Summer in my garden - peonies

Finally, I can write a post about peonies - all of them are blooming now, also the latest one - "Bowl of Beauty", which showed its first opened bloom 3 days ago. Last year - here - I have written down all the peonies I have, only 1 is missing which I bought later when the post was done. It's called "Mother's Choice" and will certainly be one of the highlights among my peonies once it will bloom well (may take some more years; this year it only shows leaves and no blossoms at all).
This summer is surely a summer of peonies - all of them have SO MANY blossoms. I guess the snowy winter really suited for them.
The first peony which opens in my garden, is "Rubra Plena", a deep red very early peony. This year, it showed its first blossoms in June 3:

The two next peonies in full blooms were "Festiva Maxima" and "Sorbet":

I got "Sorbet" accidently - I bought a deep red peony "Peter Brandt" from "Hansplant", but when it showed its blossoms a few years later, it was not "Peter Brandt", but "Sorbet". I was a bit disappointed, because I wanted a nice assortment of red and white (Festiva Maxima), but now I'm used to it. However, I am still thinking of have a red peony in this flower bed as well.

"Sorbet":

"Festiva Maxima":

I have another "Festiva Maxima" together with "Edulis Superba" (pink one, which you see in the following photo), "Karl Rosenfield" (it is later, so in this photo, it doesn't bloom yet) and "Sarah Bernhardt".

"Edulis Superba":

My peony "Boule de Neige" which is white, but has a yellow heart and some red stripes, is still small, but her blossoms are already quite lovely:

"Karl Rosenfield" is indeed a catchy peony - with its deep red colour and yellow heart, it looks just beautiful. Its blossoms are not very heavy, so it doesn't bend to the ground like many other peonies do.

"Karl Rosenfield":

It has both double and half-double blossoms, I do not know why it's so - whether the plant is still too young and the half-double blossoms are a "fault" or it is just it's speciality.

In this photo, there are 4 different peonies together, but from distance, it's hard to distinguish them, except "Karl Rosenfield" which is much darker than other 3.

"Sarah Bernhard" - so beautiful... I have 2 of them, but one doesn't show blossoms, yet.

The latest bloomer among peonies in my garden is "Bowl of beauty". I find it more special than others, because it's Japanese-blossom type peony and therefore different. I like it a lot:

I have 2 plants of them, the second one started to bloom just this year. I do not know what to think, because the blossoms are like that:

Doesn't look like "Bowl of Beauty" at all... but something with simple blossoms! However, you cannot trust the peony blossoms during the first summer. Sometimes, it shows the right ones only when it's bigger and stronger. So I won't make any conclusions, yet. If it remains like that also next summer, then obviously the seller sold me something else!

Peonies are so beautiful, but when it's hot, they bloom too short time...

A wet day

Today, we had a wet day. First - it was finally raining (good for the nature and our garden!). Second - we took the boys for a swim to a sports centre. It is NOT easy to go a place like this with triplets. I had so many things with me! Everything times three. Towels, napkins, clothes... And when I plan something like this, I need to know who will come with me and the boys, because alone, I cannot go with 3 babies... So my mom and our nanny Pille (+ her 9-years-old daughter Matilde) joined us - for each baby, we had an adult. The car was full - no free seat! :)

It was the first time for the boys to be in a pool. Yes, they knew what water is - we bath them twice a week, but it has always been very shortly (as we have 3 babies to bath) and they have never really played or swam in water. So now it was time and they enjoyed it. At first, they looked very curious and maybe a little scared - so big pools and so much water - but they got used to it quickly and later looked like small fish with a smile on their faces. :)
Going out with triplets, you realize that there is always lack of something. In the dressing-room, there were only 2 places where to put babies when an adult puts her clothes on. So we couldn't put all three babies away to wait us. In the cafe, there was only 1 child chair! So our plan to feed the babies after the swim didn't work out, it was wiser to come home. I'm now thinking - can we ever go out to eat: are there anywhere 3 nursing chairs available?

Apart from those little details, we had a lovely day out and after having 2 successful days out of home (yesterday, we went to visit another triplets-family), I think we are ready for.... ZOO! :)

PS - Peonies and irises are blooming right now... beautiful! More photos soon.

Container gardening

Finally I'm here to post something about my garden... I can't believe I haven't done it before... and half June - the lovely summer month - has already past! It has been a very hot and a very dry start for the summer. This has resulted short time duration of blooming of flowers which should be bloom in June - for instance, the early peony (Rubra Plena) bloomed only for a week (with cooler weather, it would have bloomed at least for 2 weeks) and the lilacs have almost finished blooming.
This year, due to lack of time, I decided NOT to do much changes in my garden. I just try to keep it in order (which isn't always a success either, having so small kids to look after 24 h). But I do my best!
However, I decided that this year, I invest to container gardening. I have wanted to do it already before, but different pots, baskets and ampels are not very cheap, and summer flowers - which bloom nicely, but last only for 1 summer - are quite expensive as well, especially when you need to buy a lot of them. But nevertheless, I decided to do it - with a thought, that next years, I have all the containers I need and only have to buy the new summer flowers.
Here are some photos of my containter gardening:

More blossoms

A few days ago, the meadowsweet "Grefsheim" started to bloom with its small white blossoms - I can see it from our kitchen-door and it looks so lovely! Since the forsythia is still blooming too, then it makes a nice assortment with the 3rd bush -Thunberg burberry "Harlequim" with its dark red leaves.
Oh, I love this time of the year - every day, there is something new in the garden!

Tulips - part I

Tulips are in full bloom right now. Only a few, very late tulips, are still waiting to show their beauty. The days have been moderately cool and cloudy and thanks to this, the tulips seem to last longer.
Normally, I choose the flowers to my garden based on the colour. Namely, I do not like yellow flowers (they remind me of dandelion, which, unfortunately is an unwanted and uninvited intruder in my garden of which I will never get rid of...); so I mostly pick pink- and white-coloured flowers, some red (especially roses and peonies), but not yellow. However, yellow tulips are an exception. I have quite a few of them and they are beautiful. I even bought one quite expensive yellow tulip... which blooms indeed nicely!
I know most of the names of my flowers. But with tulips, it's different. Many of the tulips were here before I was here. In the first years, I bought some tulip bulbs from the fairs and didn't get the name with the bulbs. Later years, I, of course, have kept all the names, but among tulips, there are still quite few who's names I know.
These red tulips and white-red tulips are very early tulips. Both of them look lovely, especially when there are no other colours and blossoms in the garden, yet. During first Spring, when I had time, I found them boring, but within years, I have started to love them more and more, especially the red-white tulips, which develop their colours within days - they start being very pale, then adding pink colour, then red and finally even yellow in the heart!

These yellow tulips have been in my garden for about 2-3 years. They are called "Akebono".

Those pink tulips are in one of my roses bed. I know roses and tulips do not fit together well, but as roses start to bloom relatively late, then I wished to have some colour in this part of my garden before, too... So I ignored the rules and put some tulips bulbs in there... However, I'm not completely happy with the colours. I have white and pink tulips there, but the pink colour is quite pale, so maybe I'll change it soon. This tulip is called "Pink Impression".

This tulip is called "Pulse" and looks quite nice together with hazel tree "Contorta".

This tulip must be "Pulse", too, having yellow barberry "Maria" on the backround.

Mother's-Day-Weekend

The weekend was extra-ordinary lovely:

1. On Friday, I went to the big gardening fair "Luige Laat" and couldn't resist of buying a lot of summer flowers (I know, I know - I have to cover them for the nights, because it can be freezing...). I planted them to summer-pots and the garden suddenly looks so colourful! Just amazing - I can enjoy Spring and Summer again (it feel especially wonderful this year - because last year, I couldn't do that because of my heavy pregnancy).

2. On Saturday afternoon, Erik made sauna and we went outside to sit, on our small terrace of the garden-house (the photo above). The sun was setting, it was quiet and you could feel how Summer is going to be soon here... no words were needed, it was so romantic. :)
3. Both on Saturday and Sunday, the weather was beautiful. After quite cold days earlier this week - it finally got warm and sunny again and I could even take some sun (although just for 20 minutes!) to get a bit of tan, and I and the boys spent lovely time outside on a blanket. The boys explored the grass and Fred found out that it's much better to crawl on the grass than somewhere else.

4. Sunday morning, I was woken up with beautiful anemones which Erik went to pick up early in the morning from the local forest. It was Mother's Day. And I'm a mother of 4... I also got a rose "Lavender Dream" (see photo below), I'll be excited to see its first blossoms.
5. Today morning continued to be good - the boys didn't wake up before Kert's alarm clock rang at 7 a.m.! I think it has never happened before!

Yes, it was an extra-ordinary good weekend! I wish there were many like that...

Spring in my garden - Vol I

For about a week, we had beautifully warm and sunny weather - and many early spring flowers are now in blossoms: early tulips, narcissuses, bluebells, early primroses. More and more colours in the garden - lovely!
Unfortunately now, it's cold again, so it will slow down the growth of the flowers, but I'm sure it soon goes warmer again and I can enjoy even more colours in my garden!

The bluebell:

Red early tulips:

Early primrose: