Eye Candy Friday

It looks like we're in for another rainy, cool day here in Maine, so I thought some flower photos might perk me up. If it's raining where you are, I hope they do the same for you. We need this rain, though, after an extremely dry May, so it's good to see the vegetable garden perking up and the grass turning green again. (The forecast calls for hot, humid weather coming in tomorrow.)

On the left is one of my clematis vines. I planted it last year, and it bore a grand total of one (1) blossom. This year it's trying harder, and I'm pleased with the results. I gave it a good little dose of the composted manure/seaweed that I referred to in an earlier post; this seems to be agreeing with it. It gets full sun each day, and it has plenty of climbing area on the porch railing. 

I have about eight clematis vines scattered around our property. One we transplanted when we moved here almost ten years ago. It's limping along, bless its heart. Two more are limping as well; I know it's because they're planted in a poor area. The others, though, are making me proud. Two are the deep purple Jackmani and two are a soft pink. The one in this photo is a Henryi, if I remember correctly, and it has a touch of dusty rose in the center of its blossom.

I just read a brief article saying wood ashes are good for clematis vines. Need to do more reading on that, because if it's true, then we can certainly provide them with plenty of wood ash from the wood stove (which, by the way, is in use this morning, June 6 for crying out loud, but there's a chill in the air, as I said before).

And here are some of my irises. I love irises, but I wish they wouldn't take it so hard when their blossoms are spent. The tired flowers cave in on themselves and turn all mushy, which seems like too much drama, if you ask me. 

The peonies are about to explode into bloom. You'll be hearing from them soon.