trying not to kill the beautiful things
Foregoing the usual commentary for this Bloom Day in my Zone 6a/b garden. Enjoy these photos from May 15, 2023, including the tree peony and early-blooming herbaceous peony, alliums and chives, dogwood, camassia, one final late-blooming daffodil, lamium, lunaria, and variegated Solomon’s Seal.
Thanks as always to Carol Michel for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month! As Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.”
The dwarf irises have been above ground for at least a week now, visible through kitchen window, the but I only went looking for the crocuses out front this morning.
We’re expecting a few inches of wet, sloppy snow overnight, so I’m glad I haven’t done much spring cleanup yet.
We haven’t had a killing frost yet in my Zone 6 garden, so David Austin Heritage English Rose still has a few flushes of bloom! She’s also setting some very large orange hips that should feed a few hungry animals this winter.
I bought seeds for this Mirabilis jalapa ‘Alba’ (White-Flowered Four-o’Clock) from Hayefield last January.
It’s technically an annual in Zone 6, but freely reseeds itself (as evidenced by its presence in my garden this year).
My tomatoes got a slow start this spring, so I’m only just now getting some ripe fruits to harvest.
These are a mystery variety of Roma that I got from a fellow student of Krav Maga last fall. Mike had a bumper crop of tomatoes and peppers, so he brought in several bags to share. When I asked him what variety of tomatoes these were, he told me they were “romaine” tomatoes. So, when I saved the seeds from the tomatoes he shared, I labeled them as “Mike’s Romaine” Roma tomatoes.
Alas, the bell peppers he shared with the dojo must have been a hybrid variety, because the seeds I saved from those failed to germinate. I historically haven’t had good luck with peppers overall, though, so I can’t be sure…