser).

Claire

Beautiful, Molie! So glad to see you here.

Susan

Molie, that peony is gorgeous!

Both Molie's 'Coral Sunset' peony and the 'Singing in the Rain' peony that Steve posted in May are just beautiful!

Thanks everyone for your comments about that peony.....I'll definitely look up Steve's 'Singing in the Rain'.

As for the Iris, sorry, Claire, I have no idea what it is. They were here in a shaded area of the front yard when we moved in 12 years ago. I replanted them in the long garden where they'd get more sun. Now they've exploded in size.

Molie, Claire - Maybe you can ask the iris forum to identify that iris, but the link below may also be useful. From the home page you can go to the gallery and search, although you have to go name by name alphabetically. I dis see a couple that resemble your iris, Molie. "Tiffany", "Roundup" and "Pink Confetti", but hard to tell from your photo. Maybe you'll be better able to compare with the real flowers.

Link to HIPS

Bill posted while I was preparing my post. I've used that site before to identify an inherited iris. I went through every iris one by one then and it turned out to be Wabash, near the very end. Pink Confetti was at least closer to the top.

Molie: I think your iris is probably Pink Confetti shown on the American Iris Society site. Another site is the Historic Iris Preservation Society: Pink Confetti

Claire

edit:

American Iris Society site

Historic Iris Preservation Society site

Both sites talk about orange in the throat.

Jane, that is an awesome story. And that tree is gorgeous!

Claire, do you usually have daylilies opening this early? I don't think I've ever had them this early, but I have a handful starting to bloom.

Molie, so glad you posted your photos. Everything's so beautiful. I have 'Coral Charm' peony. I'm wondering, does your 'Coral Sunset' smell nasty as well? I was shocked that such a beautiful flower could have such a foul smell! LOL!!

Here are a few from the garden today.

The Fringe Tree and Calycanthus mingle nicely together.

Here's 'Coral Charm' with a rugosa rose.

I got a few six-packs of Lupine last year from a local nursery and the colors are pretty cool.

From the cottage garden.

Beautiful as always, T2D. I'm jealous of everybody's peonies - none of mine have opened yet although there are plenty of fat buds.

RE early daylilies: Orangeman was newly planted last spring and still managed to bloom in mid-June. It's known to be an early bloomer and now in its second year it's blooming earlier. I don't think it likes where I've planted it so I may move it later on.

I also have an inherited daylily which I think is the classic Lemon Lily. This one blooms in early June with the Siberian irises. I thought I lost it last year when it got both shaded and crowded by the irises but I found it again this year struggling to survive but with a few buds. I'm planning to move it after it blooms. Here it is on June 7, 2013.

I bought some more Lemon Lilies and planted them this spring so I'm hoping for more early bloom next year from the Lemon Lilies and Orangemen (See link for descriptions). I'm hoping I can arrange a planting of both types of daylilies near the irises but with a little space to control the very very robust irises.

Old House Gardens daylilies

Claire

Claire, nice detective work on that iris! "Pink Confetti" was one of the ones I mentioned too, and even if it's not that in Molie's photo, it's a nice one to consider for my garden. Maybe she can look at her plant and see how well it matches your posted photo from the web. It was kind of hard to see detail in her photo. Maybe she can even post a closeup of her plant.

Bill: We both used the same path(s) to identify the iris. I'd greatly enlarged Molie's photo so I feel reasonably confident in the ID.

It's a really pretty iris and obviously easy to grow since it survived the neglect before Molie took over and gave it the proper care. I like plants that are easy to grow.

I don't know how available it is nowadays - one sold on eBay recently.

Claire

edit note: Several vendors are shown by Google

Bill and Claire, thank you for researching my Iris. Of the three mentioned, 'Roundup' seemed most like mine ...... as you can see from the two pictures of a fading blossom that I brought inside today. It's pretty hard to compare a has-been blossom like this to a perfect blossom as on the websites, but overall I'd say that the color of my iris is more rose than pink. The Standards on mine do touch and both the Falls and the Standards have a brown tint to them. In fact, now that the flowers are passing their prime, there are obvious brownish-purple rose streaks on both parts. Claire, if you can find ''Pink Confetti' it should look glorious! However, if you would like some of my iris and are ever in southern CT, I'll gladly share. This iris has spread throughout our long garden and needs to be thinned out.

T2D, your 'Coral Charm' is lovely ... too bad it has a nasty smell. My 'Coral Sunset' is not overly scented as some of my other peonies, but it smells fine, not at all offensive. I'm not sure from the distance, but those blue Columbines in the 5th photo look just like the ones my mother grew. Are they an older variety? I remember last year's photos of your cottage garden... so lovely again this year.

Hi everyone, I lurk here occasionally and I finally got around to taking some photos in the garden to share.

corydalis lutea with schizophragma hydrangeoides

physocarpus

Iris with lamium

Angelica archangelica

Lonicera gold flame

Sambucus nigra

Very pretty pics, kanani milles!

Molie: I'm glad you've found a matchup for your iris - Roundup looks like a beauty; I missed that when I was searching.

Claire

A few photos from the veggie garden:

Blossoms on the favas

Pansies under chard

Peas forming

Mustard greens that have bolted

It's nice to have white highlights in the garden, especially on a moonlit night, but now that I've seen Merla's peony, 'Coral Sunset', I want one too.

It was a bare stick 15-20 years ago and some years, it produces a solid red bloom, but this year they were all variegated dark pink and white. It's in semi-shade in a woodland garden.

Jane

No blockbuster peonies here yet so I'm enjoying everyone else's. No bearded iris yet either and the recent rain (lovely rain) disheveled the rugosas which have been quite lovely (and will be again).

One small pleasure is the Geranium 'Biokovo' which started to open and then stopped during this cold spell. It's my favorite geranium and sits under the Gold Heart dicentra which goes well with it.

Claire

Thanks, Bill, for the link to reblooming iris. They are beautiful & I bookmarked that site for later.

Kanani, I love the red chard with pansies... that's a great combination that I may copy next year. (I have pots of chard growing on the deck this year.) And it's fun to see everything that you are growing. Hope the plants you took home from the Swap are loving their new home!

Claire, that's a beautiful white geranium. It must sparkle in the garden.... I'll have to look it up.

And Jane.... believe it or not, I bought 'Coral Sunset' Peony at Flower Power Farm two years ago. Maybe they still have it. Both the color and the price caught my eye.

Molie

Jane that red/pink peony looks like a tree peony called Shima-nishiki. I've been eyeing one for a while. I guess I should just break down and buy one. I'm not getting any younger.

A few pictures from yesterday.

Climbing Rose 'Can Can'

Rose Carefree Wonder

An alium called Nectaroscordum siculum Bulgaricum. That's a mouthful.

Siberian Iris 'Gulls Wings'

Intersectional Peony 'Cora Louise'

Hosta 'Lakeside Love Affaire'

Clematis Bourbon

Steve

Took a few photos today. This is part one.

Tradescantia "Sweet Kate"

Amsonia (a bit past prime)

"Sweet Kate"

Ice plants (Delosperma)

Yellow ice plants

Chamaecyprus "Golden Mop" (False cypress)

Armeria

And here is part 2........

White iris (I don't know the variety)

Rhododendron "Chionoides" white

Rhododendron from my grandfather (I have no clue what it's called)

Patio fountain (OK so it's not Trevi, but it will do until I get back to Rome!)

Finally, you can see the bad winter damage on my Magnolia "Bracken's Brown Beauty", but I wanted to show all the new growth. Every branch is fine, and even some flower buds are swelling, so this is a hardy tree for sure.

Loved seeing everyone's pictures. The dogwood story is heartwarming. I've noticed some beautiful kousa dogwoods this year, very full. May just disappeared on me. Still lots of garden work to do. Should put "put new batteries in the camera" on my to do list.

Steve, that 'Cora Louise' is something else!

Bill, I think you posted a picture of Echium last year. I moved some into my cottage garden and I am really enjoying it.

Thyme, I've never grown Echium. It may have been either some other similar looking plant or possibly another member's photo. I do like it though. Has it been planted recently, or does it survive the winters outdoors?

Bill, the fountain with pink geraniums is delightful. (I always think of Italy and France when I see geraniums.) My DH would like a fountain like yours, but we live along a river... so what's the point!

Thanks, Steve, for all the shots of your plants. Your peony 'Cora Lousie' is mighty tempting, but there's "no room at the inn." I've reached the point in our yard where I'm pulling things out. We have several peonies... the one in front ('Coral Sunset') that came from a garden center and 5 that came in a bag from Costco. The Costco peonies are really doing well for their second year with 3 that have continuous budding. Here's a closeup of one that's a double. As the blossoms mature, they get really full with the central part standing up like a pale pink pompom.

Also doing well this year are the clematis near the garden shed. Here' 'Rebecca' growing up the arbor behind a Knockout rose. Rebecca's clematis companion is white, but there were no blooms when I took the photos today.

By the way.... for all my birding friends who read my lament on the 'Birds and other mobile features' thread ... notice that I grow a lot of reds and pinks, hoping to attract hummingbirds. Even though we have a feeder up, I've only seen one.

Molie, I don't live near a river, so the fountain's a nice touch. But actually, even for you, what I like about this one is that it has several interchangeable tops, and it's illuminated for nighttime enjoyment.

Such a nice variety of spring planting shown here! My coastal garden is way behind most of yours. The only roses I have blooming are rugosas and I finally got my first peony bloom two days ago:

Peony 'Festiva Maxima'

Bearded irises are beginning now:

Iris 'Beverly Sills' with my volunteer kousa dogwood and some cotoneaster:

Iris 'Wabash', an inherited bearded iris:

Siberian irises are all over the place - they almost qualify as weeds that self sow everywhere. Luckily I love them.

With hosta and the end of the geranium macrorrhizum with some miscanthus growing up:

Purple Siberian irises with a white 'Lights of Paris' iris that reappeared after being lost for a few years. I've been digging out irises that were shaded out by the winterberry and a miscanthus. These were dug out last year and I just dug out the last yesterday so I'm hoping there are some more 'Lights of Paris' in there. I'll have to wait for next year to find out.:

'Lights of Paris'

Claire

I forgot to mention the Viburnum 'Summer Snowflake' which is still blooming while the big doublefile behind it has dropped most of its petals. It's a little less gawky than last year.

Claire

Shhh, Bill... don't let my DH know about the interchangeable tops and even illumination of your fountain! Sounds mighty nice. I've also seen Jane's red bubbler fountain... it's table sized and a color that (I think) she said attracts hummingbirds to her deck.

Claire, your iris, especially the inherited 'Wabash'... that's an older variety?... and 'Beverly Sills' must light up the garden. I really wish I had room for more iris... and more peonies... and roses, but we don't. One-third of an acre gets filled up pretty quickly.

Enjoyed finding this thread and seeing everyone's photos..just lovely. Started a huge garden project last year, so not many blooms yet, but here are the only dutch iris that are blooming this year...of the ones i planted last fall. It appears they sent up leaves/stems in the fall, and the tops were frozen? and no blooms-?? Did this happen to anyone else?

Bill, your ice plants are lovely, I planted several starter plants last year, and lost them over the winter. Do you have a secret to raising yours and overwintering?

Molie - OK we never saw the fountain, right? LOL!
Val - I don't do anything for winter protection, but first be sure you have one of the hardy types, plant in full sun, average soil, but (*very* important!) be sure they're not in a shallow that will collect water in winter. Even the slightest mound will be OK. Many of mine are in a bed that has a few inches of crushed natural stone mulch, so even though the individual plants (along with my cacti and other xerophytes) are on slight mounds, I spread the stone mulch level. It drains fine for the plants, but it looks level in the bed.

Molie: Wabash is an old favorite, introduced in 1936 and apparently planted in myriad gardens. A neighbor saw it and I think said her grandmother had grown it, and she often saw it but didn't know the name.

Welcome to the forum, val! Pretty iris there but I can't give you an answer to why the others didn't bloom - maybe someone else has an answer.

My foxgloves are beginning to bloom, in unexpected places as usual. They appear wherever they feel like it. I didn't plant this one but I think it chose its location well in front of the stone wall (there IS a stone wall under the cotoneasters and hydrangea and hosta and behind the geranium...)

On May 30 in last month's thread I posted that my volunteer dogwood had bloomed for the first time and I could now identify it as a Cornus Kousa, although of unknown origin. Well, I have another Kousa and maybe two more, all volunteers and variable.

Last night I was doing dishes as it was getting darkish and I looked out the window (washing dishes is not very interesting). There was a breeze rustling the leaves down by the road and it almost looked like white flowers in one area. I thought naah, must be just the undersides of the leaves, but I pulled out the binoculars to look (anything to delay washing dishes) and I saw flowers on another volunteer dogwood that had never bloomed before. I went out to check but had to wait until today to get good pictures. I swear those flowers weren't there the day before.

I had thought this volunteer was a native, Cornus florida, but the flowers and timing say C. kousa. The flowers are high up so I couldn't get a closeup (the tree is easily 10 feet tall).

At least I could reach the bottom leaves.

This is definitely different from my first volunteer kousa which started blooming a few weeks ago. The flowers and leaves on the first one are much smaller and the leaves are wavier. This is what that one looks like today:

I'm almost giddy with the latest discovery. I love volunteers and I realized that I probably have at least two more little Kousa dogwoods that are now planted in a woody area of the yard. I had thought all of these were the native Cornus florida but apparently not so. I wonder what else is out there. I may never rake out leaves again.

Claire

Welcome to the forum, val! You'll find lots of help ... and lots of inspiration ... on this thread. Sorry I can't help you with your Dutch Iris. I've never grown them.

Bill, you should post a photo of your front garden so she can see how wonderfully your plants do in that dry bed. (I followed Bill's advice to replant Lithodora when my first one died.)

In my gardens if you grow outside the lines, don't make me itch, aren't a vine AND you bloom, you get to live. Tore the salvia out 2 years ago...apparently not all of it.

Jane :)

Claire - I hope you get lots of Kousa volunteers. On a moonlit night, near the water, it could be a great June white garden for you. Not the best shot going, but this is my largest Kousa, last night around 9. In 2009, I had one Kousa, the gift from the arborist. Now I have 5 of them and this one shown, makes babies every year which I've been able to pot up and transplant. Some night soon, I should hang out of an upstairs window for 'head shot' of its blossoms.

Jane: Are your Kousa babies all the same type (visually) or are they variable? The four I have now all vary in leaf size and the two that have bloomed have different sized flowers. I wonder if the progeny of one tree are normally variable or if I'm seeing hybrids from different Kousas in the neighborhood.

Yesterday I was talking to a neighbor to whom I'd given a rugosa rose and she told me how well it was doing. After she left I remembered that I'd also given her a dogwood sapling, thinking it was Cornus florida. I need to walk down there and see what it looks like - it should be near blooming size now. At this rate the neighborhood is going to be littered with Kousas.

Claire

Claire, my seedlings are from an unnamed variety and the seedlings seem fairly varied as far as intensity of leaf color, size, and shape.

Thanks, NHBabs. I'm looking forward to all sorts of interesting dogwoods. I just have no idea where I'm going to put them.

Claire

Claire, I just took pictures of mine to show you the differences - yes they vary.

This is the leaf and flower of the tree in the picture above. It is the unnamed variety kousa from the arborist. I have gotten a few babies, maybe 3, gave away 2, and this year there is another little guy next to mom, but I'll wait till fall or next year.

Beautiful bracts on those dogwoods, Jane, and definitely variable! I wonder if there's a high mutation rate or if the Kousas just haven't been bred to concentrate certain traits.

This was my first volunteer back in 2011 when I just loved the leaves even though I didn't know what they were.

This one I transplanted last year.

Claire

Claire,

If you are a Kousa fan you might want to visit the Polly Wakefield Estate in Milton, MA. This coming week they are having a "Dogwood Days" celebration. Here's the link: http://www.wakefieldtrust.org/site/dogwood-days/schedule.html

Here's some pictures from the garden today.

Alium schubertii, I saw one of these at Blithewood in RI last year and was very pleased to get a few for the garden. Really unusual.

The blue hydrangea (probably Nikko) just beginning to flower. We didn't get any flowers from it last year.

The first true Lily to bloom. This one is a martagon. I believe it's called Claude Shride.

Clematis Rooguchi

Smiley Face Rose

Climbing Rose 'Can Can' This is about 7 feet tall.

Steve

This is post 50, so I will do a part two for this thread so it doesn't get overly cumbersome for those of us with slower connections.

Penstemon 'Sweet Joanne' is a long bloomer for me.

In the same bed is this tall white Siberian iris. The height works well in this spot since the bed slopes downward, so being over 3' allows the flowers to show over the edge of the patio.

The summer blooming Clematis are just starting to get rolling. 'Gravetye Beauty' will bloom through July and much of August and even throw a few September blooms, but it never has an overwhelming number of flowers at one time.

Foxglove

'Globemaster' Allium is fading, but I leave the heads in the garden until they start to disintegrate - I love the shape.

Thanks, Steve, for the link to Dogwood Days. I just might be able to get there during this week. Your pictures are lovely!

NHBabs: Do you know the name of that white Siberian iris? It's a beauty!

Claire

Thanks, Bill...I had my iceplants (delosperma-purple ones, thought they were the hardy ones) in 2 areas, one of which might have been a shallow "bowl" of rock and caught water..but the other was at the edge of a rock garden. Not sure why mine didnt survive. I did grow some from seed, but they are still indoors (and pretty tiny). May keep them as a houseplant?

All of your gorgeous blooms are so appreciated by this relatively newbie gardener...Been planting for a long while, but never really experimented with alot of new plants. Learning SO much in the past year or two!!

Val, did you buy those two that didn't survive at a local nursery? Usually they only sell the hardy ones here. If you've ever been to California, you can see loads of ice plants along the coast, spreading over the rocks and cliffs, but these have much larger and thicker leaves, and are not hardy in our area. It would be interesting to know exactly what you had. Also, do you know if the seeds you planted are of the hardy type? It should have said on the packet.

One final set of pictures of Kousa dogwood seedlings. I walked down the road, ignoring the light rain (although I did put the camera in a plastic bag), and I checked on the seedling I gave the neighbor a few years ago. It's blooming!

The leaves are about the same size as my small one (about 2 inches long) but they're not nearly as wavy.

So far every seedling is different but all are beautiful.

Claire

Claire, the white Siberian iris is 'Snow Queen', and I also have a different white one that's about the same height that I got as a start from a friend. I like them both.

Thanks, NHBabs. My white 'Lights of Paris' is pretty but the standards are really short for some reason.

Claire