Spent the morning walking around and admiring the tulips.
Darwin Reds are blooming well but if I am completely honest I expected them to be brighter red instead of having a shade of pink.
It is going to be a rainy day but that makes my day a bit easier. No watering the plants today.
After several beautiful days the winter decided to come back. The temperature is below the freezing point and we got some snow during the night.
Stonecrops are doing fine though. Even with the low temperatures they have managed to start the season.
Stonecrops are one of those plants which look interesting the whole summer. Light green during the spring and red long lasting blooms during the autumn.
It has been sunny and blue skies for several days up here in the north. We even went over 20 Celsius degrees which is warm for this time of the year.
I cannot even remember when I have had a begonia in my balcony. Just love the shiny colors that have been bred so bright during the years.
When I saw this one simply needed to have it. Hope that I didn’t buy it too early. There still will be cold nights ahead and cannot even remember how cold tolerant begonias are.
The late lilies are starting to bloom.
The Red Flavour has done well up here in the north and bloomed faithfully over the years.
This year I am experimenting a new color and hopefully it will do as well as the red.
It has taken years but now I have lilies in each and every flowerbed that can survive the harsh coldness.
Cavoli started to bloom and seems to have long lasting blooms which always makes me happy.
I usually do not have lilies with short stems but this year I made an exception. Bought three varieties to the front of one of the flowerbeds.
Let’s see how these cope with the winter and low temperatures.
This is the first year I have red California Poppies growing. Only have had the orange color before.
I was a bit surprised that they turn more to orange when blooming longer. For some reason I was expecting them to stay red. You learn new things every day.
Well, I like them anyway. The color is so strong and vigorous.
First cosmos flowers are starting to bloom. The ones I have gotten from my mom always go first. The others follow a month later in August.
I have been trying to find an early blooming variety with no luck. Simply because the summers are so short up here in the north.
This far I have not had any luck. My luck might change this year. A new variety is already making buds. We will see.
If I have no success then I just give up and continue with the one from mom. One variety is enough if it is a good one like I now have.
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.
Gardening in the North 