Cloudy Day, Bright Flowers

Pretty salmon-colored Geranium is going on ten or eleven years old. I cut them back every fall and winter them over in the attic.

Bright squash flowers are hopefully the beginning of lots of yellow squash, one of my favorite summer vegetables.

Bright magenta Rose Campion is also known as a Pink Mullein. They have grayish aqua stems and leaves and these date back to my mom's and my grandmother's gardens.

A wildflower, or weed, as many call them, this wild tradescanthia or Day Flower has lovely blue blooms. They're tiny, but as I've found so many times, take time to smell the roses and take time to look WAY down at the smallest of plants. They often have beautiful surprises for you.

 

Two more of my "ancient" Geraniums. I've wintered over white, bright red, bright pink, and salmon colored varieties.

A digital glitch when shooting these perennial Spiderworts or Tradescanthias caused the image to almost look 3D lifting the pale bluish-lavender flowers right off the page.

"Mountain Fresh" variety of tomatoes in my garden is new this year. These tomatoes are getting bigger each day. I've never heard of the variety but am looking forward to trying them. I bought four plants this year, this one, a red cherry variety, and two Romas, but I have about a dozen volunteers coming up that are probably heirlooms of some sort from last year.

 The first "rail" of cherry tomatoes is coming along nicely!

I've got about a dozen little groups of Dill coming up. I not only use dill leaves in cooking and salads, but I love to grate the dill seeds as well. They taste completely different so it's like growing two plants in one. 

Majestic Beauties

This beautiful David Austin rose is one of my favorites. It's off to the side of a parking lot at the condos I walk by everyday. These roses have an amazing aroma and as you can see, are the perfect rose shape, too!

I call this Foxglove in my garden the "King." It's the tallest and the most robust of all of mine. Of course, it's like picking your favorite child, lol. I have about a hundred of these blooming right now in all of the shades between white and dark pink. More photos soon!

It's Flower Time at Home!

The yard is really starting to burst into color. We've had so much rain though, that many of my perennials are taller and somewhat weaker than usual, so I've been busy staking up plants I've never had to before. It's always something, right, lol? I'll have lots more flowers photos in the next few days. I've been working on several new paintings, too, so stay tuned for those as well! 

Downstairs neighbor, Rick, has these pretty orange annuals in pots on his steps.

Do you like butter? Shiny Buttercups are spread throughout the lawns. They don't seem to thrive when I move them into a garden so I leave them in the grass now. The lawn is only mowed every 2-3 weeks now so they're quite pretty most of the time.

The inside of one of my varieties of Foxgloves. They're like burgundy leopard spots.

The graceful "S" curve of a Foxglove.

One of my darker, raspberry colored Foxgloves. Through the years, starting with just two plants, one dark like this, and one bright white, I now have almost every shade from white to pale pink to dark pink to an almost burgundy with a few pale yellow ones. I can only think that they're cross-pollinating with other plants around the neighborhood. 

A side view. They're like little trumpets. 

A bright yellow and gold hybrid bearded Iris. They're such beautiful flowers.

The peonies are just gorgeous this year. They're so heavy this year, and we have rain so often I've been picking them and bringing them inside. I don't mind. They have the best aroma of any plant, in my humble opinion!

One of the paler Foxgloves.

These pale plants have a slightly different shape to the flowers. They're not quite as bulbous, they're simpler. And just as lovely!

This purple Iris has beautiful zebra-like veins on the lower petals.

This Spiderwort has been in my gardens for several years, but was planted in an area that was too shady. I finally transplanted them into the sunny front yard this year and they're thriving. 

Spiderworts look just like lily plants while they're maturing but the flowers are completely different. Instead of separate flower stalks, the blooms come out from the cruz of two leaves. Each flower only lasts a day, like day lilies, but there are 10-15 buds on each "crux" so they last quite a while.

This variety of Foxglove has little "hairs" on the outer edges giving them an almost catfish-like appearance.