Six on Saturday – Spring becomes Summer

1: Buttercup is a weed, right?  Not here, when it’s joined by Siberian Iris, Lamb’s Ear and Columbine.

It’s seasonably cool today but a week of really warm temperatures and yesterday’s rain has given the yard and gardens a lushness (euphemism for rampant growth, overgrown, grass needs cutting again…) that is sometimes hard to take in.  It’s like living in a temperate tropicalness.  Or a kind of tropical temperateness. Right now the Iris are in full bloom – oh my goodness…as are Lupin and Bridlewreath Spirea.

It was hard to chose six shots to represent the garden today – but here are my wonders.  To see more collections of Six this Saturday, head on over to The Propagator‘s site.  He’s the guy who started it all!

2: Just when you think it’s a white Iris, you notice that the fuzzy bits (the beard) are actually yellow!  I love the veins in the petals too (on this Iris, technically called falls)…such a beautiful pattern.

3a and 3b: I wrote last week about how my Lilacs, for unknown reasons,  produced next to no blooms this year.  That’s not entirely true – this white variety, one of the very first shrubs I purchased and planted, is quite pretty.  I transplanted it last spring from the back field, where it spent alternating years growing and dying back (hence its continued small size) to the Island bed, where I think it’s a lot happier.  Lesson learned: don’t hesitate to transplant things for either aesthetic or cultural (growing culture) reasons.

4: Aronia melanocarpa – Back Chokeberry.  Lovely berries for the birds because I never get to them on time!

 

5a and 5b: I love how conifers of all kind send out bright new growth in the spring.  I’m told the current year’s growth is dependent on conditions the previous year.  Judging by the various spruce (like this Picea pungens glauca), pine and fir in the yard last year was good!

 

 

Shileau’s enjoying the morning sun!

6:  It’s also a good year for Solomon Seal (Polygonatum) – although it generally reaches two or two and a half feet this year I have some that are almost five feet high.  Remarkable.  Tropical temperateness.