What's Blooming 2015 Edition
queensland's biggest pumpkin: 576.5 lbs! (276.5 kg)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-09/giant-pumpkin-winner-crowned-at-brisbane-ekka/6457718
They tend to donate the insides to charity, and auction it first (to raise a lot of money) for the cooking rights, then the winning chef/restaurant makes a special pumpkin soup, or scones, or pumpkin pasta to feed the homeless, or Salvation Army clients (hundreds of them).
It's strange; we don't do pumpkin pies like you do. If we have pies with pumpkin inside, the pie will probably be savoury, have meat like lamb or beef, and lots of herbs. And we'd probably drown it in tomato sauce.
If anyone knows what this tree is, please let me know? It's at our new house, and it is so pretty...
And the obligatory iris photo (it wouldn't be me if it didn't have irises!). I'm glad the previous owners chose this dark purple.
Maybe 15 feet tall, and no perfume that I detected at the time. Unfortunately. We LOVE fragrant plants!
joanne said:
Night scenting?
Not that I'm aware of. But I haven't gone out to sniff it. 
(I'm not sure about this, but I think night scenting is more of a tropical thing.)
H'm. We had annual summer night-scenters when we lived down near the Victorian snowfields. Admittedly, they tended to be vines or things that attracted fruit bats or sugar gliders.
Did anyone have trees or shrubs that got beat up by the winter (dead leaves, poor growth this spring, etc)?
PeggyC said:
If anyone knows what this tree is, please let me know? It's at our new house, and it is so pretty...
I wonder if it is Stewartia, though it would be flowering way too early.
http://portlandnursery.com/plants/trees/stewartia.shtml
yahooyahoo said:
Did anyone have trees or shrubs that got beat up by the winter (dead leaves, poor growth this spring, etc)?
Yes. My hollies got burned this winter and most of their leaves are now brown. I did start to see some new growth on them this week. I also lost an azalea that I planted last year.
After some more online research, I'm now certain that my mystery tree is a type of crabapple. Beautiful!
We have shrubs at the new house that were fried by the ice and sun over the winter. Pity -- although I will enjoy replacing them, it's expensive and labor-intensive.
Mavens -- is this a weed or something to keep? It's growing up my deck.
deborahg said:
Mavens -- is this a weed or something to keep? It's growing up my deck.
It's might be a Linden as someone told you, or a Redbud.
On Sunday,@hauscat said I should post a photo of my little Mailbox garden in front of the house, because it looked so pretty. I didn't do it, but this morning when I was walking around (pulling up the odd weed here and there) I saw that a pure white Iris had opened. Now here's the strange part, neither I nor momof4peepers remembers planting the Peony that is about to bloom in that garden, and I didn't even know I had a white Iris. That Delaware white azalea never fails to disappoint me.
From the other side of the azalea (and you can just catch a glimpse of the Pink Dogwood
Grape Hyacinths and Mt. Hood Daffodils