Spring week 8- May 4

If you put flowers into the refrigerator they will last for a long time. This last week the garden was put into a refrigerator. I had to get my winter coat out of the storage closet twice this week.
But the sun came out and the bluebells bloomed and most of the same flowers that were here last week are still here.
Many daffodils are still around, with even a few varieties still in bud.
Some of the tulips are stunning.
The gems of the week are the little bearded iris.
Then there are the epimedium- I promised you a picture last week.

Speaking of last week, in the poll last week:
The fan favorite was the Monsella tulip. There is a surprise. I can take an entire roll of Monsella tulips pictures, if there was such a thing as a roll of film anymore.

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So here are pictures. There are four pictures in this week’s poll, that almost all make my toes curl.

1- Shirley- the tulip
I took a picture of a lily last year with just about this kind of blue muted background. That was the sky in the lily picture. This I think is bluebells.












2- Sweetheart- the epimedium
Talk about your fairy flowers.












3- The yellow bearded iris
It looks a little like a purple furry catepillar crawling down the petal.












4- Pulmonaria
It’s pink. It’s blue. It’s purple. And to think that some of these plants volunteer.











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Here are several other bearded iris. They are blooming right along Fairview Street.




























Flower pictures can be taken of individual flowers or they can be taken of the group. Here are groups of Monsella tulips, Anemone blanda, Tulip bakeri Lilac Wonder, and the yellow dwarf bearded iris.














































The entire garden is splashed with bluebells. Some dominate. Some provide background. Here is hosta Sagae with bluebells appointment.











Finally there is this white trillium. Our gardens are collections of not just plants, but also the people who have come to the garden or who have given a plant or two here or there. I got this grand trillium a while back from Diana Paulina, a wonderful person with a wonderful garden of her own in the woods north of Iowa City. Diana and Kevin, her husband, helped me get this blog going last year.






















Diana died this week after a fine struggle with her cancer. She chronicled her last year in a blog about that struggle. It is to be found at http://kevin-and-diana.blogspot.com/
Good-bye Diana. You will always be a part of our lives and our gardens.
Philip