May Winds Down

As the revels of the Merrie Monthe begin to wind down, there's still plenty going on in the garden. For example, that iris in front of the house turns out to look like this!

Delightful, hmmm?

There's plenty of promise for the future, too, as just about every plant begins climbing toward the sky. A few of them now have visible flower stalks rising, like this clump of foxglove.

These are buds of an early yellow daylily, that's popped up out of clump of thistle, clover and coreopsis. Looks like we'll have a blossom to greet June pretty early on.

There's also this rudbeckia to look forward to. If I'm not mistaken, this might be the one with the rusty orange flowers. It might actually be closer to the coneflower family, in fact. But it is always a crowd-pleaser. There's a bunch of stalks coming up there.


Two different clumps of lychnis are also beginning to send stalks up in the air.

I guess that proves I'm a garden geek, when I can see those very first leaves that are just different enough from the basal leaves for me to recognize what's going on...and to get a little thrill from the sight of it.

Speaking of sights to see, I was drawn out of our yard and down the street this morning, as I realized that the wisteria which seemed so blue the other day has clearly "purpled up" after a couple of days in the sunshine.

Their scent really smacked me across the face as I got closer. It's sort of rich and sweet, a little dusty and cloying perhaps, activated no doubt by the sun's warmth. It almost gives you the impression that it means to draw you in to some sweet doom(or at least serious entanglement, knowing the enthusiasm with which wisteria winds...), like the Witch's poison poppies outside the Emerald City.

Oh, but what a way to go.

Today's weather really was terrific here, with bright sunshine that brought us up nearly to 70 degrees. Of course there's still a breeze, which keeps things comfortable...even if it does make flower photography a little more of a challenge.


Yesterday, I made a visit to the nursery and decided to try out a bottle of this "Liquid Fence", which is meant to be an all-natural deterrent to bunnies and deer. And I expect it may do quite nicely...since it's more than a little rank.

No surprise there, as the primary ingredient is "putrefacted egg solids". Supposedly the scent fades upon drying...but remains strong enough on some level to keep the Nibblers away. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I couldn't be more pleased with the Easter cactus, which is blooming very nicely inside. I had long expected the flowers would be the same or very similar to those of the Christmas cactus, just at a different time of year. But I'm really enjoying how different these are...and the color!!