It’s a wonderful time of year here in the Portland metro area!
Almost every where you look, there’s a dazzling rhododendron in bloom, one color more spectacular than the other.
Here in the shade, my rhodies are just blossoming out and it’s already clear; this will be a great year for blooms.
Unknown variety
Unknown variety
Rhododendron Anah Kruschke
Rhododendron Royal Purple
Rhododendron chinoides
It looks and feels a lot like Spring here in the Portland area.
The sun is streaming through the trees and Hummingbirds are fluttering by their feeder, dipping in to a fresh batch of nectar, carefully prepared by my dear husband last night.
The garden is slowly drying out after record rainfall in March. Wellies are still a must to venture into the back garden, unless you want muck-encrusted shoes, or cold wet feet. I’m not complaining; it’s been a long and busy Winter, and I can think of nothing more therapeutic than some quality gardening time outdoors.
There’s plenty of color to keep me company as I clear last Fall’s pine needles and the debris from Winter.
Daffodils, which I plant as annuals to ensure blooming here in the shade, are brightening up the moss lawn.
The flowering currant bush Ribes sanguineum, at the edge of the wetland area is adding pretty pink to a gray area in the garden
Close to, but screened off from the corgi runway, a lovely pink camellia vies for attention. If only I knew the name of this variety.
In the front garden, safe from the corgis, but subject to inspection by “The Ladies”, our neighbor’s hens, the pink and white bleeding hearts Dicentra spectabilis are just starting to nod their heads to Spring.
Two dozen delft blue and pink hyacinths perfume the way leading to the front door. Mud-splattered and a little worse for the weather, these darlings bring great cheer to a very shady and mucky spot. To be planted every year, from here on.
And finally, a first time bloomer is showing off sulfur yellow flowers under a Laceleaf Japanese Maple.
This is a variety of Bishop’s Hat, maybe Epimedium suplhureum. Six years in the garden and finally a bloom!
The Summer is racing past.
For a variety of reasons, I have less time to time to work in the garden, less time to plan new projects, and less time to write about it all this season. I’m okay with this. Except for an hour of weekly maintenance, and a relaxed watering schedule due to our cool humid Summer, I’m not putting a lot of time into the garden these days. Instead, I’m taking a lot out of the garden; working on my laptop from the deck overlooking the garden, enjoying how wonderfully large and full the landscape has become, and admiring my all-time favorite flowers: the hydrangeas.
Despite the torture they endured in a June hail storm, the hydrangeas are looking good, if I say so myself. Take a look:
And the still homeless Pink Annabelle:
The violent hail storm in June left the garden in tatters and many of my beloved hydrangeas beheaded. The damage was heartbreaking, and the cleanup painful as I removed tens of dangling, half-mature blooms and branches to the compost bin.
Right after the cleanup was complete, Joe the Gnome arrived from California in the company of my charming nephews Cole and Alan.
Joe quickly found a sheltered perch on a small ledge on one of the biggest Ponderosa Pine trees in the center of the back garden. It’s a great lookout, high above the garden hoses which could decapitate him, and prominent enough to see Joe from the kitchen and living room.
Since Joe’s arrival, things have been looking up in the garden. The remaining hydrangeas have “pulled themselves together” and are poised to come into full bloom in the next week or two:
A few early bloomers are cheering me up tremendously:
Hydrangea macrophylla “Endless Summer”
Hydrangea serrata “Preziosa”
Hydrangea paniculata “Quickfire”
No more hail storms, please!
