flowers

Jul

2019

Daylilies, summer 2019

Daylilies 2019. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

I love daylilies and have three kinds of them in the garden. They originally came from a flowerbed in the housing community that were re-made and we had the free take of whatever grew there before the remake. So I got these three kinds of daylilies. They are well established where they grow now in my garden. When it rains they get a “waterfall” from the roof right down on them. Which they actually love. Apart from water I feed them nothing else. Sometimes in the spring might add some fresh soil on them. In the winter they totally disappear and start new again when spring arrives. Each flower blooms only one day. But, as there are several buds on one stem, they have a long blooming-time. When wilted, I cut off the wilted flowers. When the leaves get yellow, I take off those too.

Here some pictures of this years daylilies which started blooming jus a little over a week ago.

Daylilies 2019-04-22. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylilies 2019-06-27. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Dayliles 2019-07-07. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylilies 2019-07-17. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylily 2019-07-21. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylily. The dark-red one. 2019-07-24. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylily. The red-yellow one. 2019-07-24. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylily, the peach colored one. 2019-07-24. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylilies. The peach-colored ones. 2019-07-26. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylilies. The dark red ones. 2019-07-26. Phopto: ©nini.tjader.2019

Daylilies. All of them. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Aug

2017

Summer flowers

Summer flowers. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

There are plenty of summer flowers in our garden. They come and go over the summer season. Some come in early spring, early summer, or in the middle of the summer or, like now towards the late summer. In most cases I let them run wild and grow where they like to grow. Except for those planted in the flower beds, but those are not covered here. Some are planted from seeds over the years. Others the birds have brought, like the smaller red and orange poppies and the digitalis. Yet others have spread by themselves over time.

I love the summer flowers. They bring color to the garden. I have plenty of different flowers and I think they now follow each other in time for blooming in a good way. It has taken a couple of years to get to that. The bumble-bees and the bees love our garden and there is no shortage of either.

This has been a rather odd summer as it has been extremely dry. In many parts of Sweden watering the garden has been forbidden for that reason. Not in my area though we have been asked to use watering in the garden sparingly. That is clearly seen on the lawns which are more brown than green. Watering the lawns has not been prio number one. Watering the flowers and shrubs and so has been more important. The dry conditions have also caused some of the flowers to bloom earlier than usual, and some later than usual. Some have become taller than usual and others smaller than usual. All have had shorter blooming seasons than previous years.

Summer flowers in the garden. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

Below is a gallery of some of the summer flowers in no particular order.
A rather wild garden… Enjoy.

Reload page to see them in a different order. Dubbel-click an image to see a larger version. All pictures are ©nini.tjader.2017 and shot by me.

Jul

2016

More garden and greenery

Entrance to the outside place. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

To continue the report from the current state of the garden and greenery, I’ll show you some other plants and spots.

Astilbe and echinacea on the outside. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

In the flowerbed along my patio there are two white astilbes and one pink. I bought their bulbs on a garden fair years ago. They were supposed to be one white, one pink, one dark red… Well. When they came up there was no red one. Instead there were two white ones. They have grown fine over the years, even though there is nothing in spring and I always wonder if they will come up again or not.

White astilbe. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

Pink astile. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

After the astilbe, on the way to the backside garden, there are echinacea. White and pink. They are still on their way up and not blooming just yet.

Echinacea. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

They are coming fast now. I think they are a couple of weeks earlier this year than last.

hollyhock, alcearosea, stockros, garden, greenery

Hollyhock, alcea rosea. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

One of the hollyhocks on the corner of this flowerbed has just started to open its flowers. The bumble bees love them Yesterday I saw three bumblebees and one bee in one of the flowers at the same time. I save their seeds every year and spread them in the flowerbed. First year they don’t bloom, next year they do. Then they die.

Hollyhock, alcea rosea. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

I presently have two different hollyhocks. One is pinkish-yellow, the other one a strong cerise.

Hollyhock and nasturtium. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

Along the noise-preventing fence, I’ve put lots of seeds from last years nasturtium in to the earth, where it accompanies one large hollyhock. I love the effect against the red fence.

Digitalis for next year. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Last year I had a very tall digitalis in the flowerbed outside the patio. I spread its seeds along the fence and in the flowerbed. I had forgotten that I did so and was very surprised when the above leaves started to appear here and there. With the help of a garden group on Facebook found out it was digitalis. So next year the flowers will appear. It was white and 1.80 meters high.

Part of the front garden. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

When you continue you come to the front garden. There are flowerbeds and there are bushes and it is a bit wild. I am not a big fan of very strict and orderly designed gardens. I prefer a bit of ad hoc plantations and love it to look natural.

Daylily 2016-07-19 Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

Buds on daylily. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

I’ve got a few daylilies there, but only one flower on one of the plants. The daylily plants are bigger than ever this year, now that no tree is shading them any longer. I would have liked some more flowers though.

Poppies and aquilegia. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Two other wild flowers that keep on spreading are the small red (and orange) poppies and the aquilegia vulgaris. The latter is whitish-pinkish when it blooms. I thought it had wandered on into the black currant bushes (we have two here) and left that spot and the flowerbed behind it, but it appears I was wrong. The plants just came up there again and probably blooms only next year. The ones among the black currant bushes bloomed quite early in the summer.

Red yarrow Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

In this area I also have a red yarrow. I probably put its eeds there a couple of years ago. I know I tried to grow them then and didn’t really succeed. Or that’s what I thought. They started to appear a couple of years later, just about everywhere, to my surprise. But this is the only red one at the moment.

Giant verbena Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

Just outside the entrance to the patio I have a large, black container with giant verbena and a small white verbena at its feet. The container has holes in the bottom so water can pass through. I bought the giant verbena on the internet on a sale. The plants where almost white and very crocked when they arrive in the mail. They’ve had problems with mold on the leaves for a while, but I think they’re fine now Now they are dark green as they should and have grown a lot. The flowers just appeared, which the bumblebees and the butterflies love.

Part of the wild garden. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Above you see part of one of the black currant bushes, poppies, aquilegia and the bird-bath. There are also some wild flowers in front of them all.

Black currants with daisies. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Instead of the bluebells – which are finished for the season – there are now daisies in the black currant bushes. They are soon finished too. I remove both the bluewbells and the daisies every year when they have finished blooming, but they come back the next year, every year…

Part of the garden Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

The above is part of the garden. To the left are the raspberry-bushes. Agreed, they are not good-looking, but we got a lot of raspberries this year. In the middle the really wild flowerbed with a the new bush behind it plus the food-station for the birds.

The grass is really not green this year. It is more yellow than green. It has been too dry and warm this summer for it to become green. Which also means less moving. The small “lawn” we created in the autumn 2010 by digging up lots of thorny rose-bushes – the kind that spread by their roots, beach roses – from this area and then put grass seeds into the earth. In the spring 2011 the “lawn” started to come up. No point in watering it. It will come back if it starts raining. We give water to the flowerbeds and the bushes though.

Bushes. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Just outside my kitchen windows, we have three bushes. Two of them, the one to the left and the spirea in the middle, I got for free by moving them to this location. They have settled well and are getting big now. The one to the left have large, white flower plumes. It wilts down to nothing during winter and the spot there is empty then. It start over in the spring and it is always a surprise how large it will get the next year.

The bush in the middle is a regular spirea that came from one of the flowerbeds around the corner of the house, where the housing-community exchanged the spireas for other bushes. The bush to the right is a pink, hanging lilac, which we bought the other year to exchange another bush that was removed when the walls of the house were painted. It hasn’t bloomed yet though… Next year?

Below another glimpse of the garden as it looks just now. It isn’t large, but there is a lot in it… Will show you the rest another time.

The garden Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

Oct

2015

Plants and Flowers

Plants and flowers. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

The above is from my kitchen. The plants and flowers are taking over my kitchen windows this time of the year. And part of the table on and off.

Plants and flowers in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I normally do not cut off flowers either from the garden or from plants. I usually think they look the best where they grow and not cut off.

Plants and flowers in the kitchen. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

This time of the year though it is necessary sometimes to cut off flowers. It is getting cold outside (-1C° this morning) and the pelargonias die when the temperature drops to under 0C°.

Their mother plants had to be cut off when moved inside as they were too tall and wide to get placed on the window sill in the livingroom. Some of the cuttings have been planted into soil and with a bit of luck they might root themselves and survice. I doubt the cuttings with the flowers will sprout roots, but you never know… I know you are supposed to cut off all flowers of pelargonias if you want them to get roots.

Plants and flowers in the kitchen. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015

I’ve just made space for the flowers in the window instead of on the table (by cutting off all basil leaves from the basil plant and freezing the leaves and thereby getting rid of one pot in the window).

To the right of the pelargonia flowers (the pelargonia is called “Mårbacka”) is my huge hanging Australian Violet, which also has been moved inside. That one too does not survive in frosty weather. It is full of flowers. If it survives the winter indoors? We will see. It started its life as an indoor plant. If I get company I have to temporarily move the violet away from the window where it gets the most light as one of the chairs at the table cannot be used if it is there…

Below the present state of parts of my kitchen windows.

Plants in the kitchenwindows. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Oct

2014

Autumn garden

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Autumn is fast taking over the garden. Flowers die or have to be removed. Colors shift. Here some glimpses.

Giant verbena

Tagetes

Vietnamese Basil

Hollyhock

Astilbe

Mangold

Herbs

May

2014

Orchid time

Not only does the November cactus bloom and the other old cactus, and all three Saint Paulas (white, blue and lilac), now also all the orchids are blooming. Their flowers always fascinate me. Look deep inside them…

Or is the simple cactus flower more beautiful?

Nbr 67/100

Apr

2014

A Gentlemans Garden

We’ve had the most glorious summer weather the last couple of days. Today I went to visit a garden called “A Gentlemans Garden” here in Tumba where I live. It is open to the public about six times during the season. Entrance fee usually going to the Red Cross.

It is not that common in Sweden that people open up their gardens to the public to come visit. I know they do it in the U.K. but here it is unusual. Was tipped about it by my neighbor. I think I will go back again in June or July to see how it looks then when the spring flowers have been exchanged for whatever grows in the summer.

Most of the flowers were white, with a few hyacinths in blue and also a few groups of anemone blanda in blue. In the small dam there were yellow flowers. And at places there were groups of low yellow and white tulips. The scent from the hundreds of hyacinths were almost too much in the sunshine. The man owning the garden said he plants about 300 hyacinths every autumn. That’s a lot of hyacinths… It was a nice visit and definitely worth the SEK25 to the Red Cross for the entrance. In the background music pieces by Mozart were played. Very fitting. They also had a small coffeeshop at the back of the garden, lots of benches to sit and look at the flowers and cards for sale.