Peony Pretty Peony

How could someone grow up in Iowa and not love peonies, the scent takes me back years, every yard had peony bushes. Mine are starting to open up.

Sunday In Iowa

Another nice weekend in the state of Iowa, is that anything like being in the state of grace?????? Is this heaven, no this is Iowa.

The Baltimore Orioles have been at my grape jelly all weekend, almost standing in line, it has been fun listening to their various songs. There have been several males at the jelly at the same time, I have seen a female at the jelly occasionally. The hummingbirds have been at their feeder as well.

We do need rain! I gave everything a good drink today. I purchased a few more herbs, lemon verbena, lamb's ears, and cinnamon basil. I made some new garden stones but they did not turn out, I had the wrong kind of concrete, it had too many stones in it. We went to Menards to get the kind of concrete that is used for patching, it is much finer. So next weekend, I will be making stones. I also bought some charcoal color concrete dye, I have always used the terra cotta tint.

Clematis

Some of my Clematis are starting to bloom.

Photos from my corner of the world.

The first picture is of a Jack in the Pulpit, the second Bleeding Heart and the last is a Nine Bark bush. The Nine Bark is listed as a shrub that attracts butterflies, as of yet I have not seen a butterfly anywhere near it. The Jack in the Pulpits are finally starting to spread after several years of just sitting there.

Baltimore Oriole

I put out grape jelly and an orange half to attract Baltimore Orioles, it took less than a day for the birds to find it, thankfully they seem to prefer the grape jelly over the oranges, grape jelly is much cheaper than oranges! These pictures are not very good, I hope to get some better shots in the coming days. There is a large basswood tree by the jelly, they congregate there first and then come down for the jelly. I counted four or five in the tree waiting their turn to eat. The orange on a couple of the birds is not nearly as dark as the others, I wonder if they are immature males? I have not seen any females.

A Trip to a Local Nursery

I took these photos while shopping for bedding plants a couple of weeks ago.

Tuesday Tuesday

What a change a day can bring in Iowa, yesterday was in the high 80s and hot hot hot! Today the winds are from the north and it is 57 degrees. While walking around my yard tonight I discovered a nest with 3 baby birds that has fallen to the ground, no doubt from the wind yesterday. My husband says they are robins. Poor babys, they could not have been more than a couple of days old.

Right now I have some pretty little pink dianthus in bloom, they often winter over for me, I always buy a few new ones and plant in with the ones that survived the winter. My Korean Lilac is its usual showy self this year and the Clematis are starting their show.

See the lime green flower pot with a sweet potato vine in it? I was given this pot with some fresh flowers in it as a gift, it is not really to my taste but I decided I should do something with it, I think the pot and the sweet potato vine are a perfect combination, what do you think?