I’ve been away for two weeks in glorious Scotland.  I will write a wildflower post highlighting all the beautiful flowers I found in the highlands at some point, but first there is much to catch up on here at home.  I missed the full bloom of the peonies and the Louisiana Iris.  I did manage to grab a few shots of things the morning before we left on June 14th so I’ll post those as well as a few other things that were blooming in mid-June.

This is the Louisiana Iris I got from friend Lee many years ago..  one blossom opened for me the morning we left for Scotland .  The whole patch has grown to be 5 feet across.. need to do some thinning..

Peony buds – these came with the house

Some white ones I purchased a few years back

A hot pink purchase

Another lovely peony that came with the house..  I have divided this many times…

Penstemon – common name is Beardtongue:  I have a number of different ones.. here’s some Husker Red

A dwarf variety  in light purple

Dwarf white

A blue one

This is a really small one called Penstemon hirsutis var. pygmaeus given to me by Peter George of the North American Rock Garden Society

Also blooming in mid-June :

Corydalis

Meadow rue – Thalictrum aquilegifolium (with Baptisia and Gillenia trifoliata photobombing)

Gillenia trifoliata – Bowman’s root

Anemonella

A very pretty salvia  – this one doesn’t flop

Filapendula

These funky plants are just the thing if you want something funky in your garden.   They are in the allium family and are bulbs.   They are very cool at all stages of development.  They  are all twisty when they first come up  and then the buds swell….

then they stretch out

then they start to unfurl

opening a bit more

ta da!

close up of the blossom.. aren’t they cool?

Well the old guy finally came down today…  its always hard to watch a part of the landscape disappear, but the tree was rotted out and was in danger of falling on someone or something.   Unfortunately, he had to come down…….

The glorious bearded iris are still going strong but the Siberian Iris are sharing in the show.   I have lots of different kinds inherited from many people.  The center of the clumps die out eventually so I dig them up, move them around and give some away.

This one was here when we moved in..  I like the bud phase.

Here it is in bloom – morning light and a bit overexposed

These used to be up in the main garden.  We transplanted them along the garage when we built it in 2012.  The iris have been very happy here.

A very full clump

Some more buds

Same grouping in bloom.. these came from friend Peg

These shorter ones came from friend Kate M.

I think I got this from a garden club sale.. love the bright yellow

The lupine are here at last.  When we moved in there was a lawn area on the east side of the house. It wasn’t great grass anyway and burned out in the summer.  It seemed like a waste to mow it so we stopped.  There were lots of lupine in the garden so we took the seed pods and scattered them over the area.  The next year they came up and year after year the meadow changed.  More lupine grew and so did lots of other things.. some good and some bad.  We have it mowed once a year in November and knock the whole thing down.  We do mow a winding path through it (a la Sissinghurst in England).  This allows me to get up close with the plants and less of a chance I may encounter my least favorite creepy crawlies.  I wouldn’t say this is the best lupine year we’ve had, but its pretty nice.  If you live nearby.. come over and stroll the meadow..

The murk continues this morning.  Foggy, cool, gray, heavy rain.  Looks like a nice weekend coming up but until then.. here’s some rhododendrons and azaleas to cut though the gloom.

This tangerine number came with the house

Looks great against the weathered gray fence

This orange one also came with the house

Together they are quite a sight

A spot of pink in the hillside – sundappled so the color is a little off

The ones on the left were waist high when we moved in 13 years ago

Now they provide a very colorful screen for the porch

I’ll close this wowza post with a poppy.. a few remain from the ones that were here when we moved in.  It came up through the blueberry bushes