Thursday, June 10, 2010

The peonies have just finished blooming


There are a handful of flowers I look forward to every year, lilacs are one, peonies another. Both have delicious fragrance as well as beauty, but both have very short bloom periods.

Three years ago I found Shirley Temple as a tiny root at one of the box stores. The photo above shows how she has flourished in my newest lasagna garden.

I've never had six foot tall foxgloves. This year they are huge, leaning this way and that and finally falling over. Note to self: foxgloves do better in leaner soil.



The peony below is Festiva Maxima, quite an old bush that gets too much shade. Hopefully this fall I will have time to move her to a better spot.







The photo below is an unknown red.





A subtle, heartening fragrance
Comes piercing the warm hush,
And from the greening woodland
I hear the first wild thrush.
They move my heart to pity
For all the vanished years,
With ecstasy of longing
And tenderness of tears.
~ William Bliss Carman