Just pretties

Currently blooming......

Irises:

Dianthus:

Violas (a.k.a. Johnny Jump-Ups):

Million Bells:

And those million bells have already taken a tumble from the deck railing to the ground!! Cats!!! I love these plants but have sure had a time keeping them nice over the last few years. I've had skunks(?) and/or raccoons digging in the soil in the planter so I've had to put it in the garage every night, then last year they were so infested with aphids that I ended up dumping them before the summer was out. (This year I put systemic insecticide in the soil to hopefully prevent that.) And now the cat problem. (I've seen one cat repeatedly walk on the planter to get to the birdbath for a drink. Sure, it could jump up onto the railing in a different place, but...) I can't even put them on the deck railing anymore unless I tie them down, which would be a pain for taking them in every night to protect from the 'coons. Ack. I want them on the railing so I can see them from inside the house. Any suggestions? (No, I will not do anything to the cats! ;) )

And of course we still have a plentiful supply of these lovelies:

At least they've hit their peak and are slowing down some. The last couple lawn mowings have been hard on the eyeballs, though, with all that fuzz getting into them.

I do have some other flowers beginning to bloom. I'll show you later when they're fuller.

Flower stuff

My wildflowers that I planted last year are coming up thick again this year. I really need to get out there and thin them some more, but right now it's VERY muddy. Anyway, I was pleased a few days ago to see the first of them blooming. This is yellow phlox.

I planted some new perennials this year, but so far they look like pretty much nothing, so you'll have to wait awhile to see pics of them. Here's one of several geraniums I set out, though.

This next flower is an apple blossom. There's a single apple tree down in the area where the fawn was. I have no idea what kind it is. We've never gotten apples from it, but I noticed it blossoming this year.

This is wild phlox, also blooming down in the fawn area.

And we all know what this is. There were bzillions of them out there, but the rains washed all the fuzz off, so then we had fields of stems. I finally managed to get them mowed off on Saturday. I think they're past their peak blooming season now... I HOPE!