Mid May Flowers and Birds

We've had a fantastic assortment of birds in the yard in the last few days. An Indigo Bunting came to the thistle feeders several times last Friday, though I have not seen him since. There are Oriole's, Hummingbirds, and two male and one female Rose Breasted Grosbeak. Plus the usual assortment of finches and Cardinals and Robins, etc. It is a colorful yard these days.

Flowers blooming also add to the color. Difficult to include them all. Tulips of course. Daffodils are fading, but some still going. The Serviceberry came and went in the last week. Apple Trees, despite our hard pruning, are pretty now. The Magnolia still going strong. The white Iris on the west border is spectacular. Lilacs coming in. Prairie smoke at its best. Wild Geraniums, May Apple, Jack-in-the-Pulpits everywhere. The Shooting Star is perfect now. And the Astilbe is putting up flower spikes - thankfully not fully up as of Saturday eve, when we had a light frost. Most of the tree flowers are done, but a few still going. Generally unspectacular, but important.

Just beginning to show themselves, but giving hope for a beautiful June and July, are the Butterfly Weed, the Asiatic and Oriental Lilies, the Liatris. Peonies that I thought might be dead are now, two weeks later, over a foot high. I'm happy to see the Heuchera finally relaxing, and some are even putting up flower stalks. And I'm thrilled that the Hibiscus plants that I bought and planted late last year are showing signs of some growth. They certainly seemed totally dead until about a week ago, and even now I can't fully trust that they will come back. But it is looking possible at this point - they each have a couple of small sprouts coming from the very bottom of the old dead stalk. I don't know this plant, so I don't know what to expect. We shall see.