A garden at 11 years

I'm really enjoying the garden this year, with most of the plants grown-up.

Hedgerow's Gold and unnamed Hydrangea

I whacked the big main branch of the Hedgerow's Gold dogwood last fall because it was sticking out into a path, and now finally it's looking like it will make some shade for that hydrangea behind it.

Deutzia Magician

This is my Magician's fourth or fifth year, and it must really like where it is because it's gotten a lot bigger since last year, and was covered with flowers this year. I really love this shrub.

Strawberry Saxifrage

The strawberry saxifrage flowered really well this year. It doubled its size last year, even though I started cutting down on how much I watered then. I'll continue to do that this year, unless we have a lot more heat.

Heuchera Licorice with Carex Everillo

My Licorice heucheras are still performing like crazy, even though I've never divided them. When I look out from my dining room window and see these flower spires against the dark shadows under the ferns, I just feel like everything is good. I don't do anything for these except weed around them, and look what they give me.

Unknown Peony

Quite a few years ago—five or six—I bought what I thought was a hellebore, sans tag, at the end of the season. I found out it was a peony the next year when it sprouted more leaves, and ever since then it's been getting bigger and giving me more flowers—six or seven this year. As astonished I am at how big and luscious these are, I'm gob-smacked at how cool and soft the petals are to the touch. they don't feel like any other flower I've ever had my hands on, much softer and more alive-feeling even than rose petals.

Squier Strat with anty peonies

The deep baby/rose pink of these is intense, and matches my Fender Squier Stratocaster perfectly. (I also have a camellia that same pink, which accounts for the guitar being named Cammie.)

They do lighten after they've been on the bush a while, but they still look great. I just wish mine weren't always covered with ants. I'd love to bring them in the house. Better outside.

Summer morning ground fog

Our summer weather is going to hit tomorrow, and that probably means the end of our spring showers. Warm temperatures, dry air, and soon, dry soil, will be the norm for the next 3 months or so. Honestly, it's been long enough since we had a decently warm summer, even I'm looking forward to this one. But a few mornings ago I walked out the back door into a really wonderful late spring morning, with the warm sun and the cool, moist meadow making a mist of ground fog that glowed for a few moments with the pink light of the morning sun.

First light hitting the understory

When the first rays came over the hills and hit the side of my trees, I got these beautiful colors.

Heuchera Licorice flower towers

I have a strip of "Licorice" heucheras in my central back garden, and this is their fourth year there. They are outstanding performers, and look beautiful pretty much all year. If they're getting leggy (hard to believe they're not after such a long time), you can't tell by looking at them, and they make a mass of bloom now that makes me think of fairy pagodas. They're so delicate, but so plentiful that they're still what I'd call a mass, just an airy mass.

Hydrangea Oregon Pride almost in full color

And last but not least, another sign that summer is here is the deep purple heads on my Oregon Pride black-stemmed hydrangea. They start out bright chartreuse and take about a week to color up to this point. My Nikko Blues and half of my other hydrangeas are in bloom or showing their first color. I haven't turned my heated bedpad off yet, but at least I don't have to put my gardening clothes in the dryer to warm them up now before I put them on. Welcome, summer!