Time to enjoy something from the garden. Potatoes are easy to grow and harvest.
When it comes to taste Annabelle (Solanum tuberosum ‘Annabelle’) is one of my favorites.
Just had few potatoes in the fridge that were there too long in the spring and decided to plant them to the garden. Now enjoying a fine meal.
Prunotto (Lilium ‘Prunotto’) is the variety that has done best up here in the north for the past few years.
It is blooming beautifully and just love the bright red color it has.
The Scarlet Lily Beetle (Lilioceris lilii) has given me headaches during the past few years. Luckily I do not yet have it in the summer cottage but it has managed to destroy half of the lilies in my mom’s garden
A beautiful beetle but so hard to get rid of and very harmful for the lilies.
Navona (Lilium ‘Navona’) has been a reliable bloomer over the years. It has beautiful large white blooms.
For some reason it has not been a good year for it. I have only few left in the garden and a bit afraid that I am going to loose this variety.
Hopefully it will do better next summer.
Most of the lilies (Lilium) are at their best at the moment up here in the north. Love the bright colors they bring to the flowerbeds.
Have bought so many varieties that not quite sure which one is which anymore. The main thing though is that they bloom nicely year after year.
For some reason all the lilies grew quite short this summer. Do not know why but the difference to the previous year is considerable.
I still have few pictures in my phone from the spring. Daffodils are now gone and we need to wait the whole year to see them again.
Tahiti (Narcissus ‘Tahiti’) bloomed beautifully in May and managed to take a photo when they were at their best.
Summer has finally arrived to the north. After a cool May we have had quite nice weather up here in the north for change.
I did not even remember planting few Princess Irene tulips (Tulipa ‘Princess Irene’) by the lake.
The color of this variety is quite unique and beautiful. Makes me want to have more of them in the future.
The Princess Irene is quite short Triumph tulip and likes full sun and well drained soil.
Last autumn I ordered tulips from the Netherlands. Helmar (Tulipa ‘Helmar’) was one of those varieties.
Helmar is a very distinctive Triumph tulip with wine red flames on a yellow base resembling the historic tulips painted during the golden age and that is why the group is also known as the Rembrandt tulips.
The bulbs overwintered well and are now starting their show. Was able to spend the weekend in the summer cottage to see the start but unfortunately will miss the end of the show this year.
It has been cool spring up here in the north and daffodils are still at their best. The late spring means that the tulip season is just about to begin.
The Strikes (Narcissus ‘strike’) have enjoyed the coldness and are blooming by the lake.
I do not have many vacation days this summer which has meant way less plants than normally. The simple reason is that I am not here to water them. Luckily the perennials are there to brighten the flowerbeds.
It is always a bit tricky to grow Dahlias (Dahlia) up here in the north. They would need a longer summer to bloom well.
This year I decided to buy ready grown plants instead of trying to grow them by myself. At least this way I am able to be sure that I can see the blooms.
Found two that I liked from the store and brought them to the summer cottage. They are very different from each other but were the ones that caught my eye.
Siberian Squills (Scilla siberica) are one of my favorite spring flowers.
The color they have is simply striking and they are so easy to grow. They usually spread and form a beautiful blooming blanket.
Still waiting the warmer weather up here in the north. Today the weather has been cool and we even got some snow flakes from the sky.
Happy Mother’s Day day to all moms! It is celebrated up here on the second Sunday of May each year.
Gardening in the North 