another gardening day

Yesterday AM I went on a buying spree at my favorite nursery.  They were having a Mothers' Day sale.  The gardens weren't crowded, but the check-out lines were rather long.  Still I don't suppose I waited more than 10 minutes.  I bought mostly annuals to finish filling the pots on the deck.  They all look a little empty still because all the plants are small, but I know from experience that in a month or so, they will be overflowing.  Gardening in pots isn't very strenuous, except for lifting bags of potting soil and moving the large (and heavy) pots around to get them where I want them.  Basically, this year, I have orange, red and yellow flowers on one side of the deck and pink and purple on the other - mostly.  I noticed that I have only two blue flowers.  I just didn't find any blue ones that I wanted.

I think today I will return to the garden shop and buy a tree!  I need to replace the flowering plum tree that came down last year due to wind and rain.  I saw some very nice Japanese maples yesterday, for reasonable prices.  A Japanese maple won't provide much shade, unlike the plum, as they are slow growers, but it isn't likely to blow over in a wind storm either!  Of course, it's crazy to go on Mothers' Day, but I don't suppose it will be worse than yesterday and I know what I want, so I won't be there long.  If I didn't have to go to church, I would go now and beat the rush.  Maybe it will rain this afternoon, which should discourage some buyers and make the lines shorter!

Here is a photo of the purple clematis that is finally blooming.  The white one always blooms first, but the purple one seems to be catching up.  I have a third one, further along the fence, but I don't remember what color it is.  It was new last year, but has some buds.  I think it might be dark red.  Guess I'll have to wait and see.  I'm also posting more iris photos.  (These are also on FaceBook) 
The yellow and lavender iris is one of my favorites. 

Yesterday, I dug up a few clumps of iris to give away to neighbors.  Those plants grow very close together and have roots connecting one plant to the next.  It's very hard to get into the bed and cut some out.  I have far too many of one color.  They seem to multiply faster than any of the other more desirable ones!  The ones I really like don't seem to multiply at all, of course.