Still with the frost! Enough, already!

Corydalis 'G.P. Baker' in Mouse Boat bed

           It has been a frustrating spring. We had a cold, icy, and not-very-snowy winter, so lots of plants were killed, or held back. I was surprised about some - pulmonaria, of which I had quite a few - only one survived. And digitalis, or foxgloves, usually considered bullet-proof if anything is, in a garden - every one of them gone, in the bed in front of the lilacs. I managed to find some self-seeded ones in another bed, and moved them in. And my problem child, the lychnis coronaria, that I had in such abundance - had a whole section of the vegetable patch devoted to growing  them on - all died. And most of the ones I had planted out in the flower beds as well. I noticed a few seedlings in the bed by the driveway, and dug them up, but they are biennials and so won't bloom this year. Curses. They were a nice tall filler.
           I had made a real effort to protect my hydrangea macrophyllas this past winter, but it looks like *that* was for naught as well. Most of them are coming back from the roots, but the last year's wood (which provides the blooms!) is mostly dead. I have cut them down to green on the stems but I don't have much hope that there will be any blooms on *them*. I have decided to buy only types which bloom on new wood from now on, and, to that end, bought a paniculata 'Pink Diamond' last week in Summerside. I hope to put it into the "hydrangea" bed, probably up top where the path joins the upper driveway.
            Rhododendrons have suffered as well - the two new ones on the 'gap' are almost all dead; although the PJM one is blooming on the very bottom tier of the branches, all of the rest of it, I fear, is dead. The 'Catawbiense Grandiflorum' next to it is almost all dead. Insufficient protection there, I shall do a better job in future. I *really* covered up the ones at the top of the path to the west, and they repaid me by coming out almost universally healthy and green.

PJM Rhododendron

I lost a bit on the top of the PJM, but the rest of it is blooming magnificently. Sadly, there's not much sign of bloom on four of the remaining five - despite my watering them incessantly last summer. The Minnetonka one has some bloom to come, and of course it came back very well from being half burnt away by the wind the previous winter.
           We finally cut down the white oak tree to the south of the house, so there is much more light in that area - I expect by cornus kousa to develop much better now - it only has three buds on it for this year! And the common lilacs are not very floriferous either - I blame the lack of rainfall last summer for *that*. 
            Is there *any* good news? Well, my white tree peony has over a dozen blooms coming - and the burgundy one has quite a few as well. I think I must plant something white under the latter, as a foil for the burgundy. I do have a candytuft cutting - they are doing really well in the beds at the moment. And in not-quite-as-bad-as-I-thought news, three of the peonies I planted last fall were not showing any sign of life - and then one of the two Itohs showed up, a tiny sprig, two days ago. I think she is 'Cora Louise'. A few of the peonies I have been scattering around so lavishly over the past three or four years are at last showing signs of bloom. Hurrah! Now I should be able to figure out just what they are.  Not yet sure if any of the Itohs will bloom this year - I am so looking forward to seeing 'Hilary'. I dug up my unknown pale pink peony at the south end of the bed in front of the house - it was infested with grass - cleaned, fed and re-planted the larger part of it in the same spot, and now there are buds coming, so it's not sulking, hurrah! - and I also got four cuttings, one of which is going to bloom this year. I must find places for them all.
           I had a packet of three kinds of blight-free tomatoes, from a friend who was given them. So I planted them, back in March, nurtured them (there were only 4-6 seeds in each packet, very expensive if I'd had to buy them, but they all germinated!) potted them on, put them out in the hoop house, potted them again, and then put them in the ground, caged and mulched, May 28. Two nights ago we had a bad frost, and, even though I had covered them,  they were killed.  And we have another frost tonight! Sometimes I wonder what I am doing, trying to garden in this climate...

Clematis 'Blue Bell'

         Another bit of good news: all the clematis are doing well, or at least, surviving. This lovely, 'Blue Bell', has many thousand percent more bloom this year (last year it had one). Its fellow on the other end of the deck, 'Nelly Moser', has many buds. But the real excitement is that  the clematis at the lower lilac bed, buried under wood chips since last fall, and for whom there was no sign of survival at all, has popped up this week. And the 'Don Juan' climbing rose behind it is alive as well. There are four clematis in the upper lilac bed, all doing well, and I have two in pots (including a white montana) for which I have to find places as well. perhaps things aren't so bad, after all.... and the Veseys sale starts tomorrow. Oh my.

Heat Wave

      It's going to go to 31 degrees today, and the rest of the week will be in the high 20s. Not too nice for working in the garden, though I did do some renewing of shrub roses, cutting back a couple of Therese Bugnets, a Hansa, a Snowy Pavement and a Jens Munk.  I have more to do, but once it got to 11:30 I left the outdoors to bake on its own and came in. I did drag all the detritis to the burn pile, as roses like these have many too many thorns. They never compost down, the thorns, so for safety I have been burning them.  Not today, of course, but some cool damp day in September or October.
      I have been working on the pathways and seating area to the west of the house - finally got the landscape fabric and the wood chips spread for the seating area - now to work on the seats! I have a plan to sand down and spar varnish our old Ikea living room furniture - 2 loveseats and a sofa (or 2 two-seaters and a three-seater) and put outdoor fabric on the cushions. This may not all get finished this year! Anyway I could put them in the seating area, perhaps with the blue sunshade over them - or maybe we can get a screen house! (I have simply given up with the bloody mosquitoes - they are everywhere when I'm outdoors, probably because we have such good shelter - there's no wind to drive them away. I travel in a constant aura of Off when outside.) So, the woodchips need quite a bit of packing down, but we'll be able to get some of that done when it comes time to put the wood in the basement.  Tramp tramp tramp.

      It's a bit sunny there at the moment, but later on in the afternoon the linden will shade it - and there's usually a westerly breeze along the upper driveway that makes it nice for sitting. Or at least I hope so. The logs will be replaced by Island sandstones, as I locate them!
     We have been enjoying the woodland garden's coolness too - I put the hammock up in there, and it's a great spot for an after-lunch nap - or a reading spot. The lounger is there too, so Fred can nap too if he's having a day off. I have planted a couple of rhododendrons there - a Lepidote "Aglo" and another of the mini ones - like Karen Seleger but this one is white. And a tiny offshoot of Karen Seleger which was in the pot when I bought her, and I nursed her along in the cold frame and in the pot, but she wasn't showing any sign of growing so I put her in the ground too. I hope there will be enough light for them in there - of course we are planning to take down a few of the old pinus niger trees and that should improve things light-wise.

Invincibelle Spirit hydrangea

       I have been doing some propagation- the "Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangea had a broken limb that wasn't quite severed, but the blooms weren't coming out on it, so I cut it off and made up 9 cuttings. I had started a pot of Glowing Embers hydrangea earlier - still no sign of roots but I'm no givin' up! And the other day I pruned a lavender and had to take off some lower, dead stuff and one bit had some live stuff above, so I have a couple of pots of lavender. And, a propos of the woodland garden, I took some sprigs off the yew at the Hall, and I have them in pots now, too. I'm mostly using the shelf under the East window in the office for this - it is MUCH TOO HOT in the polytunnel for this stuff.
      Apparently yew loves the dark, and while I have not been able to source any of the fancy particular ones I've read about (that don't grow too big, etc.), I figure the bog-standard variety will be challenged enough in the woodland garden to stay a reasonable size. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

Flaming June!

                 Well, it's been flaming for the past few days at least. We have been travelling, and gardening furiously since our return, so there hasn't been much blogging time. Thanks to wonderful neighbours the plants in the greenhouse were still alive when we returned (June is a BAD time to travel if you are a gardener). There are actual strawberries on the plants inside, ones that should ripen in the next day or so. Don't they look a lot more lush than when they came out of the vegetable plot? The outdoor ones are just a bit behind.
             We dug a new bed for the tomatoes this year, to see if the blight problem will lessen. I was pulling off diseased leaves as I was planting some of the bought ones (Hybrid Sweet 100, my favourite cherry tomato) so I am not - as they say - sanguine. But I buried them all d-e-e-ply, so I hope they grow great stem roots and do better than I expect them to do.

            What's new in floral? Great bloom on the two surviving tree peonies, especially the dark red one, which has 8-10 blooms. The pink one has definitely died, but the rootstock is sprouting again, and I have decided to leave it, as any peony is better than none. The big blue-edged iris is blooming well -

many more blooms came out subsequent to this photo, and they have hidden "back up" blooms when the first ones fade. Spectacular! I notice that the dark burgundy iris I got 2 years ago at the Flower Patch is still not blooming - it has great big leaves but nary a sign of a flower bud - yet. I suppose it is quite a late one. The white Siberica ones are blooming away, though - from the same source. I must find time for a photo shoot tomorrow.  Things are getting ahead of me.

The first rose this year was Fra Dagmar Hartroop (or whichever spelling you fancy). I had noticed many of them in Toronto at the first of the month, blooming away. She seems much happier in her new sunny position in the herbaceous border, though I have to keep an eye on the tanacetum and dicentra around her, as they may try to crowd her out and steal her sun. She is an early one, but repeat blooms very prolifically. There are many more out by now - the David Thompson and of course the rugosas on the mound - where they can get some sun! The "wild" rose is covered with buds - can't wait!
The only other really new thing is this yellow deciduous rhododendron - blooming this year for the first time. I nearly collapsed last fall when the leaves all dropped - I didn't know then that there are deciduous rhodos! My sister gave it to me, and I was sure I had killed it. Phew!

        This is the bloom with our Princess kitty. (This is the last photo I have of her, as she has disappeared, just like Boy kitty did a few years ago. They were both outdoor cats, and we live on a busy road. And there are foxes and even coyotes. I fear she is gone for good.)
The rhododendron I bought last year - a more common mauvish one - didn't bloom but it is putting on good growth, so it seems happy where it is. The mature ones you see around the countryside, blooming their socks off at the moment, are certainly an inspiration.