lilacs

The lilacs are fading fast.   Luckily we had tea on the 20th when the lilacs had first come out because even by the 27th, they had started to go by.   The shrubs didn't have as many blossoms as some years but the panicles were bigger than I've ever seen.   Amy Schott and Sarah Sands were particularly impressive (huge) and Priscilla was even bigger than I remember it,   The later lilacs are coming into bloom and now the bright orange orintal poppies and my Mandarin Lights deciduous azaleas are in full bloom--so there is orange to bring ou the purples and lavenders of the lilacs.

Lilac Tea

Our lilac tea went very well this year.  We had it 1 week ahead of normal and the lilacs were just perfect.  Only one, Gertrude Leslie, had already turned that ugly brown which double white lilacs turn.  Maybe the whole garden is even nicer now as the orange deciduous azaleas--Mandarin Lights and the floppy spreading type of  Oriental poppies are now in bloom---also the rocket (Hesperis matronalis).  I would guess between 50 and 100 people came.

The only problem was that Dana had been blacking and passing outand finally had to be taken to the hospital just at 4:00 when 50 people people or so turned up to see lilacs.  She had gotten dehydrated and was cured with intravenious saline solution.   The show went on.

This Sunday, I'm doing the flowers for the wedding of a couple who started coming to our church recently.

Showy Orchis, daylilly Seedlings and Clematis

Three exciting things happened today.

While weeding at a huge estate in South Woodstock, we came upon some showy orchis, Orchis spectabilis, which the former groundskeeper had transplanted from a pasture and they were spreading!

All my clematis made it over the winter: General Sikorski, The President, C. jackmani, Jackmani Superba, Bonanza, Ramona and Niobe.   I guess it's not too late for them to go bad.

Seeds I planted which were crosses of the two daylilies, Tuscawilla Tigress and Alabama Jubilee came up.


Also my lilacs seem like they'll be a good stage for my tea on Sunday afternoon.

Lilac Tea

Our tea is this coming Sunday and we are not quite all the way ready.  I have successfully mown the grass even though all 3 of my lawnmowers have now broken down twice and so far,I've spent $200 fixing them and now I need a new riding lwnmower.  Yhe earliest lilacs are now out: Gertrude Leslie, Royal Purple, Evangeline and Nadehzda is starting.  Also Little Boy Blue (Wonderblue) and oblata.  I'm hoping for warm weather this week.  I'm getting a load of mulch on my way home from the nursery tonight to do my rose beds.  The roses took a hit this winter and look terrible.  The daffodils are still quite nice, about a quarter of mine are still fine: N. poeticus, Modern Art, Decoy, Fragrant Rose, Acropolis, Felindre, and Elizabeth Anne are now at their peak.

Visit from Don and Lela Avery

The owners of Cady's Falls Nursery came to visit our nursery today.  Among the many other interesting plants they have, I'ld like to get some of their Rocks variety of tree peony, also Rodgersia podo........, Ligularia siberica, 'Garden Treasure'- an Itoh peony as well as some nice yellow Hellebores.  Alot of our plants seem so common place compared to theirs.   They brought mw a rare Paeonia veichii variety and some dwarf goatsbeard and Disporum for the nursery

tulips

I'm planning on buying alot of new tulips this fall.   Unfortunately, they get eaten by rodents and , in general, don't last well--year after year--in the garden .  However, they are very showy and work well in the large church flower arrangements I do.   Also, they come in very good true reds and bright oranges.   I have to plant them where deer won't eat the blossoms off which they like to do.  I generally have to buy new ones every several years-- I order at the same time I order new daffodils for my ever expanding daffodil collection.  My daffodils are still at their peak-- the early ones are done and the latest ones not out yet but the pink ones are just coming into it.  Alot of the orange ones weren't as deeply collered as some years and I noticed alot of sunburn on the oranges.   However they have been quite nice