weekly bloom: interregnum

It's an odd time in the garden right now. Everything is very much growing — no massive die-offs yet! — but we're in that in-between time where the tulips are spent and nothing else is quite ready to take over. There are a few days like this every so often — gardening being far from an exact science.

The garden, this week:

 The theme this week is "anticipation." I have no actual full-throated blooms to show you. The roses don't bloom until June-time, and the coneflowers until the height of summer. The poppies aren't here yet. But there are some indications that a flower show is coming. The columbines are the furthest along:


I remember there were masses of them last year, in the back yard, and I was planning to some of them to the front yard come spring. Well, they forestalled me. I'm actually not entirely sure how. The front and back yards are not physically connected by any strip of soil.


I really think I am going to get a peony this year. Just one. But that's more than I've gotten any other year, so far.

You'll have to look closely, but there are several flower buds in this Oriental poppy:


 And finally, the irises are getting ready for their debut:


The other thing that I did last week, which I forgot to write about (or take pictures of), is put invasives into the front part of the garden. Yes, I planted lilies-of-the-valley. I do love them (despite their tenacity), and the front garden is fairly isolated — they couldn't go far even if they tried (and I have no doubt that they will try). They can duke it out with the periwinkle. I figure, by the time all of the groundcover get established, I will never have to weed again.