Iris and Pitcher Plant Season!

Now the garden is coming into it's own, and spruced up with a fresh coat of mulch.  At the bottom of the pic is where I plant herbs every year. What a joy having fresh herbs is!

The Catmint is happy, and of course, the irises steal the show around Mother's Day.

Happy Irises--almost too happy.  I had to stake so many blooms for the first time this year--not sure why!  Near them are Spring Phlox (wild).

Now to my pride and joy--the Pitcher Plants!  How lovely and unique they are, especially this time of year when they are blooming.  Don't they look prehistoric?  I think they are really strange.  And you can just see the first pitchers coming up.  They will continue to grow taller, and then form pitchers that catch insects that they consume for the protein they need.  I just love the flowers though.

These are the red flowers from a short variety--I wish I could remember the name.  The shape of the pitchers are completely different.

Here you can see the bog garden on the right side of the pond.  I am sad about the Yellow Flag Irises (in pond) that I had to divide at the absolute worst time--just as they were starting to bloom. But they were floating out of their pots, which had no planting medium left in them, and were so overgrown.  I had to wrestle and chop and rip apart them and the planting basket that they were intangled in.  Plus they are so heavy!  I was feeling it for days!

I thought I divided them last fall, but I don't know...  It's not working too well.  They are the plants in the pond that are flopping over.  Last week I divided them and planted about half in a wet land garden on the left side of the pond.  They work better in the ground as seen here in this pic, but they are normally so lovely and vigorous in the pond too.  In front is a peony that is loving life. Looking forward to it's blooms!

Now to the Mint.  Well, the Mint...what can I say.  Marching onward to dominantion, manifest destiny, to rule the world.  It's still attractive at this stage, but will be really tall and leggy soon.  I will cut it back big-time in mid summer.  Lovely fragrance though.  And we have made some great Mint Juleps with them!  The Pacasandra (bottom of pic) is also loving life, and is relatively well-behaved. :-)

This plant is one of my favorites every year.  Needs a well-drained soil.  I mixed sand into their holes when I planed them, but lost one to fungus last year. :-(

This is an extremely large variety of Hosta (two plants here in this pic).  I just love it, and it has been in this spot for about 15 years.  But it has been this large all along of course.  It faithfully comes back every spring, and I have not done a thing to it.  I would love to find another one, but I have a feeling it must be some kinds of heirloom variety?

And I shall leave you with another pic of the fabulous Pitcher Plants. :-)