The crocus, grape hyacinth, and tulips have bloomed. The petals from the Mother’s Day tulip are on the ground turning to compost. The forget-me-nots are softening the stark rock look.
Attention now turns to the clematis blooms.
At the historic cemetery, the little clematis transplant is making itself at home. It is starting to wrap around the starter trellis. Made my plant mama heart very happy. I think it needs some mulch to keep the weeds at bay.
The Blue Bells clematis is starting it’s bloom season.
The Bluebells clematis is budding out in front. This is one I learned needs to not be cut back. The new growth buds out of last year’s vines.
Out back the clematis is just waking up.
It was a super windy day today, so not much gardening.
Yesterday was much more fun. I went to the historic cemetery and worked on spring trimming the fence garden. Like at the historic mansion, I am just learning what all is in there. So far I can see tall sedum, stonecrop, phlox, some hostas, black-eyed Susan’s, and yarrow. I trimmed all except some stonecrop. I will go over some night this week and trim those, and also put some coffee grounds along the base of the hostas.
I am exceptionally happy to see there are some hostas. To be sure, they are small, but if they survive, yahoo! They can meet some new “friends”! (I can then divide some hostas here this fall and see if they do well over there.)
Bunimous (named because he is dinosaur sized as rabbits go – haha 😂) decided which Asian lily blooms I should have in a vase. He must have started his munching but then left a broken stalk for me. Thanks Bunimous!
In the background is the daylily seeds result for this year – one for sure. I think the other two are grass – I think. Those two will go up to the camping land in a spot that gets enough sun and does not totally dry out. If they surprise me, AWESOME! If not, they will be in good company. More to come on that and change of seed soil in future blogs.
The asian lily below just bloomed. That plant is one that fell in the category of “tulip” syndrome. It bloomed strong year one, faded year two, and is now “iffy,” for blooming each year. Like the faded tulips, I leave it in the ground just to see if it will do anything. And it provides early greens when the garden is first coming up in spring.
The clematis could be trimmed, but hey! It covers the boring bare rock 🙂
It must be our year for clematis blooms. Both the clematis are blooming beautifully!
I tell you what! I am absolutely delighted! The care the roofing team took was very evident. A few smooshes where I was not too concerned about covering, but given all they had to work around, amazing end state! Way way way better than I had even dared to hope for. Judge for yourself 🙂
I shared earlier this spring that we did a test with the Bluebells clematis. We left some of last year’s growth on the trellis to see if we could get it to bloom. If it didn’t work I was going to remove that clematis. But …
It stays!
We are hoping all the clematis survive the upcoming roofing/gutter/fascia work, many of which will bloom next week, but, at least for this past couple weeks, we have enjoyed the Bluebells clematis.
We have a Bluebells clematis out front. It never has bloomed very well, which has been a surprise, as I bought it from an online seller that has always sent me very well producing bulbs, tubers, and plants. It is supposed to bloom on both old and new growth. Maybe I have been limiting it. The vine and leaf growth is very proliferous so every fall it has gotten a pretty good trim. Last fall I was tempted to remove it, but instead we left half of the 2021 growth as a test. I am hoping it blooms more this year. It is a nice cover up for the shepherd’s hook where we hang one of the two hummingbird feeders.
A few days ago it had just leaf buds. Now it has “sprung”. Besides the very sparce blooms, it is a healthy plant and holds up well in the wind, so I am hoping this is the year we see it’s true bloom potential.
This summer our ac went out. The footprint of the new ac unit was a bit larger, necessitating the removal of a couple trellises and the corresponding clematis.
Truthfully, that poor clematis was traumatized long before. It bloomed late spring. Some years it was spared the wrath of the previous ac’s wind, but many years I had to make a decision – humans fade from the heat, or the clematis fade from the wind off the ac. Believe me, I held out many years. Every year I thought, “I need to move that.”
For anyone who may think Minnesotans escape the heat in summer, I can without a doubt say, we don’t. Summers are prone to heat spells like winter is prone to long cold spells. We are in a heat spell right now.
During those times, I like to get out early to enjoy garden tending. This morning I did just that. It was time to pull the tulip leaves, along with the few stalks from this spring’s blooms. In that few minutes outside, carefully pulling dried tulip leaves (that didn’t bloom) in the back center of one of the gardens, I found myself thinking, “Why did I donate those big Aureomarginata hostas again? They used to cover up the drying tulip leaves so well!”
Today’s picture is from a few days ago when the heat first arrived. The clematis looked much fresher then. But all’s well. The first blooms on hostas are about to open, and the asian lily buds are starting to pink up. Soon we will have more blooms.
Susan's Daily Garden 