Rose of Sharon has begun to bloom and will continue through the rest of the season. These flowers need hot weather to encourage blossoms, and we’ve certainly had that lately. I have purple and white varieties and occasionally get some that are sort of salmon colored, obviously the result of cross pollination. So far, only the single-petal varieties have flowers but the double-petalled bush has lots of buds and will no doubt come into bloom soon.
This reliable perennial spreads rapidly — too rapidly some say — to form an impressive drift of flowers. This started as a single plant just a few years ago and I’ve had to pull out and discard flowers each year to limit the size of the clump. The flowers open from the base to the tip, bending over as they go; soon I’ll have a virtual gaggle of loosestrife.
An extremely hardy pond plant, thalia increases in size each year, particularly if it’s given lots of sun. I pulled out about 2/3 of this plant at the end of last summer, but that barely slowed down its growth.
This variety emerges in Spring with purple leaves that gradually fade to green as flower buds form, although the stems keep their dark color.
Privets are nearly bullet-proof, not bothered by most bugs, poor soil, drought, etc. They’re often used to form hedges and clipped to round or square shapes, which seems a shame to me because left to their own devises they have a graceful, arching growth pattern. Owners of densely clipped privets often miss out on the flowers, which in some varieties have a clean, almost lilac aroma. This standard green privet is nearly 15′ tall, which makes it useful as a screen of the neighbor’s yard and as a nice backdrop for an otherwise ordinary rose bush.
A few golden privets in the front garden are primarily used to set off the red azaleas (no longer in bloom) but are striking in their own right.
The flowers are not obvious, being the same color as the leaves, but are worth a close look.
This white clematis, which lives by the back garden gate, is just beginning to bloom and has enough buds to promise a long blooming season to come.
For success with clematis, the old saying is to ‘keep their heads warm and their feet cool’. This one gets morning and mid-day sun while the roots are protected from overheating by an underplanting of sedum.
This row of variegated weigela, which runs along the East side of the house, suffered a little damage in last winter’s snow storms, but not enough to keep it from spilling over so far as to completely cover the walk leading up to the back garden gate. It’s going to need some serious pruning as soon as it’s finished flowering, but the variations in leaf colors will make it attractive even without flowers.
This red honeysuckle vine is one of my favorite late-Spring flowers. The hummingbirds like it, too. Given the right amount of sunlight, it will continue blooming for the rest of the year, although perhaps not as exuberantly as the first blooms in May.
The white honeysuckle bush is nice, too, although it’s not one of my favorites because the flowers last only a day or two before turning a sort of dirty yellow color and the plant tends to send up volunteers everywhere so it’s a little hard to control. I admit, though, that it does have a nicer fragrance than the colored varieties.
I’ve been away for several days attending the college graduation of my eldest grandson Nathan (felt so proud even though he did all the work and I was merely a spectator). California is great but I’m glad to be home, too. While I was away, my other grandson Jacob took care of my house and my dog, Charlie, and tried to keep up with photos of what’s new in the garden. As you can see, the bearded iris alone kept him pretty busy.
I’ll try to post some of the other great flower pics Jacob took as soon as I get unpacked and have time to catch my breath. (Because there are so many pictures, try clicking on the first one so you can run through the entire gallery.)
There are two kiwi vines, one growing on each side of the pergola. They’ve been here for at least six years and, although one was tagged male and the other female (necessary to produce fruit), fruits never have gotten larger than the size of small olives. This could be the result of mis-tagging at the garden center, unfortunately a not uncommon problem. The flowers are pretty but a little hard to see because they grow on the bottom sides of the leaves. 
Donna's Garden 