What I Look Forward to in Spring

I look forward to these irises blooming.  They are a gorgeous shade of purple which unfortunately I've not been able to capture yet.  They look a little faded in these pictures.  Note to self:  learn how to photograph flowers correctly.

I also love the old-fashioned mock orange shrub.  It smells heavenly.  It's gotten big and rangey because I enjoy having so many flowers on it to smell but I'll trim it back.  It's blocking light to the white peony next to it.  I'm getting better at pruning.  When I first moved here I scalped many a shrub.

I'm Getting Excited!

The gardens are about to come alive.  I saw two rosebuds on the F.J. Grootendorst rugosa rose.  This is a common beach rose that I love because it is carefree, blooms all season, and is shaped like a carnation.  The leaves are wrinkly and it is extremely thorny.  It's grown a lot and suckers so it can really spread.  Its color is "red," you know, rose red, which is really fuschia.  Reading flower labels is confusing.  Like, they'll say blue but the flower is actually purple.

I love the inside of an iris--so intricate!

This is from last year, I think in the front garden.

Here's the garden all dreamy-like in the late afternoon sun today.  I'm happy to see that the view from the neighbors in back is still hidden.

First Iris

My first iris popped out today.  It's one of the ones I transplanted two years ago from the row in my front garden.  I fertilized the front and back and planted two planters and the impatiens in the front.

I also sprayed my Fairy rose again to rid it of the dreaded rose midge, which has prevented me from seeing any significant bloom.  The first spray was on April 21, when my mother arranged a "donate an hour" gardening session among my family members.  I have bone spurs on my shoulder and am in physical therapy three times a week for an hour.  It's helping but it's still hard to put in a good day's work of gardening or cleaning.  Plus it doesn't help that we're at least two weeks ahead of schedule due to our mild spring.

Here's the front azalea:

And the Blaauw's Pink azalea in the back.

And here's a beautiful pink parrot tulip with green stripes.  Lovely.

The wisteria is a little sparse this year.  Did I prune it too late?  Too little?  For heaven's sake, that thing is high maintenance!