Hi there, and welcome to my blog! Although I have not posted here in a while, I have indeed been working in my garden. So much has been growing! Honestly, I didn’t know what to write about first since there’s been so much going on in the garden. I therefore thought it would be fun to join in on The Propagator‘s meme of ‘Six on Saturday’, to get me back into the groove. You can check out lots of ‘Six on Saturday’ posts at The Propagator’s site, where we all list our links in the comments. I’ll be screeching in to the end of it at this late stage of the day! Here are my six:
- Pink lupine. This huge bunch (almost looking like a clump) of pink and yellow flowers has provided the most lovely display for a number of weeks. It is just fabulous, and I’m so happy with it. This contrasts with a pink and white variety, which I originally preferred because of the coloring, but was lack luster with its blooming.
2. Plum colored bearded iris: Benton Storrington. I transplanted this bearded iris late this past fall, in a new bed that was created after planting some birch trees. I wasn’t sure how they’d do, given how late in the year it was. Thankfully, just about every plant flowered and bloomed. They are really quite pretty!
3. Siberian Iris: Shirley Pope. This sweet little flower joined our garden way back in 2017. Unfortunately, it was in a bed that had very poor quality soil (the lavender does great in there). It has never bloomed until this year! What a beauty it is. Worth the wait.
4. Cream colored David Austin Roses: Lichfield Angel. I love roses. Sure what’s not to love? These in particular have centers that remind me of swirled piped icing on cupcakes! They are super ‘ruffly’ with a seemingly endless amount of petals. I believe my area has ideal conditions for black spot, though, and this rose would suffer from it. I do my best with my milk/water combination spraying, which is fine by me. They are so beautiful that I think they are worth it.
5. Pink Paeonia lactiflora: Sea Shell. Last year during lockdown, through one of my retail therapy sessions (almost all of which were garden related, by the way), this gorgeous peony joined my garden from Leamore nursery. It is pink, delicate and simply lovely. Funny enough, I had to move it this past spring, and it still bloomed!
6. Last, but not least, coming in at number six, are my six chickens! The big news is that three young hens have joined us over the past month. They are Daisybell, Maran, and Bluebelle varieties, and are just lovely. They join my three Rhode Island Red (hybrids), who are really not happy about the newcomers. They were separated by a fence for a week, but still the pecking order has to be established. That is still ongoing, unfortunately. I’m hopeful that they will all get along well one day soon!
I hope you have enjoyed my ‘Six on Saturday’! It was a great way to jump back into blogging again! Have a lovely week!
In Peace,
Dana
Mom in the Garden 
Beautiful pics! I love your lupines … which I cannot grow because it’s super humid here and the snails we get love lupines too much. It’s so nice to be able to enjoy seeing everyone else’s 🙂
Dana, It is such a pleasure to see these beautiful flowers of your garden. Also, the hens transmit so much life. You always do a great job. Thank you, my friend!
Hi Fabio, I’m so glad you enjoy seeing my garden and chickens as much as I enjoy sharing them! You are very kind. 🙂 Dana
The Benton iris is very striking.
I was hoping you’d see it, Paddy! Striking and hardy to thrive in my garden 😉
It’s doing extremely well with you.
Lovely stuff 🙂
Thank you Megan! 🙂
There’s no two ways about it, I’m going to have to find a way to grow lupins successfully, without just feeding our overfed slug population. And is there such a thing as a bad peony, yours is another beauty.
Hi Jim, the slugs are in HUGE supply this year! I’ve never seen as many. The bottom of my lupines do have slug eaten leaves, but thankfully the flowers were fine. They did eat some of my iris this year, which has never happened before! I literally picked them off in the late evening (and threw them over the hedge) for a few weeks when they were really bad. Thanks so much for your kind compliments!
Beautiful iris and what a generous clump of lupins.
Thank you so much! I have to say that I’m a little surprised with how hardy that Iris is (based on how it grows all around my garden)! The plum color is a nice alternative to purple. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Your lupins are lovely. They grow wild in New England and were always a treat when you would see large fields of them. Thanks for the memories…nice to see your post.
Hi Karen, How nice to have such a lovely memory of lupins! They may grow wild where you are from but they aren’t even fully hardy in my own yard, as I had some pretty yellow ones in another area that didn’t come up this year!
On a separate note – I think of you quite often as your Brazilian bean stew (I don’t think you called it that) is on our menu rotation! It’s so nice to have something different, delicious and easy to make! 😉