Callirhoe involucrata (first bloom today!)

We just had a spectacular Memorial Day weekend. The family was down for a long weekend and the weather got better every day.  The sunshine and the rain gave a boost to all the flowers that we’ve been growing.  There was a lot of time spent out of doors.  In between gardening activities we played baseball and picked strawberries.

Picking strawberries

My granddaughter and youngest son completely weeded and mulched the blueberries.

Weeding blueberries

Blueberries all weeded and mulched

And while that was happening my eldest and I put up the trough which they had gifted me for Christmas.  I had picked it out at Oliver’s three weeks ago.

Preparing the Large Trough

For a planting mix we used equal parts of Miracle gro, chicken grit, topsoil, and sand.  I hope the plants recognize the care that went into this decision.

Trough Mix

Trough mounted on blocks

The fun part comes when you start to lay out the candidate plants (which I had been storing up for months).

Planting the trough

The finished Large Trough

Here is a completely annotated version of the trough.

Large Trough w- names

It will be interesting to see how many of these alpines survive our sometime brutal summer.

I got so enthused with this process that after the kids left I planted a second, smaller trough that I had brought back from Stonecrop this year.

Preparing the Small Trough

Small Trough in process

Finished Small Trough

And here’s the annotated version of this trough which sits just outside our backdoor for daily inspection.

Small Trough w- names

Well, this gives some idea of what I’ve been up to but I need to share a few special flowers as well.

Persian cornflower

Phlomis russeliana (Sticky Jerusalem sage)

Calochortus venustus

Conandron ramondioides (very tiny but cute)

Bartzella Itoh Peony

Spuria Iris ‘Highland Coral’, the first spuria to bloom this year

And last but not least a wonderful Arisaema.

Arisaema candidissimum (Pink-flowered White Stripe Cobra Lily)