The tree peonies are in bloom. There are 22 buds on the larger one this year – still some time before it grows to 100 blooms and is fit for the Emperor’s gardens. The specimen below is “Yoshino Gawa” – my other tree peony is anonymous. I bought it at Marden’s, our local salvage operation for $2.00. The box said it would be yellow, and it’s a deep pink, which is why it ended up in salvage I suppose.
The fragrance is wonderful. I have a still-life set up in the hoop house of three of these in a vase and I can’t keep the hummingbird and bee-moths out of there.
- Sumer is icumen in,
- Lhude sing cuccu!
- Groweþ sed and bloweþ med
- And springþ þe wde nu,
- Sing cuccu!
- Awe bleteþ after lomb,
- Lhouþ after calue cu.
- Bulluc sterteþ, bucke uerteþ,
- Murie sing cuccu!
- Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes þu cuccu;
- Ne swik þu nauer nu.
- Pes:
- Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu.
- Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu!
Also known as “Chinese Forget Me Not”, these are all over the garden (see below). Every time my mother comes by in the Spring she looks around and says, “They never spread like this at our house”. True, that. My mother and father gave me a tiny clump of this plant when my garden was brand new, 18 years ago now, and I have acres of it while their place in Vermont has a few well-behaved speciments: one pink, one blue and one white. It’s an interesting commentary on soil type and plant preference. I have to weed these out of the driveway, for heaven’s sake. And the strawberries. And the iris. Oy.
These are the blossoms of my specimen of Gunnera. They are about 2′ high, and 4″ across.