What's in full bloom now? JUNE 1ST - JUNE 15TH 2010

Sharon, how do you get your clematis so full and lush? Mine are so spindly, esp in the leaf area. Do you have more than one planted of each type?

Gwen, I give my clems the same fertilizer that I give my roses. It is a custom blend designed specifically for the Puyalluyp Rose Society and is still a real bargain at about 22.00 for 50 pounds. I'm pretty sure I give it to them every time I fertilize the roses, which is two or three times a summer. No, I only have one of each variety as there are so many wonderful ones to choose from---just added ten or so from the Silver Star Vinery order we combined this spring. You might notice that The President has sparser leaves than some of the others. It gets very little sun at all, which I think is the cause.

Sharon, your heuchera looks a lot like my Strawberry Swirls (?)

Sharon, would I be able to get some of the Puyallup rose fertilizer up here? If not, is it close enough to you that you could bring me a bag in Montana? (LOL that we would be drive to montana to swap a bag of fertilizer!)

Sharon, they are beautiful! I hope one day that I, too, will grow clematis that well.

Gwen, unfortunately the sale of the fertilizer is a spring fund-raiser for the PRS, and is over for this year. We'll have to keep that in mind for you for next spring..)

Mortemer sackler all in bloom. Messy...but I love this climber!

New dawn is putting on a show right now. (excuse the mess in the side yard)

My favorite little clematis .

Dream come true rose. Only one on thebush this year! It had a rough winter!

Nicole is back. This is a great rose. Year three and doing great.

Ah... lovely photos as always, Bea. :)

Thanks Pony. Your new Dahlia is pretty awesome. I will stick to the garden varieties though. Ouch!

LOL! But mine will bloom all year round! ;)

True..true! Good point. You will not have to worry about slugs chewing it to pieces!

Oh, lordy- I sure hope not! LOL! Ewwww!

Okay. How big does a climber support have to be? Does it depend on the rose; i.e., do the different varieties grow to different lengths? I bought a climber this spring that I absolutely love and it's going crazy, but I'm not sure the small support I bought for it is going to do the trick. It was just to be for this season until I did something permanent, but I think the rose may outdo it this year.

Happy Birthday Sharon!!!!

Kathy, which rose is it? Yes, there are definitely differing needs.

Thanks, Linda.

Okay, here's the surprise I found in my orchard; these larkspurs must have naturalized because there's a whole mess of them under the peach trees!

And here was my Buff Beauty several weeks ago:

The rose is called Autumn Sunset - I saw it combined with a purple clematis and want to try that. I thought the combination was stunning.

That rose grows 6-8' so it will need a sturdy support. It will look great with purple clematis.

This message was edited Jun 13, 2010 11:49 PM

Oooh, jealous Kathy. I was looking for Autumn Sunset last year to train up my brick South facing wall - I also thought it would be great with a purple clematis. I ended up with Polka instead, which is also nice - but I still have a hankering for Autumn Sunset. Where did you get it?

Pretty pics, people!!!

Thanks, Bea. So my thought was that I would put up a 7' high and 3-4' wide arbor with posts set in concrete. I think my neighbor will help me dig the holes (it's inside an area owned by both a fir tree and a cedar tree and that is all rocky clay). I want to put it with Clematis Warsaw Nike. Will that be the right size for support and aesthetics, do you think?

Here's the combo as I originally saw it: http://cubits.org/Clematis/thread/view/2263/

Kim, I was told that it's a standard rose that I should have been able to find fairly easily. One of the gals did a search on a rose locater site and said that Molbaks had it. I was there one day and just decided to look through the roses and there it was. Really fortuitous, I think. And, it seemed to have survived our awful spring here okay, so I think it might do well in this climate, which is a plus!

Native honeysuckle

An unnamed single peony, love the fuschia color which mingles well with orange poppies, bright pink thrift, and whatever those orange and yellow lilies are that seem to come with bulb orders (not a lilly fan, so clueless), as well as all the purples going on right now.

My Commander in Chief lilies are making me very happy. :)

Greenhouse_gal, I don't think we have those butterflies here! That is just beautiful. Naturalize larkspurs! Just think!

I find this combo to be interesting.

Love the peony and the Commander lilies. Such saturated color!

I have one foxtail lily this year. Last year I also had one, but it was a different one. Maybe next year they will bloom together. One can only hope.

The rose garden. Graham Thomas and friends.

I think this is the year of the poppy. And they do better in this soil, which is less rich than the back gardens. They tend to be lanky and floppy out back.

The sun was out and so was my camera, so I'll have to beg your patience - I did try to trim it down a little...

First up, white bellflower hanging with the iris foliage.

My poppies have been outrageous. I got 2 from Mary a couple of years ago and today I counted 14 in that spot. And I dug up a couple last year for the neighbor!

The Kniphofia cultivar 'Earliest of All'.

Kim, that's a very artistic shot!

My mock orange 'tree'. This is a fairly ungainly, woody shrub most of the year - but it makes up for it for three or four heavenly smelling weeks in June. There is a red clematis running up the bush as well. I couldn't choose one picture, so I cheated and made a collage.

Another NOID daylily has started blooming:

This peony has a ton of blooms on it this year - it's taken several years to get to this point probably mostly because it's in part shade, but patience has paid off.