Columbines, Widow's Tears, Irises & More: This Week in My Maryland Garden

Happy May dear readers! Here is our first columbine bloom of the year. I think it's a McKanna's Giant Columbine that reseeded from one of our original plants.

The Widow's Tears are in full bloom. We used to have both white and blue flowers but so far just white are blooming this year.

Last week I posted our first dark and light blue iris blooms of the year and now you can see we have a whole lot of irises blooming (and we still have a whole lot sitting in pots and buckets to be replanted from the excavation too).

This is our first rose off of our bicolor big rose. I don't remember the real name so I think of it as my strawberries and cream rose.

I think this is the same tulip I posted about last week and it's still quite lovely.

Some of the birds have been poking at our seedling pots but these cosmos seedlings that Ben started back in March are still looking good. I really should divide them or thin them soon. There's so much to do in the garden and only so much time to do it all. My plan for the cosmos was to put them in big pots so when they get tall they'll block an unsightly view from one of our windows but the county has a contractor who's had a bunch of equipment parked near our house for months now and we might just plant them on the street side to block the equipment view instead. Of course if enough of the seedlings survive we could do both.

What's growing in your neck of the woods? May God bless you!

Tulips, Fire Poker Lilies, Japanese Maple & More: This Week in My Maryland Garden

In between rainstorms yesterday I popped out to take these photos for you. Here is what is likely our last tulip of the year and it's a beauty. I think it's a parrot tulip and like the red and white contrast.

Here is one of our first rhododendron blooms of the year. We only have one rhododendron bush but it's a big one. The azaleas are still blooming too.

I suspect that these are fire poker lilies. They're in the shade (imagine we should move them but we still have hundreds of plants in clumps in pots waiting to be replanted since the yard excavation so moving things is taking a back burner to getting our front yard put back together).

 Looking forward to seeing blue iris blooms before next week's post.

When our windows are open the Josee lilacs fill our rooms with their sweet scent. Our old fashioned lilacs aren't likely to bloom this year but I'm just happy they survived the overzealous pruning they received last fall. We still need to dig out the dead wood (which is more obvious now that the tree like bushes now have leaves) so that air will circulate better and hopefully the lilacs will get even healthier.

The Japanese maple seedling I posted about last week and had transplanted directly into the ground wasn't looking so good so I got three more (in hopes that at least one will survive). One is pictured above. They're all in pots and seem to really like the potting soil more than the regular garden soil.  Of course, they'll be more likely to survive if I weed around them so I think I'll go do that after this post.

Every time I view the amazing variety of plants and flowers in my garden or anywhere out in the world I'm amazed at God's creativity and thankful for the beauty on this side of heaven. Imagine how much more vibrant and amazing it will be in paradise! May God bless you and may you enjoy the beauty around you.