The Gardening Would Have Happened Anyway

'Twilight Zone'
Are you gardening more now because of COVID-19?  

Me, about the same quantity, but quality has improved.  Being more thoughtful about what in the garden needs doing is easier:  not in a rush to go to go here or there, not shopping for plants.  I'm focused on the plants that are already here.  It's also easier to think because it is much quieter now--less traffic in the neighborhood and no planes roaring overhead.
'Tamora'

More birdsong, less chainsaw roar.  The air is so much cleaner, my lungs are happier.   
'Pink Gruss an Aachen'

 While I think, I walk the garden.  There are more flowers to enjoy.
'Drop Dead Red', 'Julia Child' roses. 'Brass Band' is the orange/yellow rose in the background.  'Pink Sugar' Arctotis in the foreground.

 'Bishop's Castle'

 Acer palmatum

 One of the new roses planted this year, 'Queen of Elegance'.  
Update:  I'm now wondering if this rose was mislabeled, and is really 'State of Grace'.  
My initial impression is:  excellent!  Growth is vigorous.  Several clusters of flowers for a first flush from a newly planted rose. 

 The flowers display an interesting color progression.  Buds show crimson:

 Then they change to dark pink, then open to medium pink.
The flower develops a tannish center, and progresses from dusty rose pink to a pale pink.  The fragrance is strong, spicy.  Typically here, the first couple of years roses have modest fragrance as they settle in and establish.  That this one's scent is already strong is, again, excellent. 

 Iris 'Thornbird'

Iris 'Paprika Fonos'

A rose named 'Drop Dead Red' was an impulse buy three or four years ago and never did well.   This fall and winter I hammered it with collected rainwater and fertilizer.  Improve or get shoveled, I advised it.  Improve it did.  Vastly.  Back during the long drought I stopped using fertilizer, because encoraging a lot of new growth was unwise.    This rainy fall and spring the roses finally got fertilizer, and good resulted.   

 'Molineux'

  This looks like two different pictures, it's not.  That is a wall. 

 'Laguna'

 'Belindas Dream'

 'Princess Alexandra of Kent'.  This one also improved markedly this year. 

 The only Iris x hollandica bulbs I found for sale this fall was a package of mixed purple/yellow/white.  I really wanted just purple, but bought the mixed package anyway.  At first only the purple ones flowered.  Unexpectedly a second wave of white and yellow followed.  Cool!

 'Eyes for You' in its third year also improved significantly this spring. 

 Another 'Drop Dead Red'.  This one has no fragrance I can discern, but crimson velvet...oh!

Hellebores continue.  What a completely undemanding plant!  Love them.

 One thing I've thought about lately is how small details really make a garden more interesting.  I suppose those details develop over time, as a garden becomes more lived in, and every space is more considered.  This empty strip planted with extra succulents some weeks back makes this path a little bit better. 

 'The Prince'

 Seedling Clematis that appeared some years ago.

 Looking through flowers at more flowers.

 Climbing rose 'Fourth of July'

 Iris 'Heavenly Vision'

The news reports turmoil, inaction, mis-action, heroic action.  We continue at home, and the flowers bloom.