Everything in the garden has loved the sunny days this past week, even though it’s been a tad chilly. Today’s the day to plant out tomatoes and peppers and hope for the best so just a quick springtime Six to join Jim at Garden Ruminations.
I lost several trees and shrubs, or parts of shrubs, and trees, over the winter – too cold I guess – but a few are looking better than ever, including this purple leaf sand cherry – Prunus × cistena.
A friend gave me a few of these darker blue Camassia leichtlinii bulbs a couple years ago, and I’ve had the paler blue Camassia cusickii for a while. I may have the names reversed… There’s loads of one of the lighter blue ones in the back, producing foliage but no flowers, I think because they’ve been shaded out by trees over the years. Digging them up and putting them in sunny spots has been on the list for a few years now…
The end of May really is the time for both lilacs and big, purple Alliums. The lilac fragrance was drifting through the garden the past few days as I puttered about… especially this one which is kinda in the middle of the kitchen garden, by the rhubarb. It came in as a seed amongst some French Iris I transplanted many years ago – I certainly didn’t plant it there – and I’ve been cutting off suckers and lower branches to continue planting scallions and asparagus underneath it. This is where I spotted the monarch butterfly earlier this week.
And Alliums…I should do a whole post about all the different Alliums here…but for now, here is a bed of Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ and Allium ‘Lucille Ball.’ You’ll notice A. Lucille Ball is taller, has a larger flowering head and the individual flowers are much more tightly packed than most Alliums. They’re both very purple! Have a great weekend everyone!
You’ve created a wonderful and diverse yarden. Such varieties…makes it really fun to go outside, tidy up and plant. Quite envious of your Alliums…I only had one….but had planted more & some have bloomed…blame it on the rodents? Have a great time planting today!
Thanks Alice!
I am enjoying your alliums since they don’t do well in central Alabama. Camassia does and I love that blue color. My blueberries are producing now but I am still missing having strawberry and rhubarb pie.
Blueberries!!! There are a few blueberry farms in the County, where the soil is much sandier, that I do the u-pick thing…love ’em!
Those purples are luscious: especially the lilac. I think the light blue flowers commonly used here in roadside landscaping must be alliums. They certainly do well here, whatever they are. Your bleeding hearts look like bleeding hearts should. I’ve seen some cultivars that (let’s be honest here) are what country folk would call plumb ugly!
LOL! I’ve been surprised the past few years to discover baby bleeding hearts in various places many metres from where this one is growing…a testament perhaps to the willingness of ants to carry them forth…
That light blue camassia is lovely. I have the dark blue variety, and as for you, all you need are white ones and it will be perfect!
Does your prunus produce edible plums, and do you eat them?
No plums on this prunes; in fact, I’ve never seen any fruit at all on them. Either a sterile hybrid or birds get them first I guess.
The hmmm allium made me laugh. I adore the cercis and the cherry blossom is beautiful. Happy planting!
I’m on a lunch break right now but have been happily digging in the dirt all morning! 😁😁
Your Bleeding Hearts/Diving Turtles look wonderful. The purple leaf sand cherry is a beauty. I planted one in a pot earlier this year – pretty flowers and colourful foliage.
Thanks! Very pretty flowers on the sand cherry!
That lilac is impressive. They do not perform as well here. I always thought that they want more chill during winter than they get here, but they grow in Los Angeles, which has even milder winters.
They do seem to like our cold winters – I wonder if there’s a special warm climate species/variety…
French hybrids are marketed as such, and they do bloom somewhat nicely, but they do not actually thrive like they do where winters are cooler.
The best lilac I’ve ever seen! 👏🏼
Thanks Eliza!!
The lilac is a lovely shape Chris. Really pretty colour too. Love all your flowers and trees this week. I can’t understand why redbud isn’t grown here, it is such a lovely splash of spring colour.
It’s a wonderful small tree…the flowers so vibrant and appear so unusually along branches…
Ha, I sort of love the random lilac crashing the vegetable party. My volunteer lilac looks very similar and it’s mostly surrounded by weeds and a few perennials at the moment but I’ve been thinking about what to plant under it after everything there is cleaned up later this month. The potatoes/tomatoes/cucurbits are already in the same area further up the slope, so just about anything goes at this point…
I’m always torn when it comes to volunteers…annuals, some perennials…no problem pulling where not wanted. But trees? Shrubs? If they landed there, and are healthy and happy looking…maybe it was meant to be…