Gardens Are Soaking Up Sun’s Warmth

The saying goes: Be careful what you ask for, you might get it. Well, we asked for summer and sure enough, it seems to be here. It looks like spring will have to be on next year’s agenda.

Though the tulips and magnolias may be complaining a bit over this excessive heat, most flowers are basking in it. Fruit trees, loaded with blossoms, promise us bumper crops. Even the slow-to-awaken hostas are coming out of hibernation. The only pessimists in my garden are the mulberry and sweet gum trees. They refuse to break bud until all the snow is off Mount Spokane.

So what’s bloomin’? Here are a few beauties I found while strolling through my garden:

Lilac blossoms of white, lavender and purple fill the air with a sweet aroma. If you pick blossoms for indoor bouquets, like I do, splay the ends of the stems with a sharp knife and set the blossoms in tepid water. The fragrant flowers will last for days.

Also adding to the incredible fragrance of the garden are Burkwood and Korean spice viburnums. These 4- to 6-foot shrubs bear clusters of star-like flowers that smell of jasmine.

The primrose have been exceptionally beautiful this spring. After a long bloom time, the lavender balls of the drumstick primula (P. denticulata) are finally beginning to fade. However, cowslip (P.veris) is just beginning its showy display. Cowslip is easily identified by its soft yellow tubular flowers with orange patches in the throat. It has propagated so profusely that after it’s finished blooming, I’ll have to divide and move a few of its offspring. One of my favorite primula is the double flowering P.V. Lilian Harvey. Its flowers resemble tiny cabbage roses.

It only seems to take a few warm days and the groundcovers are on the move. Creeping phlox, in colors of lavender, pale pink and rose cascade over the rock walls. One variety that is particularly charming is Candy Stripe subulata which grows about 4 inches tall with white flowers striped in pink.

Sweet woodruff, with it delicate, white flowers and sweet fragrance, is finally blanketing the ground under the pines and around the feet of the rhododendrons.

The shade garden is also coming alive with hosta, astilbe ferns and hydrangea. Tucked among them and toward the back of the bed is Solomon Seal (polygonatum). This is such an unusual flowering plant. It can grow anywhere from 2 to 7 feet tall with stately, arched stems bearing alternating leaves. All along the arch are dangling white tubular flowers. It creates a stunning show.

Jacob’s Ladder (polemonium) is one of my favorites. Perhaps it has to do with its fern-like leaves and delicate clusters of blue cup-and-saucer shaped flowers. Because it has a tendency to self-seed, it has made itself at home in many of the shadier areas of the garden - sort of like the blue and pink forget-me-nots. It is quite lovely growing at the base of the pines, dogwoods and maples.

Adding a bit more blue to the garden (really light lavender) are lungwort (pulmonaria) and catmint (nepeta). Pulmonaria Mrs. Moon produces delicate pink buds that change into light blue flower bells atop white spotted green leaves. It started blooming more than a month ago, and is still blooming. Nepeta produces soft gray-green leaves and lavender-blue tubular flowers in 1 1/2- to 2-foot round clumps. Both of these plants are self-seeders and are easily divided. Pulmonaria prefers a bit of shade while nepeta enjoys the sun.

As the lenten rose (helleborus orientalis) fades from bloom, snowdrop (anemone sylvestris) scoots in from behind. This lovely large, white single flower sits on erect stems above beautiful cut foliage. It is especially handsome against the dark background of evergreens.

Every day something new seems to burst into bloom. As the yellow daisy-like leopard’s bane, bleeding hearts and the charming pasque flowers fade, new ones take their place - flowering quince, rock daphne, geum, imperial lily, pink panda strawberry and fernleaf peonies. And following them will be dozens of different beauties. What an exciting world, and it’s right outside my kitchen door.

Note: The Inland Empire Garden Club will hold its annual plant sale - annuals, perennials, herbs and containers - Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 604 W. 29th, just north of Comstock Park.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Review