flower, gardening

Danish Flag

Danish Flag 1

Bought the seeds for this poppy simply because it looked a bit unusual. Turned out that it is a beautiful one and surprisingly easy to grow.

The combination of white and read is quite striking. Also the shape of the flower is not regular.

Have been waiting and waiting for it to start blooming and now hoping that the heavy showers don’t ruin it.

Well that was false hope. Two hours after the photo was taken a hailstorm struck and all the blooming Danish flags were gone. Luckily there are still some where the buds are not open so not all hope is lost.

Danish Flag 2

 

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flower, gardening

Aquilegia

Aquilegia11.jpg

Many and plenty! For some reason aquilegias have always been one of my favorites. Cannot have enough of them.

This year I have managed to have five more varieties to bloom and I am happy. After several trials even Nora Barlow has started to bloom for the first time.

The challenge is that I have planted so many varieties that I am not quite sure what do I have.

Well the main thing is that they look beautiful.

Aquilegia22

 

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Rhododendron

Rhododendron

It sure has been a good year for rhododendrons up here in the north. Every plant is blooming. Have seen many wonderful pictures taken by many of my friends.

My father’s apple of his eye – a violet rhododendron which he cares with devotion is also does its best. Last year went without any blooms but this year is totally different.

It has been the only one he has had but in the spring I bought him a pink one. Now we just wait and see if that one makes it through the winter.

rhododendron2

 

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Snowball

Snowball1

Snowballs are here again! The bush seems to be full of white flowers.

Hope that the branches are able to take the extra weight brought in by the racemes. They have promised heavy summer rains and it might be too much to bear.

I have been so happy this one bush that I decided to try to have few more. Trying to have new saplings by bending the branches to the soil and waiting them to grow roots.

Snowball2

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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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