I believe I already mentioned that I’m on vacation this week. There’s only a couple things I really want to get done while I’m off work. 1st is paint the inside of the darn sun porch. It’s a total chore and I keep putting it off. 2nd is getting some real quilting time in.

But… both are hard when the sun is shining because I just want to be in the garden.

There’s lots to see including newly bloomed irises. This one is called Burgundy Party. My white, and dark purple irises are pretty much finished, but this one, and the yellow/white reblooming iris I have are going pretty strong.

And of course, there are more to come.

In the fall, I planted a mix of alliums – it was supposed to be a mix of mid-purple, light purple and white.. but so far, I’ve only gotten two types.

This nice, very tightly packed mid-purple one. And this…

It’s petals are thinner and spikier – and as you can see by my hand – they are pretty darn huge! I think there’s at least one white one coming, but who knows – it may only look white in bud.

All my ornamental sages are starting to take off. I have them in several shades – this white, a light lavender, a bright pink ,and a nice purple. The bees love them, and they bloom on and off all summer.

So far, we’re having a fantastic showing of Columbine. Despite these guys.

They are Columbine Sawfly (a cousin to the ones I get on my roses), and they completely defoliate the plants (though they leave the flowers.) It usually doesn’t kill the plant, but it does make it look rather sad. Happily the leaves will grow back, and we may even get more flowers later in the season. But I will be on the watch for these guys next year.

And my lilac have finally bloomed. Tinkerbell is on the left, Bloomerang on the right. Bloomerang is right beside one of my garden benches and it’s nice to sit there and enjoy her scent.

The Widows Tears (also known as Spiderwort) are blooming and as you can see, they are a favourite of the bumblebees.

Over in the woodland garden, the Jacob’s Ladder has bloomed. It’s a very pretty flower. But the one thing I’m super excited about in that garden…

Pink Forget-Me-Nots! Did you know there was such a thing??? I did not! So you bet your bottom dollar I snapped that one up fast. Another blue one came along too. And since then I’ve found more growing among the daylilies in the fence garden. I have no idea where that one came from but it’s very welcome!

No flower on this one, but I was very happy to find it at the garden centre last week. It’s a trillium. A native plant and one I’ve wanted for a very long time. And the pot I got had three plants in it. They are now disbursed among the Woodland Garden.

These will be too – just as soon as they are done blooming!

This lovely thing is a purple Verbascum. It was one of the clearance perennials that overwintered in the raised beds. It’s now moved to the outside of the catio (it replaced a mum that died off) and it seems quite happy there.

And it’s Lupin time! I was a little disappointed that this one out front was yet another dark purple one (I was hoping for a different colour) but it’s still pretty – and I had no lupins out front.

I’ve got two different purples out back, and this pink one inside the catio.

And as pretty as all these are – there’s so much more to come. The roses are budding up, there’s more irises waiting to pop… the peonies should flower soon, the poppies all have big heads… every day is a new discovery in the garden