This final “Six on Saturday” for May 2021 begins with the first rose of the season! As you can see, we had a bit of welcome rain during the night washing all the dust that had settled on every surface during the neighbors’ planting the field next door, and now everything looks fresh and clean. The roses have grown well and are filled with buds, so anticipation is high for June.
2) Nigella, or “Love in A Mist” is one of my favorites, and it just burst into bloom this week in the potager’s interior border. Varying shades of blue are such a delight amid that dainty, ferny foliage. They self-seed and pop up here and there, always welcome. There are white ones in the Cutting Garden, but they have not even budded yet.
3) There’s nothing prettier than thyme in bloom. “Lemon Mist” is my favorite thyme. It’s bloom is actually a bit more lavender than the photo shows. Normally it is just covered in honeybees, but there’s so few now in our area that if I see one or two a month it’s a cause for celebration.
4) The first blooms of the season opened this week on the snow peas. They bear close watching, because it seems the time from flower to edible pods is just a blink or two.
5) If you’ve read this blog for long, you know that I’m fascinated by the variations in seedlings. I can’t help but wonder if the lettuce in the center is actually a “mutant” of “Reine des Glaces”, or just an errant seed that got stuck in the packing machine and accidentally dropped into the wrong seed packet. Anyway, I’m loving those jagged tips on the “Reine” lettuces and just hoping they taste as good as they look! It’s a French “head” lettuce that does really well in cold weather, thus its name “Queen of the Ice” so I’ll do another planting in the fall and hope it matures into the colder autumn weather.
6) The dwarf “Robin Hood” favas began setting pods early in the week. The four “standard” tall favas just began to bloom the end of the week. All are being pollinated by the carpenter bees that are drilling holes in my Lady Cottage again….I guess we take the good with the bad.
That’s my six for this week. And just an update on “Thwarting the Bunnies”…so far, so good two night’s running. For more “SOS” highlights, visit The Propagator, the host of this fun meme.
herbalblessingsblog 
Lovely post- that thyme is beautiful! And I too love when there is an odd man out in seedlings- or variation to them. I had my Oklahoma zinnias reseed this year, but a few seemed to have crossed with my cactus flowered zinnias too- I’m enjoying seeing what the resulting change in flower shape is- though the Oklahoma pink is what every flower is colored so far- which I find interesting too!
LikeLike
Zinnias never reseed for me, but there are a few cosmos popping up in the Cutting Garden this year. And I had one dark purple radish amid all the red ones!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your garden is looking like summer has arrived 🙂 I’m still waiting on my roses … so far, I have counted only a single bud but it has been so cold and damp here. I love those nigella flowers, shall add them to my wishlist for next year x
LikeLike
Summer has definitely arrived here. Hope you can get some nigella. It self-seeds nicely and I usually get two rounds…the early ones (now) that get off to a good start, and a second batch that for some reason is just now germinating! They are a much deeper blue than the photo shows, although they do come in white or shades of rose (usually called Mulberry in the catalogs.)
LikeLike
Carpenter bees? I’ve not heard of those. I shall have to do a little research on that one. We do have a number of honey bees “floating” around, lazily sipping from one rose or another.
LikeLike
I’ll do a little post on Carpenter bees this week. It’s a frustrating situation, because I know we need the bees, but they are so destructive!
LikeLike
Thank you, and I just discovered an iris hidden amid the tall shasta daisies that I really don’t recall planting or ever seeing before, but I love it!
LikeLike