It always gives me a sense of sadness when spring rolls into summer.  All the anticipation, the return of growing things, and the new life makes spring my favorite season, but it goes too fast.  One after another things rush into bloom, have their day in the sun (or freezing drizzle) and then are gone for another 11 months.  It’s definitely a “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” season and it comes and goes in a rush as we hurry to get everything done before the heat and humidity settle in…..

When the first rose opens I call it summer and I face the fact that not all the projects are going to happen like they were supposed to.  So time to regroup, sit back, and get into porch and pool mode.  A couple 90 degree days push it along and before you know it spring is a memory and you’re into the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

Clematis “multiblue” is carrying over from spring.  I bought it as something else and got this overfluffed flower.  Not something I would pick for myself but its become a favorite.  A “didn’t happen” project from spring was moving it out of the veggie garden and getting a real structure for it to grow on instead of bush trimmings…..

Clematis “Ruutel”  is also struggling along in a less than deserving position.  I have trouble finding spots for clematis,  I think I prefer them growing up small shrubs but never manage to get a good pairing.

A new favorite for this time of year is “Ray’s Golden Campion”.  It flowers during my spring lull and does a good job covering dying spring bulb foliage.  I have some seed left and will be starting a few more this summer, they were a gift from Nan Ondra at Hayefield and I couldn’t be happier with the color of bloom and yellow leaves…. it’s another plant that could use better companions though.

I think this is peony “Do Tell”.  It’s blooming happily in the middle of the vegetable garden.  The reason I’m not sure of its identity is because out of a bag of three this is the only one matching the description.  Now I’ve never seen an ugly peony (yet) so it’s not the worst thing to have happen, but I guess it falls under the ‘get what you pay for’ heading…. they were clearance Van Engelen and the other one (the third hasn’t bloomed yet) is a big fat fragrant double pink so it’s win-win so far.

Just about all my plantings are on the redo list.  Sometimes it’s not entirely my fault, but I guess it depends on how you assign blame.  By definition I never really “planted” any of these iris, they’re the result of using not-quite-ready compost as a top dressing before putting down shredded wood mulch.  It speaks of the hardiness of bearded iris that the rhizomes could survive a couple of months in the rotting compost pile and then still come back to life but I guess it also speaks of my laziness.  I never actually prepped the soil in this bed, just planted the stewartia and hostas right into the turf, covered the in between grass areas with a couple of layers of newspaper to smother it, covered the paper with compost and then topped off with mulch.  No one seems to mind and maybe when I plant better things here I’ll do soil prep.

I did do soil prep for the tulips but in the vegetable beds it’s easy.  They’re starting to die down now which means bulb digging and then bean and squash planting.  Even though I did go through the effort of soil prep, I may have done some shallow planting last fall.  I don’t think they’re supposed to be this close to the surface and showing signs of sunburn.  It will be interesting to see if shallow planting effects bulb size since usually deep planting is recommended in order to keep tulips from splitting.  A real problem is that bunnies like to eat the exposed bulbs.  It’s possible this isn’t the first shallow planting of tulips and bunnies may have attacked last year.  But they need their vitamins too.