Wednesday 9 June 2021

Breath Deeply and Enjoy

 I believe it is nearly impossible to have an unattractive garden in June. One of my favourite perennials is the peony. Imagine the exquisite scent and the silky petals.


This peony, a gift from my daughter after a tragedy at my school three years ago, is now starting to come into its own. It's so delicate.


Similar light pink peonies that I've had forever. I believe they may have come from my mother's garden.


This peony starts with light pink buds, but then opens up as creamy white blossoms.


I may have also started these with plants from my mother's garden. 


I don't have many roses at all, but this is my first, a Hansa. It also has a beautiful scent.


This variegated weigela is not much for scent, but it's so very pretty. It has responded well to a severe cutting back last fall.


I must have this low pink cranesbill in every bed on my property. It makes great ground cover under our big old spruce tree.



A deep fuschia weigela is also blooming now. I am not sure if this is Red Prince or not. Again, not heavily scented, but gorgeous.


Some people manage to have swaths of Oriental poppies and I can barely keep a small bunch alive. These were blowing in the breeze as I was trying to take a picture.


I am a very bad clematis owner, planting them in places where they must compete with grasses and wild grapevine, but thankfully this one prevailed. I love seeing great masses of these blossoms on proper trellises. 


My lilac tree is fading fast, but there are just enough blossoms left to keep enticing the bumblebees. I apologize for the very blurry image. They really don't stop moving.

It was very hot today. I don't mind at all. I am supply teaching (online) tomorrow, so I wanted to get lots of tasks done today when I could. The chicken coop is as cleaned out as it's going to be and I've vacuumed and dusted parts of the house that have been neglected for a while. It was lovely going around and taking pictures of these flowers after supper, even though it was still 29 degrees at the time. 

What is your favourite scent of flowers? I would have to declare a tie between peonies and lilacs.

49 comments:

  1. I'm with you, it's a toss up between peonies and lilacs. I don't have either in my yard, but there are a number of lilacs on my walking path. This year, the white lilacs bloomed earlier than the purple - the latter just coming into their own now.

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  2. Me, too! Me, too! Peonies and lilacs. We all laughed when our daughter stopped in for a minute on her way home tonight. I had cut and put a first bouquet of lilacs on the half wall counter top here in the kitchen. She entered into the kitchen normally, started talking and then her whole body (led by her twitching nose) gravitated across the room toward the wonderful aroma without even seeming to do it intentionally. The bouquet has filled with whole room with it's lovely scent! Love 'em. (Don't have any peonies but plan on planting some. Soon! As usual, your blooms and blossoms are gorgeous.

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  3. Please excuse the grammatical mess of my comment above. I'm whackoed from working outside all day today in the HEAT and have showered, am in my jammies and just about in bed! :o)

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  4. After a winter of thick snow all those beautiful flowers, their colour, seems like a miracle to me. You have a wonderful garden.

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    1. I still get excited every year when the flowers "wake up" again.

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  5. Another very enjoyable walk through your garden Jenn - thank you. My herbaceous peonies haven't bloomed as yet, but there's lots of buds promising a few days of that wonderfully heady fragrance wafting about the garden. I like your idea of the cranesbill around the base of the tree. For clematis I always remember the rhyme of "head in the sun, feet in the shade" along with cutting back at the appropriate time. Happy LockDown Easing Release Day tomorrow (col). ... Mary-Lou =^[..]^=

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    1. I know, I know... I'm a terrible clematis owner. Happy "some things are open starting Friday, but you still can't get your hair cut" day to you, too!

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  6. Absolutely gorgeous, Jen! I can smell them! I rescued a peony that was struggling beside our pond two years ago. It's roots were entwined with all sorts of others, so I swished the roots in a bucket of water (in the fall, freezing cold!) then transplanted it to a garden. This year the plant is big and beautiful and about to reward me with about 17 big buds! I am looking forward to it and pretty sure it is a pink one like your first pic. You have some beautiful plants.

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  7. P.S. The scent of Lily of the Valley is one of my favourite scents.

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    1. Love the scent, hate the invasiveness (is that a real word?) of it!

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  8. Clemantis is my next flower to plant I love seeing them climb. my peonys are just blooming and I have a small bunch. You gardens look lovely. my very old rose bush is in full bloom and smells wonderful it reminds me of my grandmother and her rose water.
    Cathy

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    1. Rose water - such a traditional old scent. Maybe I should plant more rose bushes.

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  9. Your gardens are very beautiful. Peony is a favorite for me as well. The scent is lovely. Recently, I've added a few peony trees. A few of my favorite floral scents are Lily of the Valley and Yellow Blooming, Elizabeth Magnolia tree.

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  10. Your flowers are gorgeous. I don't have a favorite floral scent. I love all the flowers. You have a wonderful day, hugs, Edna B.

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  11. I love peonies and this year they are so fragrant. Yours are so gorgeous.
    Happy Thursday. xoxo Kris

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    1. I find that flower fragrance really hangs about in hot, humid conditions.

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  12. You have really vibrant colours and we can't get over how fast your landscape seems to have changed from winter to poster print colours. We used to have a pink peony like that fluffy one and a friend was convinced it was called Sarah Bernhardt.

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    1. I've heard that name before. I really don't have any clue specifically what kind mine are.

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  13. I have always loved peonies! One of my favourite "heritage flowers!"

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  14. I like the scent of roses. I only just planted my first one this year. I have a really nice smelling mock orange that’s blooming now beside the front steps so I enjoy it every tome I go in or out of the house. Your flowers are all beautiful

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    1. Mock orange is a beautiful scent, too! We have an old mock orange that came with the place that was huge, got cut back, regrew, and now isn't producing many blooms.

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  15. Your home and garden look beautiful -- all those blooms! It must smell absolutely glorious. My peonies are on the way out but for a bit, the fragrance was intoxicating. I can't seem to grow poppies to save my soul so I especially love seeing those!

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    1. It's my only clump of poppies. I had more in another garden, but for whatever reason they've just died back. They're so bright, though.

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  16. Your flowers are gorgeous. I absolutely love peonies, but I must be satisfied with my hollyhock's, which come back every year and bloom with little attention!

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    1. Hollyhocks are a lovely, old traditional flower. I had many dark pink, almost red ones, but over the years, I seem to end up with pale yellow.

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  17. I love peonies while they are out but they do have rather a long period when they dont do anything. At least the weigelia has a pretty leaf.

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    1. I love my peonies while they last. Then a big heavy rainstorm comes along and beats them down, inevitably.

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  18. I love delicate pink blossoms... that peony is beautiful.

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  19. Lilac and LOTV are my favourites and I have a few of each. My peonies didn't bloom this year unfortunately, but yours are gorgeous!

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  20. My flower since childhood, in my great grandmother's back yard: lily of the valley.

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    1. In many great grandmother's back yards, I suspect.

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  21. We live so far apart and yet have such similar issues. I laughed so at your poppies comment. In Lead they were like weeds. Me? I have a tiny little group like yours. I too keep track of my plants by who I got them from. My Hands never gets very big. Does yours?

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    1. Being as I don't have any other roses to compare it to, I think my Hansa rose gets fairly big, but it can be fussy. It's about the same size as a big spirea.

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  22. Dang spell check Hansa not hands. Took me four tries before it would leave that word alone.

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  23. Stunning, Jenn! Thanks for sharing!

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  24. You got that right! June = gardens. It is one of my favorite months for this reason.

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  25. Oh my gosh! You do grow the most beaautiful flowers. I guess May is the best flower month for us. By June it is terribly hot and humid. I LOVE the scent of Lilacs but there is a wild shrub that grows all along the roadsides here and it has the most wonderful scent of all, to me. I simply can't get enough of it. The scent carries me away to some very special place. :) I really need to find the name. I will do that.

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  26. Hi Jenn :) Your flowers are so beautiful! I LOVE peonies...I hope to plant them some day. I think roses are my favourite scent for flowers. I hope you're having a wonderful summer! :)

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