Bright Spring Blooms

Tulips are having a rough time in my garden this spring. I'm not sure if it was the frost (and snow) we had after they started growing, or if I have something else to be concerned about. On top of that, the deer came through again this spring and chomped their way through many of the backyard tulips before they even set buds. Regardless, there's still lots of colour to enjoy!

back yard

front yard

Snow Sharks

I figure that if Danielle can have field fish, I can have snow sharks.

You can't really tell in this photo but the tip of that fin is a foot over my head. It's certainly been a record season for snowfall here in Nova Scotia.

Showing Off Daylilies - Yellow

This isn't all of my yellow daylilies, but it's some of my favourites...

daylily So Lovely

daylily Atlanta Full House

daylily Delicate Design

daylily Jersey Spider

Unusual Daylily

I learned something new about daylilies today. A couple of days ago I took this photo of one of our new daylilies. It's got big 7" flowers!

daylily Ada May Musick

This evening, after the rain stopped, my husband noticed something odd about today's bloom. I had to run out and take a photo - same daylily, different time of day.

daylily Ada May Musick (polymerous)

See? It's got both an extra petal and an extra sepal - for a total of 8 instead of the usual 6. We looked this up and it's called 'polymerous'. First time I've seen one, but it took Kelly to actually notice it.

Showing Off Daylilies - Red

I've had a bunch of daylilies bloom this week, many are new in my garden this year. The shades of red really vary.

daylily - unknown red

daylily - unknown dark red

daylily Nona's Garnet Spider

daylily Creature of the Night

daylily Fushia Fashion

daylily Cameroon's Twister

Our Rock Wall is a Puzzle

My husband Kelly has had to rebuild this rock wall 3 times now. He's determined and keeps making it more resilient each time. He starts with a pile of rocks...

rock wall under construction

... and fits them all together like a big 3D puzzle. The result is quite remarkable!

rock wall complete

Here are some more shots showing how perfect his alignment is.

Big Flowers

One flower doesn't make a garden, but it sure can look impressive on its own.

First up is a new daylily bought on one of our trips to Harbour Breezes last summer. Of course, it's not a big patch yet, but the flowers are huge and it sure is eye catching.

daylily Heavenly Orange Blaze

We've already made our first trip to Harbour Breezes this year and came back with this stunning white Japanese iris - blooming before we got it into the ground.

iris ensata Grand Island

Backyard Pair

I'm always happy when a plan works out. I have my big Japanese iris blooming with an unknown dahlia and they really look great together.

iris ensata Royal Robes

unknown dahlia

This dahlia may be Glenbank Twinkle, but our dahlia story is a bit confusing.

Pow! Cloud Chaser

The first of our new daylilies from last year's shopping spree bloomed today and it's impressive. None of the photos I took do it justice. The flower is huge - 10"! I'm in awe of daylilies - Mother Nature makes this beautiful bloom that only lasts one day.

daylily Cloud Chaser

Unfortunately it's a little too impressive for the spot where I planted it - definitely not a good choice as you can see below, so next year it'll be in the front garden.

Linda's back garden

Swept Over

Hurricane Arthur swept through Nova Scotia on July 5th taking with it several dahlia stalks and clematis flowers from my garden. The delphinium patch was just starting to bloom. Now they lie at a 45 degree angle and our neighbour has a better view than we do.

delphinium and spirea

(Delphinium blooming in my garden originally from seed from Danielle in Regina.)

First of the Clematis

I've certainly had my challenges growing clematis over the years, mostly to do with giving them enough room to stretch out - something to grab onto in the garden. What works for one, does not work for all.

This one, which I think is 'The President', is always the first to bloom right in the middle of a patch of early yellow daylilies. Its flowers are huge and start out dark purple, lightening up as you see below.

clematis 'The President'

The second to bloom is 'Blue Ice', also with big flowers. I've had this one the longest. It grows new from the ground each year, has outgrown its trellis and twists in among the tall phlox stems. The first blooms have this pale purple tint, with later blooms more white.

clematis 'Blue Ice'

I'm anticipating more clematis blooms during the next couple of weeks - all of the rest are full of buds!

Pinks in the Backyard

Most of the first plants in our garden came from my Mom's and sister's gardens. "Mom's pinks" have been reliable and we now have several patches. The blue foliage grows like a mat and looks great all year - even in spring - because it keeps its foliage under the snow all winter.

My luck hasn't always been so great with other types of pinks. It's not that they don't grow for me, it's that they don't stay where I put them. We have self-seeded patches of pinks all through the front gardens. This patch below is new to the back garden and it really brightens up this corner. I'm feeling the urge to try and put some more pinks where I want them...

Nova Scotia Lady Slippers

We were delighted a few years ago to find pink lady slipper orchids growing in the forest behind our property. They're quite scattered under the trees and we keep finding new patches. The leaves are a little hard to spot among the other new growth and dead leaves until they get a few inches tall.

Last year we also discovered trillium undulatum growing throughout the woods too. This year I missed photos because it rained for 10 days. Last year Kelly transplanted some trillium into the garden and they came up this year - I guess we'll have to wait 7 years to see blooms!