Flowers in Bloom

Todays I'm showing off my flowers in bloom.

I have a shady property. For years I tried to fight nature and grow roses, which need a lot of sunlight. A few years ago, after discovering deer feasting on my Sonia roses, I gave them away and planted hydrangeas, which like shade. I have one climbing rose in a sunny corner that started as a tiny cane and now covers the trellis. Soon my lavender and black-eyed Susans will be in full-bloom, then my later-blooming hydrangea will open. I should have flowers pretty much until November. Enjoy!

A Visit to a Peony Farm

Yesterday DH and I spent a quiet day doing chores and visitng a peony farm, Peony's Envy in Bernardsville, NJ. It's supposedly the largest peony farm and garden in the northeastern US. They grow and sell peonies, irises, and other flowering plants. We came just past peak bloom but still it was a sight to see. I'll let the photos I took tell the story.






The last photo looks like what my own Karl Rosenfeld peony should look like; this year it set buds but they didn't mature. The owner of Peony's Envy, whose title is Lady Farmer (I like that) thinks the weird weather disturbed it and I shouldn't rip it out and plant a new one.

Meanwhile, DH and I came home to see this:

Yep, my own double light pink peony decided to open up afer all.

It's June

I have 2 peonies shrubs full of fragrant blooms like this, my Zéphirine Drouhin climber rose is covered with hundreds of buds about to burst open, my Bath pinks have just about finished their first bloom, and my lavender is in full bud.

Hope your June is starting out just as lovely.

Heat Frustration

This morning I had to be at the local VA hospital for a meeting. One upside to the 3 hour long meeting was that I avoided the sun beating in on me through the 7 foot high wall of south-facing winbdows in my office. Another upside to having 7 foot high south-facing windows is this:



I can force all sorts of tropical plants into bloom.

The downside is that while my office is locked up in my absence, the temperature soars to about a zillion degrees. Which is why I'm using evaporative cooling measures (no, I do not have a thermostat in my office; that would have been the intelligent way to design this building).