Azalea Fireball, the last to bloom for me

Rhododendron catawbiense album and Borsault. Planting them on the north side of the house delays blooming by a week or more :

Hosta Francis Williams:

Astrantia seedling. Astrantia is subject to some fungus who makes brown patches on the leaves.

Sambucus nigrum Thoundercloud, the best of the dark leaved for me. Black beauty died twice here.

Meconopsis cambrica, a yellow double:

Meconopsis cambrica, a near-red double

Magnolia sieboldii, the hardiest of the ones I have, it blooms all summer but is never totally covered by flowers like others. Unfortunately, the flowers dry up without falling off, spoiling the effect.

Iris sibirica Ships Are Sailing. Should not have gotten the Morgan Medal in my opinion, the flowers are too flat on tall stalks, which make them very little visible from a far. 4 flowers per stem.

Papaver Turkenlois, subtle is not in its vocabulary.

Papaver Karine, small flowers, non-flopping.

Papaver , probably Pink Ruffles

Papaver Clochard, the best of the pinks , non-flopping

Delphinium Ouverture(with two dots above the second u), 5 feet tall, non-flopping, the best in this colour together with Augenweide(which is shorter)

Iris sibirica Big Blue, long drought can cause it to bloom down in the foliage.

Iris sibirica Jewelled Crown, has the tendency to bloom down in the foliage even in good conditions.

More pictures soon.

and no space wasted on grass.. lol ... the lawn type.. not ornamental ...

i am surprised.. how far behind your rhodies are.. compared to mine.. which bloomed 4 to 6 weeks ago ...

ken

Do you have any suggestions on what I should be doing to get extended bloom from my Siberian irises? I rarely get more than a week. (Of course, this year they were decimated by torrential down pours.)

AtoZmom, the length of blooming period of a sibirian Iris clump is dependent on how many flower buds the individual stem is carrying and how big a proportion of the rhizoms is willing to bloom. In the course of time I have culled a lot of beauties because they nearly never bloomed. Let's face it: old varieties are passe. There are usually only two flower buds (three in the best case scenario)per stem, and the foliage is laying on the ground after blooming. The varieties with especially long blooming time are: Mabel Coday(4 flower buds per stem), has grown for me in one place for 7 years without division and without going bald in the middle. The colour is 'average'. Illini Dame - up to 5 buds for me,although described as 'up to' 7 by the man I bought it from. Other good sibirians: Viel Schnee- the best white, Big Blue- each rhizome blooms, Coronation Anthem - 3 blooms but often repeats. Not recommended: Golden Edge- extremely beautiful but never blooms, Blue Reverie- awesome flower, but nearly never blooms, Regency Buck- the most beautiful of them all but died of rot, Heliotrope Bouquet- big flowers, but only two of them, stems very weak blowing over(worthless).

Here are some more pictures:

Noid Hosta, nobody in the Hosta Forum knows its name, the inflorescence make 'stars' while emerging:

Rhododendron Mrs T.H. Lowinsky , one of the latest to bloom, has to be in full sun, otherwise it would go 'leggy'

Weigela tree. I have transform many of my bushes into small trees , so I do not have to grow big ones. The small ones give just as good shade for my hostas as big ones. On the right you can see Magnolia nigra Liliflora, which was judged dead, but it began to get leaves 6 weeks too late. People have reported many damages to magnolias this year(warm February with sudden onset of frost).

Iris Sultry Mood, possibly the best Iris for north ever created. I started with 1 rhizome many years ago, now I have it all over the garden , as each one survives.

Iris sibirica Viel Schnee(A lot of Snow), the best white, big and bold.

Iris Echo de France, the best yellow amoena for North, at my neighbor's garage(which is an eyesore)

Amsonia Illustris. I have propagated A.illustris, tabernamontana and hubrichtii by seeds. This one is the most ornamental(the best proportion between flowers and foliage while blooming)

Trollius chinensis

Trollius stenopetalus

Delphinium seedling, did not like being moved, sulking

Eryngium Forncett Ultra. Ornamental even before it gets colour.

Papaver Clochard. The flowers on papavers are very short lasting.

Iris sibirica Over the Gloryland. Absolutely gorgeous flower, but only 3 per stem.

Can you give us some background re this hosta in your garden?

I love that dark foliage Sambucus - I have 8 of the native North American elderberries, which are wonderful shurbs, the birds just love them. But now want one of those too - the pink flowers are irresistable. Does yours make berries?

Corrine

Flowergirl, just go ahead and do it in the spring. I was also afraid until this year. I noticed that one of my favourite Delphiniums was behind all the others, and I dug it up. It turned out there was a giant hole in the crown and several creatures were munching away , eating it alive from inside. I do not know the English name for the creatures, they looked like from centipede family. I rescued 4 small divisions with one root each, and all survived. But I think it will take 2 years before they bloom again.

Bellarosa, thank you for your kind compliment.

Terrene, yes, it is fruiting, but not abundantly.

Here are some more pictures.

Yellow Lilium Martagon hybrid

Delphinium Lanzentrager(with two dots on second a), this is THE DELPHINIUM. I call it BBBB Delphinium(big, bold, blue , beautiful). Up to two meters tall, non-flopping. The flowers are vibrant dark blue:

Astrantia Roma. If you're observant you should notice the fungus on the leaves. They all get it each year,more or less.

Astrantia Ruby Wedding, close-up

Iris Song of Norway, the Dykes' medal was well deserved in this case:

Lilium pyrenaicum , it is stinking but it is one of my favourite lilies, close to indestructable.

Lilium pyrenaicum orange-red. I have been observing a big clump of it for 10 years, walking by an old neglected garden. Each year it was eaten down by lily beetles, but I had no guts to ask for a bulb. Last year the house was bought by a carpenter who was working in our house, and I asked him for a bulb. He said I could take them ALL! Two weaks later his whole garden was levelled to the ground. Thus I became a savior. All the bulbs survived, but only 2 bloomed with a single flower each

Hydrangea petiolaris on the nothern wall of my house is beginning to bloom.

Rodgersia sambucifolia:

Hosta Sun Power, yet unbeaten in this colour. Last year I potted a big piece of it to sell it on our local plant market. It was absolutely gorgeous! People were thinking it was SICK!

Eryngium alpinum begins to get colour. It looks prickly but it is not.

More pictures to come.

I'm intrigued by your Sambucus. I tried a dark version and a chartreuse version and neither of them survived in my garden. I think I may look for that 'Thundercloud' variety and give it another try.

Lots of interesting plants in your garden!

Variegated Privet:

Peony Inspecteur Lavergne. I can't see any difference between this one and Kansas.

Iris sibirica Hellblaue Riese, I call it BBBB iris(big,bold,blue , beautiful) 1 m tall, non-flopping

Noid lilies, must be very old variety, real dinosaurs.

Delphinium seedling. At some point I had some Delphinium exaltatum from US, and I think one of them was the father to this plant(very similar shape of the inflorescence). While all D. exaltatum were very short-lived here(could not cope with local fungi here), this one just get bigger and bigger. Non-flopping, small flowers, lovely

Iris sibirica Sultan's Ruby. Inappropriate name.

More pictures to follow.

Eryngium Forncett ultra(up to 9 flowers on the strongest stems)

Eryngium alpinum:

Trollius chinensis:

Paeonia Inspecteur Lavergne:

Delphinium Waldenburg(non-flopping):

Some shots of my favourite Delphiniums:

Ever wondered why so few bright yellow flowers for June in temperate zones? I have only 3 : Lilium pyrenaicum, Trollius stenopetalus and Meconopsis cambrica(bearded Iris does not count as it is 'man-made'. Everything is blue or pink or violet, unlike July where nearly 'everything is yellow'.

The most intriguing thing, personally, is that Hosta with the "stars." When I lived in OH, I saw a LOT of Hostas and have made pilgrimages to a couple breeders that only sell wholesale, and had started getting near to being in a fetish zone with the names and looking through catalogs, mentally buying about all of them. But I've never seen anything like that. Does it have any fragrance? Don't think I've ever smelled a white-flowered one that didn't. Have you?

Yellow... I've got some Mums that have been kickin' full blast for at least 6 weeks, maybe longer. They're only about 8-12" tall though. Yellow is such an important accent/contrast color to me, I use a Coleus, cuttings of it "hitting a high note" all over the place.

Somebody has asked for Eryngiums:

That somebody is me.

Those are beautiful specimens.

Especially as part of a flower combination they are outstandingly unique plants....love the colour, love the texture.

I will definitely keep a look out for 'alpinum' and 'Forncett Ultra' for my garden. (I would replace my 'Blue Glitter' with either of these).

Lilium pyrenaicum is just fabulous, so neat and uniform.

The many blue delphiniums are gorgeous!

The dusty pink shades of poppy go so well with a June garden.

But most of all I like the idea of "tree" weigela, and I'm going to steal this idea for my garden. I have some weigela that have gotten huge, and was going to give them a major whack this fall, but instead I think I'll thin them out to trees. What a great idea!

I have a rectification about Iris sibirica Over in Gloryland. Some stems have actually 4 blooms, so it stays here with me.

Rouge, Eryngium alpinum is beautiful but it is not particularly long-lived with me(perhaps my climate?). Average lifespan for a clump is about 4 years. But you can let some seedlings grow(it seeds well if allowed).
Eryngium Forncett Ultra has been growing for 15 years here and I have 5 giant clumps of it. When moved it will return from the roots. It is beautiful but very prickly(unlike E.alpinum, which is soft to touch)

Gottagarden, I have made the Weigela tree out of a cutting taken from my B-I-L's garden. I let the main stem grow to 1 meter and then made a crown. I will make another one when the crown is higher than 1 meter. I'm not sure if it is easy to transform existing BIG bushes into trees, but why not try?

Here it is as it looks in November:

Here are some more June shots:

Peony, bought as Shirley Temple. This one changes colour yearly, usually white with occasional red spot(like Festiva Maxima , her mother). This year opens light pink. My favourite peony, because it did never flop for me

Iris White Owl, by far the best white iris for the North, wiped out the whole competition hands down. I googled it and got 1! relevant hit, whithout picture or description. How is it possible?

Geranium pratense Summer Skies, the best of the new doubles(the white one with purple eye was a terrible flopper), stands well until the blooming is over. It is light violet with a touch of pink, not exactly a synonym for summer sky here.

Geranium pratense Caeruleum Plenum, only a curiosity, as the plant has absolutely no vigor.

My old Delphinium (seedling). Pay attention that the florets are shorter than on English ones, which makes them so much better to resist wind damage.

Here are some links:
July
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0722031824359.html?4 1

September:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0906435119598.html?1 5

October

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg1017533514185.html?1 2