I’ve been hiding.  Our temperatures spiked up to 92F (33C) last week and watching the wilted daffodils and tulips being thrashed by the dry wind was just too depressing.  In a few hot days three weeks of bloom flew by and it’s now mostly over.  The temperatures finally dropped today but I still wish we would get some rain before the grass completely yellows.  I don’t like a dry spring.

Fortunately May is still May, and regardless of the weather there’s still plenty to be happy about!

At least my winter seed sowing is paying off. This year I have my first frittilarias and tulips from seed, and it’s endlessly entertaining to search the pots for the latest sprouts.

Between NARGS, HPS, and American Primrose Society seed exchanges I have plenty of pots of little goodies to experiment with, and as long as nobody mentions the fact I have no room for most of these, I think we’ll all just enjoy the enthusiasm of the newest little sprouts in my garden 🙂

Martagon lily seedlings going on to their third year.  At this rate there’s not much rush to find more room.

In addition to bringing on the seedlings the heat brought the wisteria from buds to blooms in barely four days.  Last spring was a total loss due to a harsh winter and late freeze, but this year about half the buds survived.  I don’t even miss the lost buds, it’s still full of flowers.

Japanese wisteria planted out in the meadow.  Without anything nearby to grab onto and climb I think it’s invasive tendencies can be kept under wraps.

Maybe you noticed my sad little fritillaria imperialis blooming behind the wisteria.  The hot wind wilted the flowers quickly but I managed to get a photo of the interesting inside of the hanging blooms.

The nectar drops at the inner base of the fritillaria imperalis blooms.  A cool thing to look at, but it’s just a bit too “glandular” in appearance for my tastes!

The fritillaria will be something to keep my fingers crossed for in order for it to survive, but the japanese wisteria cannot be mentioned without a warning about it’s invasiveness.  Killing it would be far more work than the neglect which keeps it alive, and to turn your back on this plant runs the risk of having it take over.  I keep it in the middle of a lawn area were it cannot grab onto anything, to grow it as a vine and keep it on anything less than a massive arbor would be more work than I want to consider.

Some seed grown wisteria may take decades before they finally decide to bloom, mine is a cutting off my parent’s plant which has always put on a heavy show of flowers.  Even this sucker which came up last year after I moved the mother plant already has a few blooms on it.  A smart person only needs one wisteria, I’m not sure why I’m going to keep this second one 🙂

Speaking of plants which wouldn’t mind taking over the world, I think I’ve finally decided against keeping this darker purple vinca minor.  I like it well enough but without a border or wall to hold it back it’s spreading out just a little to enthusiastically.  This plant (and my wayward campanula glomerata) are officially on the elimination list.  I might put some of it next door in one of the boring mulch beds around my mother in law’s house.  It’s not that hard to rip out, improves the look of an empty mulch bed immensely, and between the house and lawn it shouldn’t get into too much trouble.

Vinca minor ‘atropurpurea’.  A good groundcover in the right place, but a little to aggressive for my beds, and I wouldn’t want to let it escape into the wild. 

Before the heat struck I did manage to finish up a little hard labor.  The front house bed has had a once over, been expanded and topped with new mulch.  I forgot who gave me the idea, but I divided up the blue fescue clumps and spread them far and wide across the front of the border.  I like it, which isn’t something I could say the last time I redid this foundation planting.

The front foundation planting looking all springy.  Any opinions on the pink rhododendron in front of the brick?  I have mine, and it involves a shovel 🙂

The bed along the front of the house has been one of my favorites this spring.  The shelter of the house gives a little protection from the drying wind and my mulching has kept down many of the most annoying weeds.  Some would say my thistles are weeds but I think they’re fantastic.  You’re not going to want to touch them though….

Ptilostemon diacantha.  I can’t wait to see this one bloom (even though the blooms may be slightly anti-climactic) and will surely collect seeds if I get that far… using gloves of course 🙂

Something a little more suburbia-friendly are the tulips and camassia.  It looks nice enough here but I may remove a bunch of the camassia.  In the heat I don’t think they’ll last more than six days, a little too short of a bloom period for my tastes although I can’t complain about how carefree they are.  Maybe I’ll try them somewhere less prominent.

Tulips and camassia highlighting the front foundation planting.  The blue fescue has been divided up and spread all along the front now and I think it looks better than the gappy line which was there before.  Funny to think these are all the descendants of a single moth-eaten clump which I rescued from a neighbor’s yard. 

Close up the camassia are an airy, beautiful flower, and I think to see it growing en-mass in its native Western North American haunts would be great.  Maybe someday.

Camassia leichtlinii caerulea or ‘blue danube’, I’m not sure which since I planted both but they all look identical to me.

Iris season is next.  The stalks are shooting up all over and it makes the rapid passing of the daffodils feel a little less painful.  I’m sure it will be a fantastic year for iris…. unless that’s the exact point when the rain decides to come.

I always forget to divide the awesome iris pallida ‘variegata’.  It’s one of my favorites but seems to like more frequent division and better soil than some of the others.

So that’s it from here.  I have to apologize for not responding to comments or leaving any on the blogs I visit,  I’ve been keeping up with the reading but for the most part have been just too grumpy and unmotivated to add any productive comments.  But there’s hope.  The first irises are opening today and I’m already feeling better.  This sounds good, but unfortunately the weekend is already filled to capacity with field trips, birthday parties, dance recitals, sports banquets and baseball games and I’ll be lucky to even step foot in the garden for a few days.

But it’s almost Friday, and I hope a great weekend is had by all!