Around the Neighborhood

The neighborhood in the vicinity of my own front flower garden was being enjoyed by robins and sparrows as I was watering it. The birds were having a wonderful time fluttering in and out of the water. You can see a whitish smudge on the left side which is a drop of water falling from the sprinkler.

I'm not ready to show you yet, but this garden is actually starting to look almost nice. I'm still working on cleaning up the difficult place where plants I want have got their roots all intertwined. But I'm getting there.

I walked to the shop to pick up my car this morning. (It's all fixed until something else breaks) The snowball viburnum, Viburnum macrocephalum (literally bigheaded viburnum) is in full bloom in the cemetery. The flowers are sterile. Link below talks about why.

The lawns in the cemetery are also covered with English Daisy, Bellis perennis. "Daisy" is a corruption of "days eye," as daisies close up at night and open to the day. These are only a couple of inches high, so the lawn can be mowed and the flowers are never hurt. I've tried to get some to grow in my lawn and/or rock garden, but with no success. I think they don't like my horrible soil.

Next beautiful bush of the season is Bridal Wreath spiraea (or spirea), Spiraea 'Arguta.' As a child, on Memorial day we would take huge bouquets of spirea, peonies, iris and lilacs, depending which ones were blooming then in any given year. It's a very old-fashioned shrub, but still popular for its beauty.

This afternoon, I went to Betty's briefly to deliver some plants I'm splitting. She has this ornamental Geum in bloom. I think maybe the variety 'Borisii.' I'll have to ask her to look in her records some time. It was in bud when I helped weed, but now it's covered with hot blossoms.

Also, Betty has iris in bloom. I checked mine. I have a ton of plants that are alive, but that garden bed has become so shaded with autumn olive they don't bloom. I can dream of recovering the garden, but probably not if I want to do other things too.

It's interesting that of all these fairly common garden flowers, the only ones that may have native origins are the Geum and the Iris. North America has many wild Geums (often called Avens), and we've all seen wild blue flags. Sadly the wild yellow flags are not native. Of course, all except the daisies have been tinkered with over the centuries to make the plants more appealing in gardens.

In other news: I did a lot of editing. I have two jobs I should finish before I leave for the next (last) leg of the hike, but I may only get one completed. You may have noticed in pictures that my hair is longer. I thought I wanted my assymetrical braid back. Then I thought maybe I wanted long hair and braids. I'm not sure I can stand dealing with it, and I hate the way it tickles and flies all over. It may all come off.

See Bridal Wreath Spirea See Snowball Bush