flower, gardening

Amazing Parrot

Amazing Parrot

The slowest ones of the tulips have made as well. Due to the cold weather the blooming season for the tulips has been exceptionally long this year. Normally the tulips are long gone by this time of the summer.

Cool and whimsical weather just seems to continue. Today we have had beautiful sunshine, thunder, rain, hails and temperature is only 12 degrees Celsius.

Luckily the tulips survived the hails. Amazing Parrot is a new variety for me and it made through the winter well. All bulbs bloomed which is quite unusual up here.

Amazing Parrot2

 

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Chive

Chive

Time to harvest. After very many years my chive finally looks good.

I do not know what went wrong but for many years the chives we have looked poor and modest. Maybe they just needed time and the right weather.

I have tried many different varieties and to be honest not sure anymore which was the one that was successful. Main thing is that I now have many flourishing hassocks.

 

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flower, gardening

Violet

 

Violet1

Violet

 

Spring is finally here! Not yet warm but all the snow is now gone. After a long period of darkness the days are getting longer and longer.
It is a bit early but first violets found their way to my balcony. Simply could not resist the temptation when saw them in the store. Had to have something blooming outside.
Cannot wait to get to the summer cottage and start planting. Hope that the winter has not collected too strong toll among the perennial flowers.
Violet2

Violet

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flower, gardening

Cyclamen

cyclamen1

Time to wait and dream! Nothing much you can do in the garden during the next six months. The long wait for the spring has started.

What a perfect excuse to start buying flowers to home!

Picked up a cyclamen from the local grocery store while shopping for the weekend. Just to have something on the table to brighten the day.

Sadly never been good with the cyclamen. Usually only manage to keep them alive a short time inside and live too far up in the north to grow them outside. Pity, because it is such a beautiful flower.

cyclamen2

 

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flower, gardening

Sungold

sungold1

Autumn has been beautiful. Sunny days and only few rainy ones. The nights are already cold but some of the flowers are still standing.

Spent the whole day outside enjoying the colors of October and planting bulbs for the spring. Hope they make it through the winter. Was not that successful last year and have selected hardier varieties this time.

The dwarf sungold sunflowers are blooming. Finally I would say. They made it but only barely.

Usually I have selected the teddy bear as the dwarf variety but could not find the seeds anywhere in the spring. The two varieties are very similar but teddy bear blooms a bit earlier and that makes all the difference up here in the north.

The nights are getting long and dark up here in which means that I have plenty of time to start planning for the next summer.

sungold2

 

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flower, gardening

Twilight Zone

Twilight Zone1

Twilight Zone sunflowers made it and finally started to bloom. This was the first summer I planted them.

A successful experiment even though part of them were lost to moles who seem to be numerous this year.

As a variety it is small and short. A tiny spectacle among larger sunflowers with a bit peculiar look.

Still have some seeds left for the next spring. Need to look for more different varieties to experiment with.

Twilight Zone2

 

 

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Sea Buckthorn

Sea Buckthorn1

My mom got interested in sea buckthorn berries because of the vitamins they have.

Three years ago I bought her four saplings – one male and three ladies. Two of the plants made it but I was not able to tell if the boy was still alive.

Sea buckthorn is so called dioecious plant which means that it has male and female plants. You need both to be able to get the berries. The lady bears the berries and the lad – well just hangs around.

This year we were able to harvest which means that we have a happy couple.

Because of the thorns picking the berries was not a joyride. My hands are still tender and achy but got the berries from the spiky lady.

Sea Buckthorn2

 

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Verdi Glory

Verdi Glory1

My Verdi Glory finally started to bloom in the balcony. It took from the dahlia three months to start the show but it has finally started.

This summer has not been a good one for dahlias. Just the opposite of the last summer that made all the dahlias thrive. At least all mine seem to suffer from various matters like heavy rain fall, mold and pests.

Well maybe next year will be better. Must have few dahlias growing.

Verdi Glory2

 

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flower, gardening

Mallow

Mallow1

It is always nice to try something new in the garden but as important is to have something that you can count on. A flower that will not fail you no matter the weather.

Mallow has been there for decades and each summer it blooms with beautiful pink flowers. The only thing you need to do is to support the long stems against the strong rain showers that will so easily bend them.

I guess I should try another color since there are others available. Something to consider next spring.

Mallow2

 

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