Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, May 23

This is a polyantha rose, Verdun, that doesn't get much over two feet. It's a hybrid from France, first introduced in 1918, could explain the name. It has a flush of bloom in the spring, then a few every once in awhile through the summer. I've had it for years but it rarely blooms this heavily; since the picture was taken all the buds at the top have opened too. The flower is very double and very pink, can see the double blossom and the color better in the closeup.

Lirio100

It is a lovely rose, and a wonderful way to remember Verdun, where a lot of terrifying things happened over the centuries. My grandfather served near there as a chaplain in WW I, but it was a fort starting in the fourth century. We can remember it for the rose and for sugared almonds in the Gardening Thread. And be thankful that there are memorials rather than more fighting there now.

Pat* has irises!

This is the dry-stacked stone bed I often mention. In the center is peony ‘Bowl of Cream’, with a native blue flax in front. In the rear are 2 native blue penstemon. The dark purple iris is last year’s purchase, ‘Dusky Challenger’. I need to create a name for the lavender iris with white falls, since my neighbor Kathryn tells me she brought it here from her mom’s home in Tennessee. Any suggestions? (The second stone bed now has white iris ‘America’s Cup’, 2 native Firecracker Penstemon, and a native Orange Globemallow, but still needs a red peony. We also plan to put a native Golden Currant in the ground between the beds. If it all does well, I’ll send more photos next year.)

A lovely bed! Any suggestions for a name for that iris?

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Finally, red tomatoes!

By-Tor

They look scrumptious! Getting there (below)

May 16: My container garden is coming along. Squash, tomatoes and peppers so far.

The yellow squash looks great! The peppers look ready and that tomato looks like it will be wonderful!

April 24: My container garden after about two weeks. I have about six tomatoes of various kinds, same with peppers, some zucchini, and an herb garden.

Should be going great guns by June.

Interesting assortment of containers!

Gardens of The Horde

From badgerwx after I lost most of her post last week:

Greetings, KT.

I've been meaning to send some garden pictures but have been busy. I retired at the end of Feb - just in time for the spring gardening season - so I've been spending my time trying to whip my yard into shape. It's nice to be able to get out in the mornings now to work in the yard, though there are always surprises and setbacks when it comes to gardening. This year I had a surprise frost in mid-April (the week after some 90-deg days), and a pair of cardinals decided to raise a family in one of my lilacs in the corner of my yard. Most of my frost damage was to some of my shrubs and trees. This button bush lost all its leaves except on one branch close to the ground. And 2 crape myrtles in my side yard also lost a lot of leaves. But all of them are leafing out again. We'll see if they bloom this summer.

Frost is a nasty surprise, the cardinals are going in the Pet Thread!

Luckily, the frost didn't do too much damage. The plants in my back yard were protected by my neighbors' trees and those roses and peonies there bloomed on time. I bought the peony next to the (Carefree Beauty) rose last year and this is its first bloom. The other peonies I bought last year (and added to my peony bed) weren't big enough yet to bloom this year. And I have to salute the knockout rose I bought 20 years ago that's still going strong - though not in this location. I had to move it in the winter of 2020-1 when I put in my fence, but it's bounced back nicely.

My irises in bud weren't affected, but the roses in my side yard have no buds yet. I'll be back in the 90s next week so maybe that will spur them on. The plants on my hell strip had no frost effects even though that is an exposed location.

badgerwx

I love the hell strip.

Hope everyone has a nice long weekend.

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Garden, Home and Nature Thread, May 16

I closed the comments on that post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:51 PM

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