Bloom Update

A number of somewhat sizeable projects in the garden are keeping me really busy lately. I'll reveal those as I complete each one, but I wanted to share a few photos of what's happening in the garden right now.

First is the surprise of my Clematis 'Avant Garde', which grows 9-10 feet tall. It has small reddish-pink flowers with a burst of white anthers in the center. I was interested in this Clematis when I lived in Orlando, but I didn't want to risk killing it in the Florida heat. So when Brushwood Nursery sent me an email announcing a sale just one month before we moved to Georgia, I considered it a sign that this plant should end up in my new garden. When it arrived, I planted it promptly, and then I waited until the next season to see those precious little flowers. Well, precious and little described the flowers exactly. They were tiny and bore no resemblance to what I had seen in photos. I intended to take a photo and send it to the folks at Brushwood to ask if they knew what it actually was, but I got busy, as I so often do, and I forgot about it.

Last week, I walked past the trellis that 'Avant Garde' (or "whatever it is," as I had begun calling it) and found that it had transformed itself into the very Clematis whose photos had first captured my attention. I don't know what caused the insignificant flowers the year before, but I'm so thrilled with the change.

Here she is, blooming like mad

The flowers are no more than 2" across

In the beds surrounding the front porch, many plants are beginning to put on buds, but a few are already beginning to flower. One is my beautiful red lily, which is putting on double the buds it did last year. 

What a stunner

This morning, as soon as I woke up, I went outside to check on the lily and one of my David Austin roses, a climber called 'Graham Thomas'. He has had buds on for about a week now, so I've been monitoring their progress rather closely. Two of the buds had started to open this morning. Those are some gorgeous flowers.

He has a lovely, musky scent

I haven't yet built the trellis for Graham and the Clematis 'Rebecca' that is growing with him, so Graham has been lolling all over the place. The trellis is on my list of projects to complete this week, but I sort of enjoyed seeing the rich yellow roses peeking from behind the lily. 

'Graham Thomas' is vying for attention

I have a feeling that it's going to be an amazing summer in the garden.