Okay... Napa season is over....

... and by that I mean no more whining about the weather!

Last year's Siberians

We had a glorious day, in the 80's! A single degree away from an all time high set in 1967. I spent the day hurting myself in my yard. It was worth it though. We had lots of rain the last couple days and everything has turned bright green seemingly overnight!

We did have a few tremendous thunderstorms. One dropped hail the size of marbles and up to quarters! That storm worried me some. Here in the Not-So-Great-White-North, hail is often followed up with tornadoes. I watch those storms carefully. We've had our fair share of twisters over the years.

I'm now anxiously awaiting the birth of the Alaskan flower seeds I brought back with me! I put them in last fall, and will have to make sure when they start popping up to be careful with my weeding! I don't do gardening 'rows' I do 'areas' so any weeds that shoot up will get to live long enough for me to determine if it's a new flower! HA!

I have some started in containers. Large, random container gardening is very popular around here. I have an old wash tub that was my Grandma's, some old enamelware dish pans, vintage pots and such. I also thought it would be a good way for me to start the new flowers, some I'll leave in the container until they're strong enough for transplanting, the others I'll leave in if I like the way they look.

There are a couple I want to transplant right next to my house because they get tall. It will make for a nice display of color against the dove gray siding of my house. Those seeds are assorted Iceland Poppies, so I don't know what color they'll be, but my Oriental lilies are assorted too and I love the variations of colors.


I'm also anxious to see how the wild irises look near my Siberian irises I had for years. (Pictured above) The wild ones I saw in Alaska seemed quite a bit lighter in color. The Siberians are very dark purple. I hope the new ones grow well. I'm sure there won't be any flowering this summer but I may get a surprise.

I'm hoping the Arctic Lupine flourish as well. I think they are so pretty! I also have Forget-Me-Nots, Wild Roses, Wild Columbine and Shooting Stars. So if any of them flower this summer I'll be very happy. I love flowers and I love that these can be grown here!

Here's hoping for a successful summer of flowers!