Here They Come . . .

 

Lots of my early summer perennials are in bloom right now. I just marvel at the way perennials can last for years, and decades in many cases. They have their blooming season, and the trick to having a well-designed perennial garden is to have enough variety to have something in bloom all season. Above, my pale pink hybrid Iris. I bought the first pot of them several years ago, and thought I had lost them after I transplanted them. This year they surprised me by blooming again! This one stalk will have a total of seven flowers!

Pale lavender Iris. It is a silky, velvety pale blue with very large flowers.

 

 I have this variety in three different gardens.

This is a beautiful cultivated Honeysuckle. It's next to a house on my walk to town and I've admired it for years.

I call this Iris variety, Mahogany. It's a deep, deep purple that is almost black in low light and an incredible reddish purple in bright sunlight. The center is yellow, but you have to fold back the petals to see it.

 

Each flower is about six inches tall, and each stem has 5-6 flowers. 

 

More views of my pale pink Iris. Above, at dusk, it takes on a slightly deeper, almost purple tint.

 

While in bright sunlight, it becomes almost peach colored.

 

These blooms are almost EIGHT inches tall!

 

I have several clumps of Siberian Iris, above. They are easy to transplant, grow very quickly, and I just love them!

 

This is an Iris that is blooming in the condos I have to walk by to get to town. It's bright white with those incredible reddish-orange "beards" as those decorative pieces are known.

 

Also in the condos is this yellow and purple Iris. We used to have these in my family's gardens.

 

This is a summer phlox new to my gardens this year. Believe it or not, I found it in the wooded area of Pink Gardens' yard. They are cultivated but grow well in low-light situations like forests and often become "wild" in this area. They do well in sun, too, though, and I expect these to multiply over the years to come.

 

These phlox come in all sorts of colors, from bright white to hot pink, and these lavender ones are just a perfect color for this time of year.

 

This is a Tulip Maple tree. It's at the very beginning of the tiny private road I live on. We also had one in Leete's Island and I took it as very good Karma when I saw this one when I moved in. The flowers really do look like yellow and orange tulips.

 

One of my ferns is putting out yellowish golden spore stalks. Another variety I have has black spore stalks but they show up later in the season.

 

Another view of the Mahogany Iris, and you can just see the bright yellow sepals (I think they're sepals!) inside.

 

This is a very elegant Iris, yellow and white. The blooms are large and last a few days, longish for an Iris.

 

Solomon Seals are coming along nicely! They will eventually be around 4-feet long and gracefully arch back to the ground. The flowers, which are small, tight buds right now, can be seen along the bottom of the stalks. They will eventually be a creamy white bell-shaped bloom, almost like large Lily-of-the-Valleys. 

 

Solomon Seals are an old-time perennial. They are frequently found in ancient perennial gardens next to homes that have seen a few centuries. They aren't "showy" like so many "new" flowers, but they're elegant and I love them.