Rainy Day. It's Monday.

It's raining. It's Monday. I'm not down. It's been too long since we've had rain. Right now, it's a nice gentle rain falling. It'll turn into storms before the afternoon is done. The line of storms is moving Northeast at a steady pace. I hope it rains all day. It's 77 degrees.



It always rains just as the peonies come into full bloom.



Mr. Lincoln is really impressing me this year. I had a few blooms like this last year, but only one at a time. I love this plant.



Massive.



Lagerfeld smells great. The pink coloring disappears as the blooms open to a silvery lavender.



The pink hybrid tea is impressive this year too.



My first strawberry.



Beans. I need to redo the teepee poles I set up for these. All of them are leaning due to high wind yesterday. I need to lash them together with some horizontal bamboo poles. I have plenty left.

Fragrances

Mr Lincoln, this morning.



Mr Lincoln, at lunch.



Context.



Karl Rosenfeld peony. Knockouts, Lagerfeld and Blue Girl in the background.



Lagerfeld.



Blue Girl.



Sweet Williams.



This is the "Orange Rose" purchased last year. The pink blooms come from one side of the plant. Orange blooms will appear later. Neither have a fragrance. It might be moved if I find a suitable reblooming fragrant replacement.



It's 82 degrees. My scalp is fried.

His mama named him Tommy

The folks just called him 'Yellow'.
-Kenny Rogers

I've got two kinds of yellow roses. Sunny Knockout opened its first bloom yesterday. It's funny. I never even noticed the bud. I think the fading daffodils had me confused.



Golden Showers on the perennial arbor is budding. This is a reblooming climber.



The last "last" daffodil has opened. I think. Maybe there will be another later blooming variety after this one. These came from the mixed bags I planted in the fall. Ignore the weeds. They'll be gone soon.



The last daffodil, the one that bloomed before the last yellow one has a touch of yellow in the center. Both of these have multiple blooms per stem.



The Amur Honeysuckle also contains yellow. It's not much, but the fragrance is lovely.



This bearded iris came from my sister's house last spring. I had to clear a bed of them when I planted her round flower bed. I remember them all being brown. I don't have a very good memory, obviously.



Out near the street, this has appeared. I'm not sure what it is. I know I planted a rooted weigela in that area. I don't remember anything being this color. I like surprises.



The latest columbine bloom has a hint of yellow with blue streaks.



Speaking of blue, Blue Girl hybrid tea rose is budding.



Lagerfeld is finally open and looks as it should, a pale lavender with a delicious fragrance.



Soon, the pink rose I moved from the woodsy area last spring to the perennial bed arbor, then the front porch, and finally to the swing out back, is about to bloom. I hope this year to have it identified. There will be lots of blooms. It's covered in buds.



After work yesterday, I repotted most of the tomatoes into individual containers. They're still tiny. I gave them a very weak dose of transplant solution. I also stuck cuttings of euphorbia in the cloner. I'm hoping they take root. My seeds didn't germinate.





Poncirus trifolata, or Hardy Orange, has germinated well. I'll be planting these out in the gully to discourage the neighborhood kids that have twice decided to play hide and seek on my property at night. The 1-2" thorns are deadly.



It's 45 degrees. The high today should reach the mid 70s. Still no rain to speak of. Maybe Tuesday.

Blooms.

My theme today is shades of pink.

Columbine.



Lagerfeld.



Weigela.



Miss Kim lilac.



There are others. Some were blurry. Some were yellow and white. Dutch irises are starting to bud. Dame's Rocket is blooming, but hard to capture. Amur honeysuckle is not as fragrant as I recall.

It's 39 degrees. Yesterday was cool and windy. Today should reach 80. I've got my list of things to accomplish.

- clean the cloner. take cuttings
- toss the wintersown containers with no sprouts
- plant the hostas along the front walk
- mow/edge/blow
- plant beans, squash, and cucumbers
- separate and repot tomatoes

Every blasted year. - The city sends some guy on a tractor with whirling blades to "clean up" the growth along the street next to my property. He just finished his awesome work. Good job, dude.



He made a second pass to make sure he took out this huge mock orange shrub that was starting to bud.



And the sweetshrub that was loaded with blooms.



Thank heavens he left all the privet and honeyscuckle. I'm gonna sow cosmos seeds this afternoon. See how they like that.

9:00 am - The cloner has been cleaned and the beans are soaking.

Thundercloud

It's 45 degrees. The temperature will slowly rise to the low 60s this afternoon as the storms move in. We've got chances of thunderstorms and rain all evening and night.

In honor of the rain, the Thundercloud Plum has decided to bloom.





This plum tree has purple-red leaves and pink blossoms. It was transplanted in the fall from the perennial bed. It's about a week late in blooming this year. I suppose it could be the cold winter, or maybe the move. In any case, another few days will show it completely in bloom. Only a few scattered branches are showing any color yet.

The Belle of Georgia peach is still blooming away. The blossoms have turned a darker color. The leaves are coming on nicely.



Before work, I'll dig out the Lagerfeld rose in the Neighbor's Corner. I'm giving it to Marty, a customer at the store. She brought me beautyberry starts in the fall and seeds for a blue milkweed, Tweedia caerulea. I've already sown them. Soon, I'll start giving away the brugmansias to people who have asked about them. I also plan to sow the rest of my datura seeds in the new fragrant bed outside the basement door. I need to spread the broken bags of soil that have been sitting in the basement for weeks first.

9:11am - I've spread three bags of topsoil and a bag of pine mulch over the newest bed. For two weeks, I've been spraying the weeds and grass here with RoundUp. I'm sure the wire grass will continue to pop up through the season. It has in all the beds I've created along the retaining wall and basement door. I'll spot treat and pull whenever I see it. Datura, marigolds, and four o'clocks have been sown here.



A splash of rain passed through as I was digging the Lagerfeld for Marty. There was a bit of blue sky a few minutes later. The sun is shining now.



The "dead" Loropetalums are blooming.



The Eastern Redbuds are opening. They're pink. I don't know why they call them redbuds.



The first of 100+ muscari has pushed up a bloom stalk. There was supposed to be a blue stream amongst the daffodils on the front slope. So far, only a handful have pushed through the soil. This one is in the crape myrtle bed.



Peonies at the end of the driveway are up. I transplanted these from Virginia last March. I really hope they bloom a bit better this year. They don't like to be disturbed.



Larkspur by the perennial bed arbor.



It's still 45 degrees. We should start to climb soon. It's going to be a rough afternoon of storms from the looks of the radar.

Sights and Smells

Tonight should be a special night in the garden. Several daturas in the moongarden are about to pop.







The triple yellow by the front door is also threatening to bloom again. Still only one bloom, so I will leave it to collect the first of many seeds this year.



The Lagerfeld roses are blooming again. They look good for about 6 hours on the day they bud. After that, they turn brown and ugly.





The brugmansias are still growing. This is my smallest, it's either orange or yellow. Every day I see what I think is a bud. It has turned out to be nothing but new leaves. The one bud I had on another brug fell off last week. It had better be worth the wait.







June bugs die a horrible death in my yard. Squished.


It's 84 and cloudy. The high has been toned down to 91 instead of 95. No sun is the key. It looks and feels like rain is on the way.