Backyard Flower Progress

I'm delighted to say that the flowers and flowering bushes in the backyard are doing all right.  Better than all right, I guess, in that things actually seem to be growing.  I have plenty of color in front what with the rose bushes, lilies, purple things (Iris??) and other stuff but the backyard was a bit too green.  As I was having my morning coffee on the deck I was really most happily surprised yesterday morning to see a real blossom on one of the little hibiscus bushes and then this morning, another one.  Oh... rapture!  I planted 4 different varieties so I'm hoping for a bit of color for the summer.

This little thing started opening this morning.  Kind of a pretty color.

 

This one opened yesterday and was much fuller this morning.  I really had no idea what a hibiscus flower looked like... kind of nice.  This one kind of cracks me up because the flower is about a quarter the size of the entire plant right now.

 

 

The two remaining daisies are doing well.  No flowers yet but lots of buds.  The hostas are fine but the other flowers I had planted here seem to have died off completely.

 

I had a lot of trouble with the hydrangea last year.  Some kind of fungus or something got to it and very early this spring I just cut the thing down to almost ground level.  It seems to be doing nicely now and like the daisies, no flowers yet but lots of blooms and good healthy-looking leaves this time.

 

The hostas running along the back of the house are doing very well as they always seem to do.  They're actually getting a bit too big again and I will likely split them again next spring.

 

This clematis is the pleasant surprise of the year.  I've been trying to grow this thing for 2 years and it never got beyond the sickly-looking stage and I don't think it ever blossomed.  One day back in February or March I opened the garage door to see that it had been blown off the bench it was on during a storm and was laying on it's side, most of the dirt having fallen out and the plastic planter pretty much split totally open... still is.  Not wanting to mess with it at the time I just picked it up and darn near threw it to this location.  Lo and behold... the sucker is growing like never before and has been flowering profusely.  Go figure.