The rains of April and May have been good for Oklahoma gardens, and mine is no different this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Welcome Sweet May in all your floriferous glory. I will not take you for granted. I will not complain about soggy soil. Hot and dry July will soon be on its way, and then there’s August too.
However, today is a glorious Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. We had more rain night before last and earlier this morning. I wanted to show you raindrops on roses and other good things. Maybe, once again, our pond will fill to capacity. I didn’t keep track of all the rain, but we’ve had at least twelve inches in the last three weeks. You can also check the rainfall stats on the Oklahoma Mesonet, but remember, I’m a quite a bit south of the Guthrie reporting station.
I am giddy. Can you tell? This is a stupendous spring. I removed five or six roses due to general drought dieback and other stresses. I only saw signs of Rose Rosette on one, and I yanked and bagged it as soon as possible. I replaced dead roses with some native plants and other shrubs. I also bought quite a few new daylilies in anticipation of our regional meeting in 2017. I think my garden will be on tour. I hope so.
Speaking of tours, we also had a garden party in our backyard for four garden groups last weekend. It gave me the impetus to spiff up the garden and helped me look at it in a new way. I think there were more than forty women out here and one man. I didn’t have time to count everyone though. I was busy answering questions. Several people asked where I get my daylily markers. I also use these markers to identify lilies and other plants that I might not remember. I have a lot of plants, I can’t remember them all. I get my markers from Triple AAA Quality Engravers. Bernard Holliday has been tremendous help. These markers last for years and years.
Looking at the overall garden, it is full of little blooms and roses. Visitors were surprised I still have so many roses. I do, but I’ve lost over half. It’s okay. I appreciate the ones I have so much more. When I was sent a shipment of new roses to try, I took them and planted at my priest’s house because there is less chance of them getting Rose Rosette there. I’ll go up and take pictures soon.
I planted a ‘Peggy Martin’ rose last year because I couldn’t resist the story of her survival in Hurricane Katrina. I hope she will live long and happy in my garden, but if she doesn’t, I’ll remove her. Next to ‘Peggy Martin’ is Hypericum spp., St. John’s wort. I don’t know the species, but I’ve planted two other shrubby St. John’s wort in the back garden. Hypericums are so good for pollinators. In front is Cotinus x ‘Grace’ smoketree. I planted a five gallon shrub last year, and it seems very, very happy in this clay soil section of the garden. I also have a green smoke tree, and the standard ‘Purple Smoke,’ but I wish I had a C. coggygria ‘Ancot’ Golden Spirit. I know I could find just the spot for it.
Penstemon are blooming. The visitors were in love with ‘Violet Dusk,’ a penstemon I found a few years ago at Lowe’s. You can now find it online. It does reseed so you’ll always have it, but it isn’t a thug. Mine appears to be much more purple than some I’ve seen online.
When you go to a box store, try to look past all the annual color and focus upon the odd and unusual. I saw ‘Violet Dusk’ blooming and thought I would give it a try. The same thing for ‘Dark Towers’ penstemon. It was on a sale table at Home Depot. I took out my iPhone and looked it up. When I saw it was similar to ‘Husker Red,’ but the foliage retained the darker color better, and it bloomed pink, I snapped it up. This is how you should shop when you go to a nursery. Color is nice, but buy things out of bloom. If you only buy plants in bloom in spring, your garden will be a one-season affair. You have to instead think ahead and look for plants with interesting foliage and growth habits in order to have a garden with year round interest. With spring-blooming bulbs, hellebores and later, asters and garden mums, mine blooms from February through October, and sometimes, November. I use tropicals and annuals for the summer months because our summers are hotter than Hades. Do they overwinter? No, but plants with good foliage are worth their weight in gold.
Now, I realize I didn’t shop this way when I had little kids with me. When the kids came, I tried to let them choose whatever they wanted. My garden looked nothing like it does now. It has matured over time as my children grew up. Before long, I’ll only have one child at home. This is bittersweet, but life often is.
Look at this Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed, in bud. Try to add some milkweeds to your garden this year because you’ll be helping the Monarchs. Plus, this native is a bright spot of orange marmalade in your garden for early to mid-summer.
Some of the clematis are blooming splendidly while others are really sad. I don’t know why except that one, ‘Fireworks,’ got smooshed by the chicken wire when we had a fence post failure. Bill replaced the post, and I’m now trying to get ‘Fireworks’ to cheer up. I’ve also noticed that sometimes if a clematis blooms a lot one year, it may take the next off, or bloom less in our climate. ‘John Paul II,’ ‘Huvi,’ ‘Queen of Holland’ and ‘Niobe’ are all lovely spring. You can click on the photos, above to make them larger. I accidentally broke off a piece of ‘Queen of Holland’ last week. I was trying to pull out some Virginia creeper, and I grabbed the stem. I do this once a year to at least one of the clematis. Also, parts of clematis sometimes look dead in early spring so be careful when pruning. I found two ‘Jackmanii’ clematis at Westlake Ace Hardware on Danforth and Kelly. They were in that section of small perennials they always carry. I love ‘Jackmanii,’ an old clematis. I know it has problems with wilt, but in the years when it blooms, oh my! I planted one each at the base of my ‘Pink Velour’ crapemyrtles shown in the top photo, and I’ll use chicken wire to train them up the trunks. I either use regular chicken wire hidden by other perennials growing around the trees, or the green coated kind.
Finally, Wisteria macrostachya ‘Blue Moon’ has come into its own and joins W. frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’ in bloom. I’ve noticed that ‘Kentucky Blue Moon’ does start blooming a bit later than ‘Amethyst Falls,’ and is more blue. This is nice because their bloom times do overlap.
I also planted more honeysuckles in the garden. One is Lonicera periclymenum Sweet Tea ‘Caprilia Cream.’ I guess Ball Horticultural decided Sweet Tea is easier to remember than ‘Caprilia Cream.’ It certainly is for me. This honeysuckle is intensely fragrant and has large blooms. ‘Dropmore Scarlet’ is another I planted, and it isn’t blooming yet. I think I also bought ‘Major Wheeler,’ but I can’t find it. I do that sometimes, lose plants. I know I planted it. Somewhere.
I still have some baptisias blooming, and I bought two new ones from Proven Winners: Decadence® Cherries Jubilee and Decadence® Lemon Meringue. I found them both at Lowe’s on Memorial and Penn the other day. They were sitting forlornly on a table because they weren’t yet blooming, and no one knew what they were. If you follow me on social media, I often take photos of plants I love when I see them at various nurseries in town so you can find them.
Okay, I could talk your ear off even more this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, but I’ll just say that Carol from May Dreams Gardens is our hostess with the mostest. Thank you Carol for helping me keep a monthly record of blooms for all these years.
What an awesome spring it is! I’m curious what happens when the big heat comes? Oh well, lets enjoy the cool weather while we have it. Your garden looks stupendous. My lone Clematis vine is in bloom with multiple grouped blooms, lost the tag however..
The arch with the wisteria is absolutely gorgeous. The scent of wisteria is one of my favorites and I think I will persuade my other half to find a place for it in our garden along with my absolute favorite; jasmine to grow over an arched seat in the garden. I love reading your blog, it’s a wonderful inspiration of how pretty gardens can be.
Thank you so much Emsy! I really appreciate hearing that my scribblings inspire people.
I found your blog while researching rose rosette. I live in Baldwin City Kansas. I planted my first rose last spring. A carefree wonder. I had wanted a carefree beauty but couldn’t find one locally. I didn’t and still don’t know much about roses. In the fall I noticed a very strange looking red shoot. I wondered if that was normal but brushed it off. This Spring that same weird looking thing was happening again so I just cut it off and went about my business. I ordered 2 new roses one a carefree beauty and planted them next to the carefree wonder. My carefree beauty rose info said it was susceptible to rose rosette. I thought I better find out what that is. Sure enough the description I found matched what I was seeing in my wonder. So I dug it up. I hope I didn’t spread it to my new roses. I guess time will tell. Thank you for your articles on rose rosette. They have been very helpful.
Hi Sherry, first, let me say how sorry I am that you lost a rose to Rose Rosette. So far, there aren’t any commercial roses that are NOT susceptible to this awful scourge. Having written that, I’m not willing to completely give up on roses yet. If you were doing to lose a rose, it might be okay that it was ‘Carefree Wonder.’ I had one for years, and it was a constant pain. It was so thorny that taking care of it was painful. Truly. If your ‘Carefree Beauty’ roses makes it, you will be so happy because it’s a wonderful rose. Just one of the best ever. I’m glad I could help with information on Rose Rosette. Please come back and visit soon.
That arbor with the Wisteria is lovely, Dee. You also have an amazing collection of Penstemons! I’ll bet the pollinators love them. The Baptisias here in Madison are probably about a week away from blooming–such an interesting plant in the way it emerges straight up and then blooms so beautifully. How fun that you had all those visitors in your garden!
Thank you so much Beth. Yes, pollinators really go for those penstemons and the baptisias for that matter. I love them all. Happy, happy bloom day!
I was in the group from Tulsa that visited and just wanted to thank you so much for sharing your garden with us. It was a real treat after following your blog to actually get to see the whole thing and see how the different parts relate to each other.
I know what you mean about the big box stores. I bought my ‘Clarence’ iris and ‘Francis Williams’ hosts at Walmart – double surprising because I rarely go to Walmart. Not unusual plants, but unusual (and cheap) for a big box store. Looks like your garden is staying busy.
Yes, sometimes, the box stores get an advance on certain plants. I think I got the same hosta from a box store here. I’ll shop wherever the plants are. My garden is very busy this year. Very fun. Thanks Ray.
Dee, thank you for sharing your beautiful garden. I am sure your visitors had a wonderful time, also. Your wisteria with the new sidewalk is lovely. Don’t you like that curve? My daylilies are just starting to throw buds and I am south of you. I think this might be one of the best flowering springs in years with all the rain we have been experiencing. Thanks for the label link. Your article is packed with good information.~J
Thanks Jeanette. I try to give good info along with my pretty pics. I really just write stream of consciousness stuff. I was also thinking that this is the best spring we’ve had in years. All this rain is quite surprising, isn’t it? I could use a couple of bright sunny days though for the garden to drain. The soil is pretty mushy, but I’m not complaining.
Wish I was one of the visitors touring your amazing garden, Dee. Your hard work paid off and it looks so beautiful! I have a tour coming here at the end of June, and although it is more than a month away, I am busy spiffing up, too. I am so glad you had rain and hope your summer weather is kinder to you than usual. P. x
Hi Pam, how lovely to see you. I’ll pop over to your place and see what you’ve been up to. Yes, it takes months to get a garden ready for a tour. It really does. There is so much to do other than weeding. Good luck with your tour too. My daylily club is coming here at the end of June. That will be fun.
Your garden has obviously enjoyed all the rain–just gorgeous, Dee! Oh, how I wish I could have gone on the tour with the garden group; what a treat for them to explore your garden. Love the wisteria-covered arch and the new brick sidewalk! I have no idea where it leads, and I know I would be tempted to follow it to find out.
Rose, I told Bill you love his sidewalk. He smiled. It leads all around the house. We finally, after 30 years, have a complete walkway around the whole house. He’s going to install a pond next to our bedroom and he wants me to plant this little space between the sidewalk and the rose bed above. Since I’m going to be on the regional tour in 2017, I might just plant it in daylilies. That would be a good start, but I’ll have to get water to it first.
Dee. Thank you for letting us in your garden. It was beautiful. Actually, I would need a day and night to see it all. I am still loosing roses and I say “good riddance”.
You know, Martie, I have to say that losing the roses hasn’t been all bad. My arms and legs have fewer scratches for example. I still have enough to enjoy, but not so much of a burden.
Lots of vines there, all very pretty. Your bloom times are farther behind ours than I expected. My Baptisia is long out of bloom and the seeds disappeared again this year.
Nell Jean, I think we’re about two weeks behind our normal bloom schedule. All the rain and cool temperatures have really slowed things down. Plus, I bought the two new baptisias when they were just budded up so I can see them bloom this year.
Beautiful! Love the arbor!
Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
Lea
Thank you Lea and Happy Bloom Day to you too!
Oh my so lovely! I love that honeysuckle sweet tea! And blue moon makes me swoon. How do you ever leave your garden? It’s just too beautiful to walk out on. You sure some of those visitors aren’t secretly hiding out? I would be ha ha. Even with all that snow melt and mud, we are now dry, dry, dry (sigh) – each year has its challenges and I am not as adept as you are as a gardener. Thanks for this wonderful tour and break.
Kathy, sometimes, it’s a relief to leave it for a bit. However, I’m in it almost every day doing something or just sitting. It is especially beautiful this year with all the rain. I don’t see any visitors still hanging about, but you never know….
Your garden is looking so lush. Love all the clematis. I bought a Blue Moon Wisteria this year. I am happy to see what my little 6 inch plant will look like in a few years. Wish I was touring your garden this spring what with all the rain. Happy GBBD.
Lisa, I wish you were here too.
Lovely, lovely, lovely. I have some of the same plants and think I might be a week or two behind you. I also have Continus ‘Golden Spirit’ and yes, you should find a spot for it. I’m keeping mine trimmed to “big shrub” size. Thanks for joining for bloom day!
Hmmmm, wonder where I could put it?