May 31st. End of May flowers

Beautiful, jroot. Love the Forget-me-nots; my mother decorated their bedroom in a forget-me-not theme – quilted bed-spread, old post cards, hand stenciled wall trim, curtains, you name it.

-- There's a box?

Hi John,

Nice to see your gardens this way when not in person. Beautiful photography. I especially liked the single bleeding heart. My peonies haven’t burst into bloom yet, but it looks like they will do well this year. My iris are just beginning to form buds. My garden bed on the deck is really sprouting up. I should have fresh greens within a week. Picked 12 cups of rhubarb this morning and cooked it up. Yum. Nice memories of home.

-- Helen, Stratford, ON

Good for you, Helen. I’ve frozen quite a bit of rhubarb already. Your “bed” garden on the deck sounds good this year. Any photos?

My normal perennial peonies are budded up, but have not opened yet. This is an older peony tree that is at the front of the house. It just started to bloom this morning. When I went out to get the paper, the buds were barely opening. A few hours later, they were wide open and advertising themselves to passing bees. Too bad the flowers don’t last longer. Certainly, it is fragrant. I do have a small white peony tree that should bloom soon, and a very small yellow one which will hopefully bloom for me this year.

-- jroot ....... Southern Ontario .......... grow zone 5A ...................."Gardening is an exercise in optimism." ....... . . Author Unknown

40F is hot? Or is this 40celcius and therefore 104°? Lovely pictures!

-- Just A Guy With A Hammer

Sorry, I meant 40C. We Canadians are so confused …...

-- jroot ....... Southern Ontario .......... grow zone 5A ...................."Gardening is an exercise in optimism." ....... . . Author Unknown

Just wondering. Since your way up yonder in the land of Mooses where it can get a bit cold, 40F could be a heat wave.

-- Just A Guy With A Hammer

Wonderful pics, jroot. :) I have to smile bc when I first joined this board and showed some pics of my garden, you made the comment that they could have been taken in your garden. Well now I can say the same thing! Except that many of the blooms you are showing are finished here…..Would you believe that! There isn’t that many miles bt where you are and here, but several of my plants have finished.

Also I have to say, the picture of your peony tree could have been taken in my backyard.

LOL BTW, thanks for the dandelion.

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

OOOOh, I like your colour better than mine. I wonder, can peonies be propogated by cuttings … if they are peony trees ? ... Time for some research.

-- jroot ....... Southern Ontario .......... grow zone 5A ...................."Gardening is an exercise in optimism." ....... . . Author Unknown

Thank you for the beautiful flowers, Jroot and Iris too. Your gardens are so lovely! My shade garden is looking quite nice this time of year; it is nice to sit under the heartnut tree and look at the peonies and other flowers when the weather gets blazing hot. I commend your very sensible wife, Jroot. 40C sounds really hot for gardening, especially in the sun!

Jroot, you did up your tulips every summer? Please explain the thinking behind this, perhaps (and probably) I have been neglecting my tulips….

-- "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi

I only dig up the tulips where I am going to be planting my 80+ dahlia plants. That is in 4 beds. The tulips in the other beds remain there to fend for themselves.

What I do, is:
1) cut off any spent flowers
2) loosen the soil around the tulip with a potato fork, and gently lift the tulip out,
3) bulb & leaves and a little dirt are placed into a large container in cool spot in the garage or cold cellar, and allowed to die back.
4) In a month or so, the leaves are brittle and come off the bulbs readily.
5) Sort through the bulbs, keeping the good sized ones and compost the tiny small bulbs. Sometimes, I plant them in the other gardens as well.
6) They are ready for planting in the dahlia beds when I pull the dahlias out in the fall.

It is a cycle that has to be done, if I want both flowers in this small bit of land that I have here.

-- jroot ....... Southern Ontario .......... grow zone 5A ...................."Gardening is an exercise in optimism." ....... . . Author Unknown

It’s so nice to see blooms in your gardens.Mine are really far behind this year.I’m gonna do the camera walkabout this morning and see what I can take some pics of so far.Yesterdays heat really helped to open up some of the buds.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

LOL @ the dandelion… that definitely threw me off…

and i have to say, that parrot feather tulip is gorgeous. I’ve never seen one before!

-- ~Many hands make light work~

Very interesting pictures from your garden, Jroot. I specially liked Dandelion, Bleeding Heart, Allium and the Tulip. I feel the titles to the pictures should be close to the picture concerned (just a suggestion). I was shocked to see that the temp was 40C. Is it unusual or normal?
Iris, your picture of the Peony is nice.

Sharad

-- Bagwan-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein

Thank you for explaining, Jroot. : )

-- "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi

the heat plus the humidity was horrible. Hot, humid, and no wind. By 10 AM it was pretty much a “call it a day” temperature.

Sharad, we usually have a few summer days that are that hot. I don’t think I remember one at the end of May before, though.

And Jroot, I look at your photos and think: I should be planting more flowers!! I have hardly anything in bloom.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

GORGEOUS, just gorgeous!!!!!!!! Nothing more to say … that sums it up!!!!

Hubby said the humidity has been just awful … feel for you guys. It is one of the “things” I do NOT miss with being here.

-- "A beautiful garden is a work of heart" --