Five in Five: June Reds

It’s been twelve days since I posted. It was an unintentional break, and I do have plenty to share from the #100DayProject, but not today. It was raining on the 5th, and I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to get out for five shots in five minutes to join in with Sandie’s Five in Five monthly meme. Yesterday was gorgeous, though still very cool for June, and I managed to take and edit the photos, but ran out of time to write a blog post. 

Last month I posted five shots of the emerging signs of spring in Evanston/Skokie while we were visiting Sarah. This month I’m sharing photos from our yard and garden. Once I had a selection of shots to choose from, I realized I had five in different shades of red. 

First, some stunning dahlias. We have two good-sized pots of them on the front porch, and they are blooming profusely.

For the past several years, I’ve tried unsuccessfully to grow lupines in my cutting garden. When we were at the Chicago Botanic Garden, I noticed they had planted lupines in many of their containers. We now have lupines in three different containers—two in the front and one on the patio. Of course, after doing that, the lupines from last year showed up in the cutting garden for the first time. I am thrilled, and have a beautiful vase with lupines and snapdragons in the living room.

Two years ago, we planted this beautiful red rhododendron on top of the wall to the side of our house. We’re thinking of moving it away from the house a bit, hoping it will have more room to spread out.

Much to my surprise, I found this clump of carnations blooming among the weeds in one of the beds that has yet to be cleaned out. I’m hoping they will spread out over the years to come.

Last year, I found this amazing plant at one of the garden stores. It was already quite large, so I called Tracy to see if we could find a place for it in our shade garden. This year it is close to 5 feet tall. I know I have the name of it somewhere, but can’t put my fingers on it. I know this is #5, but here’s a close-up of the blooms.

You can check out what other folks have found for their 5 in 5 right here.

I hope to be back with more consistent posting soon. When I look at the calendar for the last two weeks, I’m not surprised that blogging took a back seat to all that has been going on. The rest of June, however, doesn’t look much different. We have a house guest who arrived on the first and will be here until Monday. Next week is the annual “week at the lake” for Tracy’s family. We’ll only be here for part of that before heading out to Chicago for our last visit before Sarah and her family move to Racine, WI where she will begin tenure as a co-pastor (with a friend!) at a Presbyterian church there. We’re going out to help with Caleb and Hannah while Adam is away for a week, and hopefully, help organize and purge for their move at the end of the month.