A Growth Spurt

Today was warmer than yesterday, but largely overcast until after lunch when I wandered around the garden with my camera taking advantage of the diffused light.

Before then I made considerable further progress with “Kristin Lavransdatter”.

The very hardy Erigeron plants are popping up everywhere, as are the yellow Welsh poppies now in need of my deadheading duties.

Clusters of libertia, like these beneath the wisteria, are quite prolific.

Our bright red varieties of rhododendron thrust themselves into view whichever way we look.

Fine blue irises stand proud.

Jackie’s greenhouse cuttings are burgeoning.

Peonies are becoming massive.

Shrubs such as spirea, vibernum plicata, weigela, and the last, now identified by Martin with the aid of an App on his phone, as a deutzia, are in full bloom.

Ferns, including those acting as backdrop for the orange tip butterfly, are fully unfurled.

Bees also visited such as the vinca.

This antirrhinum sat well in front of a red maple fading from view.

The Rose Garden is beginning to prosper.

The copper beech is in good leaf after its recent trimming,

and the clematis against the fence between us and North Breeze is bursting into stellar shape.

After such a wet April the current warmth has made for a sudden growth spurt.

This evening we dined on spicy beef burgers, chunky chips, chestnut mushrooms, baked beans and onion rings, with which I drank a Reserva Privado Chilean Merlot 2022.

51 comments

  1. Gorgeous, Derrick. All of the neighborhood roses and even in DC are prettier I ever remember seeing. Must be rain and warmer than normal weather that are helping them bloom so profusely.

  2. Wow Derrick, your garden is exploding and looks beautiful! Nice work, and dinner sounds so delicious. ????❤️

  3. Wonderful Derrick… I have welch poppies too… But my Iris’s are still in bud, yours are well in advance of mine, also my purple Rhododendron still tight bud… Lovely garden images Derrick… love to you and Jackie.. xx <3

  4. YAY! Garden growth-spurts!
    Such lovely photos!
    I enjoyed all of them, but especially the butterfly, the bee, the ferns, the irises, the clematis, the snapdragons, AND Summer!
    (((HUGS))) ❤️❤️

  5. It is odd to see things which come one after another for us all together in your garden. It is good to see so many fine flowers after such a miserable spell of weather.

  6. So many beautiful flowers! Your prolific wisteria appears to be well trained. I love the photos of the ferns with the Orange tip butterfly.

  7. All of the rain and now the warmth is paying off. The new growth and gorgeous colors are celebrating. indeed!

  8. Beautiful. I envy Jackie’s green house and the space to have one. Bees are now common in our garden most of the year but butterflies seem to escape the garden after their escape from their cocoons. One day maybe.

  9. Your butterfly shot is stunning, Derrick. That’s a pretty species. Jackie’s greenhouse is awash in beautiful shades of red. I hope you have many more days of splendor in your garden. It’s a joy to behold.

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