Flora

This weekend, I got some time to clean up the mess I'd made of the yard.  I'm still not done.  I'm amazed at how much stuff was in the greenhouse and when I pulled it out, I was in a rush because of a last minute change in plans and just put it anywhere.  Now, I'm having to move it around.  And, I think Rob is getting impatient.  I've been picking things up and moving them around during the day when I have a few minutes.  I usually pull weeds on my breaks, but now I'm picking up pots and moving them where I'd like them to be for the duration of the reconstruction.  

And, taking pictures.  

I don't have the any idea what this is, but it makes these cute flowers that look like a face.  It came as a volunteer in a plant Sydney bought years ago.  The plant has passed, but the volunteer has continued to bloom.  I'll enjoy it a while, then it will succumb to the heat.  

The mock orange are really putting on a show.  I have two outside the fence and one inside and two in pots, so there's white all around the yard right now.  

This is leadwort plumbago.  Blooms early and only gets a few inches tall, so I have to be sure to get the leaves out of it early in the spring...which I did not do this year.  Late in the summer, it's big sister plumbago will bloom flowers that look almost exactly the same.  

The amaryllis are starting to bloom.  Just a few now, but when I was out there yesterday, there were stalks all over with heavy blossoms about to open.  

This is like a baby elephant ear.  I was walking one day and found four pots of something that looked dead.  I was interested in the pots and the free soil, not so much in the plants, but I brought them home and put all the bulbs in one pot and they came up.  They don't like a lot of sun and the largest leaves are about 7" long.  It's easy to find a shady spot for them every year. because they do so well.  

This is a lily I bought myself a week or so ago.  It's a double.  I've found that I do lilies really well in the green house...in the yard, not so much.  There's a sad lily story further down that explains why.

A very ambitious echinacea.  It's very early for these to bloom.  This is a seedling that came up in an inconvenient spot and I didn't move it and now it's in bloom, so I probably won't move it til end of summer.  

This is the other lily.  Sydney bought me this one maybe 10 years ago?  I kept it in the greenhouse and every year, it would reward me with a head full of blooms.  So, I got ambitious and decided to move them outside.  The squirrels promptly at most of the bulbs.  There were just two small bulbs left in the pot, but they each gave me a flower this year and soon as the greenhouse is done, they'll be moving back in there along with the new lily from above.  

This is stuff I just ripped out of the ground and stuck in pots, using soil from plants that didn't make it over the winter.  I'll either give them away or use them somewhere else.  This is from about 25 feet of flowerbed that I got a chance to really sit down and work on last weekend.  I need to do this same thing all the way around the garden, but there just hasn't been time.  And, that's okay.  Sometimes, I have to be flexible and accept that I can't do it all.  

Everybody have a great week!  If you garden, get your hands dirty.  Every chance you get.  

Lane