A Week Ahead or Behind? - Not Even the Garden Knows

I was trolling around the garden this morning and was trying to figure out after our bland spring if my garden was ahead or behind last year. Rather than tax my little brain, I thought I'd check my photo-record to see what was what. The surprise discovery was that the plants do not appear to be in lock-step as I had originally thought. Have a look at this shot from last year on the 27th of June: The Persicaria polypmorpha and Thermopsis are blooming together. The Allium are still a little green and look at that old fashioned Tansy - growing, but not so well.

Hmmm, Persicaria polymorpha, check; Tansy much better, but still at the same stage of bloom; Thermopsis days away from colour; and Allium brown. So about the same for two, behind for another, and ahead for yet another plant.

All too confusing for this first bloom of Calendula 'Victoria Sunset'.

With all this thinking I've been doing, I didn't cut these back, so I'm hoping that the gold finches have thrown their portion control to the wind and eaten all these seeds. I don't want to think about where the Doronicum seeds might be otherwise.

The Salvias are starting to bloom - and wouldn't you know, I don't have any photos to compare - note to self - take photo, even if dull just to have a record!

This Salvia transylvanica 'Blue Spires' from Select Seeds was much smaller last year - started it in 2007 - it is a bit rambunctious. I'm going to have to rethink where I've planted it.

You'd almost believe it was blue looking at this close-up wouldn't you?

Salvia glutinosa - a quiet shade lover getting ready to bloom.

And this beefy biennial that I got from the Niagara School of Agriculture:

Which brings me back to my Ahead or Behind game. Here's last year in the back garden:

And this year: The Schizophragma hydrangeoides on the fence just barely has blossoms showing. The Euonymus looks like it is on steroids this year and is currently in bloom. And, sadly you can see to the far right where the Japanese Maple was and also the spot were the wonderful Brunnera once was. So again - one ahead and one behind.

And one more spot in the garden - Look at that Rodgersia blooming its little brains out last year - the Hosta not so much.

And this year - leaves again fantastic on the Rodgersia - but no blossoms, no buds in sight. However, the Hosta have sent up their scapes and are ready to start to bloom. Very interesting, again: one ahead, one behind.

It just makes me smile. Here it is, I work so hard for just the right combinations and think I've got it all nailed and then it all changes. There really is just so much you can learn in your garden - perhaps the most important lesson is that most of it is out of our hands - and maybe that's not such a bad thing afterall.