A tower of Clematis power

Clematis jackmanii and Ville de Lyon

I'm finally getting the two-color Clematis display I've always wanted—it's the second flush of bloom for this red Ville de Lyon—with the jackmanii. The red has never double-bloomed for me before, so I don't know if it's the weather or if it's just big and mature enough to do it. But I am loving it.

I'm finding the clematis becoming an important source of long-lasting summer color, and much better able to withstand hot sun and competition for soil moisture than my hydrangeas. The hydrangeas just cannot compete with the Douglas firs, even in the shade. I really need blues in my garden, and I'm beginning to think I need to make a switch. It's hard to watch the hydrangeas suffer, but water is a precious resource, and for me, "right plant, right place" is the golden rule in gardening, and it means not wasting water to grow plants that use twice as much or more, than more drought-adapted plants.

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

Enjoying My Garden Treasures

Twin purple rhodies

While it was dry—which was lovely, if a bit worrisome due to the lack of rain—I spent a few mornings out in the garden with my camera, really enjoying having so many beautiful flowers. Every spring the show gets better as the plants grow larger and more beautiful, and are able to make more blooms. I love doing the work of gardening, I love finding and buying the plants, creating the garden, and taking care of the plants, but having them do well and start showing off is like opening presents someone else made for you with magic.

Now that it's raining, I'm inside again, playing with the photographs. Several of them are so pretty I decided to put them up for sale on my art site. If I had any room on my walls, I'd make posters of them and put them up myself. I did order myself a t-shirt with this beauty on it:

Big purple rhodie bud about to unfurl

Some other favorites:

Clematis Asao buds opening

Columbine (Aquilegia) naturalized seedling