How does you garden grow?

Is it like Mary Contrary’s, with silver bells and cockle shell and pretty maids all in a row, or is it more like mine, growing like topsy?

I lean more toward a messy, cottage-like garden, with an affinity toward “volunteers”; those self-seeding flowers that find new places to bloom and tumble willy-nilly into their neighbors.

Presently, the ferns are like a flash mob, dancing about in the breeze and multiplying like fruit flies. I don’t mind. They are one of the few plants the deer don’t forage, they are easy to care for, they are easily transplanted, and they get along splendidly with hostas. They have, however, been selfishly taking up space where the poppies grow. This poppy managed to poke through to catch some late afternoon sunshine.

This morning, gazing outside, I saw this bumble bee drunk on the nectar of the fuchsia which hangs just outside our large picture window. I don’t know how I spotted it, but, there it was for quite some time, barely moving, lost in pollen nirvana.  Click on the picture for a closer look. It is a bit blurry as we were photographing through our 90 year windows!

It is the peonies that are holding court in the Cutoff garden this week; a loose and blousy affair. They remind me of high school senior girls who have cast off their shoes to dance in the dirt, the hems of their gowns dusting the warm soil and their curled hairdos flouncing in the wind.

Smaller than the earlier blooming tree peonies, our peonies (paeonia japonica) are generous divisions from friends. Introduced into the the garden two years ago, Marilyn’s pink peony bloomed for the first time this year. It is radiant, especially when the setting sun bids it adieu.

Bev’s peony came to us in two divisions three years ago. Good stock these gals are; they are spreading so well we may need to divide them ourselves this year. I wish you could see them in person, for these pictures do not do them justice. A deep magenta, they are jewels to behold.

All this writing and photographing my garden has worn me out. I think I’ll go back to the arbor, sit on one of its benches, and anticipate the blooms of the roses and clematis that are now inching their way up the lattice in search of the sun. I love my garden; topsy and messy and blousy that it is. Blossoms are always arriving, like family or friends at a reunion. Yep! I think I’ll just go take a little sit-down and watch the reunion unfold.

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Open Days – part 2

The second garden we visited on last Sunday’s Open Days was a mass of color and texture, ponds and walkways. Peonies danced with roses and the poppies were showing off in a profusion of riotous blooms.

In among the flowers, glass artwork caught the sun.

This one brought to mind, for me, Dr. Seuss.

A new use for an old bird cage.

A clambering noise from the pond drew us in, with this fellow making the most racket, as his friends sat or swam nearby.

Of course, I couldn’t resist the clematis now, could I?

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While composing my thoughts

The weather has been beautiful here on the Cutoff and life on it a tad hectic. I thought you might like to see a few pictures until I have a have a chance to compose my thoughts.

Click on the pictures for better views.

We’ve seen quite a few equestrians trotting up and down our little road from the stable around the bend. When we first moved here, they would ride past, then seem to disappear. It took months for us to realize there was a narrow path into the forest preserves that they slipped into. I suspect that once into the deep, dark woods, they turn into unicorns.

Upon at late afternoon at the end of the week, I sat in the arbor, sipping on an iced tea, and finishing a my book. Sarah’s Key was a troubling read, though I couldn’t seem to put it down. When I finished, I sighed, looked up, and, as if to catch my mood, shadows crept upon the lawn. I needed to go for a walk.

It felt good to stretch my legs and shake the cobwebs out of my mind. Camera in hand, I walked to the front yard to see what nature had in store for me.

There are always surprises in a garden, don’t you agree? Tight buds in the morning can burst into flower by mid afternoon. Where blossoms once held court with their sweet bouquet on a gnarled branch, apples appear. In the blink of an afternoon, chives wear purple hats and start spreading their seeds and baby robins are suddenly fledglings while a swallowtail butterfly flutters by.

I walked about, taking pictures, oohing and exclaiming “aha”, pulling weeds, there are always weeds, and enjoying the warmth of the sun and the blooms of the peonies, starting to open . . .

. . . and anticipating what will soon “pop” open on this nodding stem.

What’s blooming these days near you?

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Have you ever seen a laddie . . .

. . . go this way and that way

Go this way and that way

Have you even seen a laddie

Go this way and that?

This is a different type of peony, a dwarf peony, that blooms in early spring then dies back in midsummer from the heat. Its leaves are more reminiscent of ferns and the petals are a single row. It is blooming now in our garden, with the breezy weather we have been having making the blossoms sway, this way and that, reminding me of the childhood singing game we used to play.

It is called Laddie. Paeonia peregrina.

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