Hello Sunday Morning

Cherry Blossom Song has bloomed today.
I just love the contrasting orange beard!

Front iris is Gypsy Romance

View of the garden

Elainealope iris. I love the streak of dark
purple on this.

Rustic Royalty is also blooming

The bed I started on the tree is
coming along. Added some more
hosta

Another view of garden.

I've been on a very tight budget
concerning the garden, but now
am able to purchase a few new plants.
This is a newly planted hydrangea - the
one planted 3 years ago in another area
hasn't bloomed in 2 seasons. I
will be moving that one.

Elainealope Iris Blooming In June

I knew Elainealope iris was a rebloomer, but here in North Central
Texas, I've never had one rebloom for me. I guess
the conditions were just right this year. I went
out this morning to look at the garden and this nice
little surprise was waiting for me.

Newberry Festival is such a gorgeous cranberry color and
has very large flowers. It is a late bloomer, which extends
the daylily bloom season.

This is Savannah Debutante, a double daylily, and also a late bloom
variety.  

Here are some photos of other pairings for white
zinnia. This is the first year I've grown Bachelor Buttons.
I can see the beautiful blue color from my kitchen
window. I think it shows up because it is in front of the white zinnia.

You can't see in this photo, (it's not in bloom right now)
but on the right of the zinnias is the Double Delight rose
and on the left is the Red Knockout. 

A returning sunflower. I just love
the rust color on it.

We planted tomatoes again this year. This is by far the largest
one  to date that we have harvested, an heirloom, Boxcar Willie, which
we also grew last year. We decided not to try the
Black Krim again, it just seemed to have a lot of problems
with blossom end rot.

Gypsy Romance Iris And Roses

I paired the Gypsy Romance iris with Evolution Blue Sage-Salvia farinacea.
In my garden here in Texas it is a perennial. It is more
full and colorful than last year. It doesn't
require much care nor does it need deadheading. 

It is also planted in front of Abraham Darby rose.
I just love the color combination.

Blooming onion in the foreground.

New addition to the shade garden -
'Variegated Mariesii' Bigleaf Hydrangea, Lacecap
It is suppose to have silvery blue flowers. 

This is the rose I started from a cutting last fall.
The bush is so small, but the flower is so big.
This is the first time I have tried this. 

Unknown rose paired with Variegated Privet.
 The flowers on the shrub are
in bloom and they smell wonderful. I'm thinking this
rose is Tropicana, not sure. It was here
 when we moved to this house.
I moved it to this location last summer. It is just
 loaded with blooms. The picture below
is a more true to color photo.  

Tropicana???? I guess I'll
never know for sure.

The Queen Elizabeth rose is beautiful. I recommend this
one for your rose garden. 

Up close of Elainealope iris. It looks
as if someone splattered a darker shade of
purple on it.

Elainealope Iris

This is Elainealope iris. I moved it to this spot
last summer. The top flower, before it opened, had
a large worm chewing away at it. I promptly removed
it before it could devour all it. The rose behind it
is William Shakespeare 2000, a David Austin rose.
My sister requested that I put a few iris foliage
tips on my blog. Here goes:
1. Keep your iris bed free of weeds or debris.
2. After the iris has bloomed, cut the bloom stalk
off close to the ground and discard.
3. Healthy leaves should be left alone but the
old, dying or diseased leaves should be cut off
and discarded.
4. In the fall or early winter trim up your iris leaves by
trimming the healthy leaves to about 6" and remove
dead or dying leaves. Your trimmed iris should
look like a fan.

More Iris

Watered the front yard most of the day, cleaned out the front flower
 bed (it had a few weeds growing) and planted yellow nasturtiums
 that will come up in front of the yellow snapdragons.
 Also put alyssum seedings in this bed. Still trying to get
 a bed ready in the back to have a wide variety
 of sunflowers. These won't be the giant ones.
 Since I'm on a limited budget
 for the rest of the
 year, I'm using annual seeds and some perennial
 seeds as fillers until I can get more shrubs and trees.

  Gypsy Romance iris. I love this one because it has a blue
 beard. Up close it is beautiful.

Another shot of Gypsy Romance iris

This is Elainealope iris. I bought it because I have a sister named
 Elaine and she is an iris lover and avid gardener.

Another shot

Superstition iris

Cherry tomatoes

More of Rustic Royalty iris

Superstition iris