Garden Diversion: Peonies, Iris, roses, hydrangeas, clematis

I love spring and all the fresh green colors and shades, but mostly I love all the blooming beauties in gardens here in Texas before it gets' hotter than the hinges of h---.

This week I went with six dear old friends (read from high school) down to a friend's amazing ranch in Central Texas, near Hico.  Before we got there, we stopped at to walk the amazing garden's of Ellen McS.  The peonies were glorious and abundant.  Her iris come from an iris farm in Hondo, New Mexico, down near Roswell.

This "Beverly Sills".  Isn't she stunning?

Here is the perennial bed full of Dephinium and Foxglove.  Heaven.

I wish Foxglove wasn't just an annual in sweltering Texas

My ranch friend, Janet's, Penstemons are a prize that are difficult to grow in Texas, but she did it.

And now to my backyard by the lake:  here is my Jackmanii Clematis and red Knockout roses.

To die for!!

First "Endless Summer" hydrangea of the season.  I'm mad for the blues in these.

Daughter, Kathleen, gave me this little "Fairy" rose for Mother's Day about six years ago. I dig it up and moved it from that house to this house four years ago.  It's thriving beautifully here by the lake.