A thousand paintings in my garden

As on many other Sundays, I started the morning googling new-to-me artists and artworks, and found quite a trove of them. Looking at the great variety of locations and subjects made me feel that all the work my garden requires is like a great anchor around my neck, keeping me here working on it when I could otherwise be out doing plein air paintings and exploring beautiful places. Then as I was opening my back bedroom window, I looked down across my blooming red daylilies and geums to the billowing zebra grass just starting to show its warm-weather stripes, past the blue mopheads of the Nikko Blue hydrangea, to the soft cloudy light reflecting off the metal barn roof. I brought out my camera to take a photo, and ended up taking a dozen as image after image clicked in my mind as being so very paintable.

Daylily Apple Tart

I took back the words of my lament and ate them as quickly as possible, and laid my misplaced remorse at the feet of Mother Nature, as I resolved to honor these works of life in more, and hopefully better, paintings.

Jackmanii clematis in Big Apple Kousa dogwood

The now voluminous Nikko Blue

Mixed perennials with my new armillary

Satomi Kousa dogwood, the second tree I planted here

Daylily Chicago Ruby

Looking up through the Satomi

The Fairies' table

OMG—Oooooo, My Garden!

Rhododendron Cherry Float

I finished my early morning cleanup session today by taking a few more photos, and I feel like there really aren't any words for all this color. Or maybe I'm just tired. Anyway, here are my newly blooming treasures, young and old. I bought this rhodie seven years ago and this is the first year it's bloomed. It's a floppy one, thin branches and large flower clusters, but who cares when they're this rich?

Rhododendron Cherry Float

Here's another floppy one. This used to be my favorite, for the deep cerise color. Now I'm not sure any more. Not this year, anyway. But seeing all the upward facing shoots, I'm wondering, since it's all over the ground now, will it start growing up? Or is it convinced it's a ground cover?

Rhododendron (unk. var.)

This one's slighty less floppy and is this gorgeous peach color, which I've never seen anywhere else. This is one of my rhodies that gets direct afternoon sun, and the only one I've noticed Lace Bug damage on. Not too much, fortunately.

Peachy Rhododendron (unk. var.)

The baby flowers on my oldest Satomi, which I love from now till I eat the fruit. :-)

Cornus kousa Satomi

I finally got BIG snowballs this year! Softball sized! I love the hanging cluster. Wish I could tuck a little LED bulb inside each one. That would be cool.

Viburnum plicatum sp.

My geums made it through the winter in my worst, wettest clay so well that I bought six more, in two more colors, orange, and red.

Geum Alabama Slammer & forget-me-nots

Last but not least, I bought this clematis last summer at a hardware store for $5, when it had just a few of the inner petals left on one beat-up flower, just enough to convince me it was the lavender-blue the tag showed. I had my head down yesterday, pulling weeds and extra forget-me-nots, and I almost poked myself in the eye with these blooms. I had no idea it was blooming already and it surprised the heck out of me.

Clematis Multi-Blue

Hydrangeas and hemerocallis

My garden has a little slack period between the end of the rhodies and the beginning of the summer flowers where I never used to have anything blooming but the tiny flowers of the heucheras and the cool-weather grasses. This year my two Satomis stepped up and carried the whole weight of the flowering responsibilities for most of June, and now that they're finally starting to bleach out—and they've never lasted this long before—the hydrangeas are finally coming on board. The Nikko Blue is the first to look full, but there are purple and blue edges on expanding mopheads all over the garden.

Nikko Blue with Satomi fading in the background

I've been a daylily fan since I bought my first one, a big pot of Apple Tart, a rebloomer, about 9 years ago when I lived in that big state to the south. I wished for several years after I moved here that I had brought it with me, until I found one at Bloomin' Designs. I first planted it in a torturous spot of the worst clay and not enough sun, and although it got big enough for me to divide last fall, it hadn't flowered yet. I moved it to some less awful clay where it gets about 6 hours of sun, and both my little divisions are blooming this year. The original one I had before astonished me by blooming from early summer to October with just a one-month furlough in early fall, and although the season here may be  shorter, I'm hoping these little babies will like to bloom that much. I still can't get over the deep, chili-pepper red. Northwest gardeners may recognize the tiny, white, fresh Sluggo pellet on this one.

Apple Tart (with Sluggo)

My other favorite red hemerocallis is Chicago Ruby, which is equally deeply colored, but very slightly more towards a cherry red. It's not a rebloomer, but it's so beautiful that I look forward to it eagerly every year.

Chicago Ruby in light shade

Right next to Ruby I have a dark purple, Wayside King Royale, and for some reason that must be related to the mild, not-too-wet-or-too-cold spring, almost all my daylilies came into bloom at the same time. Usually only one variety will start popping at a time, but this year I have flowers up the wazoo right now, with just a few waiting till later.

Wayside King Royale

Another one I really love is this incredible yellow, Amazing grace:

Amazing Grace

The heavy substance of these blooms, the ruffled edges, and the bright clear lemon yellow color really is amazing.