Gooseberries

I got all excited about my beautiful gooseberries this year. They were coming along very well- covered with huge fruit.  First the gooseberry worms defoliated all the varieties with the huge fruit.  I thought that was OK because I could see the fruit better.  I looked this morning and they are all going bad- My Invicta, Tixia and Hinnomaki Red.  Now that they are weeded, they are getting sunburned and going bad.  I should either try to get rid of the defoliating gooseberry worms (but I don't believe in using poisons), leave the weeds till after I harvest the berries , plant new weeds to shade them, or rig up some sort of shade structure.   On the other hand, Pixwell, which has a smaller fruit, doesn't have this problem and I have 100 feet of that variety.

peonies

I just picked the last of my peonies for a flower arrangement to give to the family of Conner Cook, a sixteen year old boy killed by lightning.  That peony is Ann Cousins, a very fragrant, late rose type.  Some years they are still in bloom the first of August but this year things are ahead.

My roses are the best they have ever been, even though they got a bit of die-back.  I have mostly variesties of Rosa alba and Rosa rugosa 'Roseraie de l' Hay' which is about the darkest one of the rugosas plus some Rosa gallica and my "Roger's Hill rose" (R. griffithii?)--also There is a smattering of eglantine rose.  I can smell roses in various parts of my yard.

My black currants are almost ripe.  Soon I'll be very busy.

Sweet Rocket

Hesperis matronalis is a beautiful, easy flower-- too bad it's been added to the invasive plant list.  My lilac collection is mostly gone by but I have 10 or 15 Canadian lilacs and Miss Kims, Palabins, etc. which are at their paeak now.  Also the orange poppies are still there a little bit and the Beauty of Livermores are starting to bloom.   The peonies are starting and it mon't be long before the roses start.  The Siberian iris are out and the German iris still going but not for much longer.   Over all, however, it is the rocket which ties my gardens together right now.