And The May Garden Is So Different

Candy Geraniums

Yellow Irises

It's almost a month later from my last blog about all the flowers in my garden and now everything has changed. Gone are the tulips and daffodils and it's all irises and budding roses and geraniums and peonies.
It's a lot of pink and yellow and even blue and very exciting to see everything coming out blooming again.

King Peonies

Pixie Queen Irises

Miniature Blue Iris

I've been growing these flowers for years now and it's always a lovely surprise when the leaves shoot up and the buds form and then -- usually after a few days of sun and heat -- the flowers start to unfurl.  Each year the flowers are different, either a bulb has doubled and there are more flowers or somehow the plant is making bigger flowers, or in the case of the Queen Elizabeth rose bush, smaller flowers seem to be appearing, but a lot more than usual.  I've spied about 20 buds there! And for some other reason the miniature blue irises doubled and are a huge mass this year.  Just so delightful!

Queen Elizabeth Roses Budding

So Many Flowers In November Still!

geraniums!

chrysanthemum

morning glories again!

dahlia

It's November and there's still so many flowers in my yard.  Geraniums are still blasting away! Morning glories came back again. Chrysanthemum grew extra large this year! The dahlia plant won't stop flowering and the petunias just keep on flowering! It's just a fantastic non-stop flower festival. So amazing and wonderful. I'm not really responsible for it all; I just put them in plant pots and water them and transplant them and bring them in over the winter if that's what they need. Sometimes just a little pruning and plant food.  It's someone else who is responsible for their wonderfulness.

petunias

Geraniums in February!

It's no secret that I bring indoors all my porch and deck flowering plants every winter. The trick is to keep them alive with enough light and not too much water until I can put them back outside again, usually in early April, when there's no danger of snow. I usually lose at least one plant during the cold season due to not enough light or I over-water and it rots or I forgot to water and it dries out.  This year, I'm doing okay with two potted plants on the radiator in the upstairs den (hubster's man cave), the jade in the downstairs bathroom, two poinsettas in the living room window, and a petunia in the kitchen window.  Everything else is on the basement kitchen counter that has a big window where I've added some plant lights focused on them (with timers).  There's a coleus, another jade, some purple ivy that I don't know the name of and a large pot into which I crammed about three geranium plants in November when I brought them all in.  In fact, this group of pots is doing so well that the geranium which bloomed throughout summer seems to think it's in California and has been putting out lots of lovely blooms!  So, it's February and I've got the loveliest pink geraniums, so I picked some and put them on my kitchen table. Such a delight to look at when there's snow outside!

Unexpected Snowfall in October in DC

snow on marigolds

snow the rose bush

soft snow flaking down

Recently we had an unexpected snowfall and I just had to run outside and snap some photos as it came flaking down on the back porch furniture and in the front garden. Snow on the roses! Snow on the marigolds! An amazing sight! Since then the weather has been a lot warmer but I think we are returning to the colder temperatures soon. So it is just as well that I brought indoors the plants that won't survive the cold.  I've crammed the geraniums, jade and ivies into the kitchens in my house, hoping they can survive on sunny window ledges.  I've also started a red amaryllis that is supposed to flower at Christmas time. It was a giant bulb and it's now -- two weeks later -- got some bright green shoots.