Winter in New York seemed colder and longer this year than the past few years. Perhaps because I’m a little older I feel the cold more than before. We did get spoiled by a couple winters of milder than normal temperatures. But spring did come, as it always does. And my garden burst into life, lush and green then flowering like crazy! My bleeding hearts came up as usual and bloomed in elegant white flowers, this year with a clump of Japanese painted ferns from a fellow gardener planted between them. My slender deutzia ‘Nikko’ was COVERED in tiny white flowers, the lilac bushes had hundreds of flower heads giving off a great scent for a week or two in a beautiful shade of dark pink. The butter yellow bearded irises and bold yellow flag irises added to the colors of spring. My husband came home with a flat of pansies to add to it all. He didn’t know what they were specifically, but thought they’d make me happy. And they did!

Who doesn’t like pansies after all. And I have a special peony…a peony given to me by my lifelong friend years ago. A fern leaf peony with dark red open flowers. I’ve never seen it sold locally. Never heard of anyone else I know ever seeing it before. It was the biggest it has ever been with 6 blooms. I judge how ‘early’ or ‘late’ spring comes by when my peonies bloom. Traditionally my numerous bunches of ruffled peonies (I think Festiva Maximus) bloomed the first week of June to coincide with our wedding anniversary. This year they bloomed a couple weeks early and were mostly finished blooming by June 10th. I cut many to bring inside and a bunch of bouquets I gave to some friends. Those of you who grow peonies know you are only one or two rainstorms away from these marvelous blooms being beaten to the ground by rain.

I have already begun deadheading the spent blooms from the peonies and irises (a once a year job for these easy care plants).

Interplanted with the irises (for spring) are butterfly bushes in shades of lavender pink and some new additions last year in deep, dark purple. While the irises were getting ready to bloom I cut the butterfly bushes almost to the ground. In a matter of a few weeks, with a good number of rainy days, they are almost 2’ tall and are developing lots of branches with lots of flowerheads. These bushes will grow to about 3-4’ tall and round and bloom from later in June through the first frost in October. So my front walkway always has something blooming. The flagpole garden now, as I write this in mid June, has spirea bushes in flower. The irises and columbine there will give way any day to oenothera (sundrops) blooming a happy yellow for the next few weeks when shasta daisies will burst into bloom. And if I get around to planting zinnias in front of the sundrops they’ll bloom in later summer.

My shrub border along a drainage ditch has already finished blooming with lilacs, and a few weeping spirea, now blooming with other spirea varieties and a later blooming yellow and burgundy iris that I got from a family member when we built this house almost seven years ago. Summer will arrive soon….

Along that border I will be removing some rhododendrons which have done nothing to earn their keep to be replaced by more butterfly bushes to bloom their little heads off all summer. I’m trying to ‘multiply’ some lambs ears- also given by a friend. It was easy at my other house but is happening rather slowly here – I think because the clay here is so hard to work with. And last year I planted a few clumps of ribbon grass – which may have been a mistake. I like how the bright leaves light up the garden, but If it’s happy here it may take over the area. We’ll see….

Out back, our butterfly bushes are coming along, growing inches each day it seems. My ajuga ‘burgundy glow’ has finished blooming but the leaves continue to spread to make a pink and burgundy carpet. And my Japanese anemone that started as 3 gifted plants from a friend are multiplying nicely. Soon they will fill the area I intended for them to fill. And they’ll bloom late summer into autumn. And catmint has reseeded so I have it in a few choice places.

As all of my garden transforms into summer I fully intend to enjoy it all, hummingbirds and butterflies included, from my back deck and from my pool float with a nice cool sip of something delightful.