The Blooms of June

 Peonies have always been one of my favorite flowers.  When I was growing up my neighbor, Mrs. Powell, had a huge peony garden.  Her entire back yard was basically peony plants.  She would always give us bouquets of peonies to give to Mom, or to put on our Dad's grave.  This peony from my garden was given to me almost thirty years ago by Stan's Aunt Miriam.  It came from Stan's Grandma Jones's garden.  The original plant it comes from has to be more than 40 years old, probably closer to 60.

When we lived in West Mountain, Mom had a large iris garden on the right side of the front yard. 

 It had dozens and dozens of different colors of iris in it. 

Mom had one iris plant that she said was root beer colored.  I can remember standing in that iris garden as a little child, irises as tall as my shoulders, and looking at the brown iris.  It looked just like root beer.

I've seen a lot of different irises over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen another root beer iris.

I do have some beautiful yellow irises, also from Aunt Miriam, and originally from Stan's Grandma Jones.  She gave them to me when we lived at the duplex.  I moved them with us to our current house.

They are gorgeous when in full bloom,

and they make the perfect cut flower for the vase Lisa D. made.

My columbine is also in full bloom right now.  My Grandma Kenison had a large bed of columbine on the side of her house closest to the road.

My Kenison cousins, Marvin and Gordon, showed me that if you bit the "spurs" off of the back--those long, thin petals-- they contained a sweet nectar.  I helped them suck a lot of  nectar out of Grandma Kenison's columbine. She must have wondered what was happening to all of her flowers.  

 I've never mentioned to my own kids or grandkids that they taste so good. 

Don't you mention it to them either!

My Grandma Kenison had a beautiful hedge of lilac planted in her yard along what I think was an old chicken coop, or maybe an old work shed or animal shelter.  I used to love to walk in the space between the hedge and the coop and just enjoy the smell of lilacs.  I've always associated the scent of lilacs with Grandma Kenison.  My yard isn't big enough for a traditional lilac bush, but I do have this fabulous Korean lilac in my front yard. I planted it shortly after we moved to this house, and over the last 23 or 24 years it has grown to its full size of 4 feet. It doesn't have the same scent as Grandma Kenison's lilacs, but it smells so heavenly that I look forward to the 2 weeks in June it's in bloom.

This bleeding heart that endured so much smooshing and a couple of late snow storms is completely recovered and blooming its little hearts out.  I originally planted it in the front year 20+ years ago next to the faucet, but I couldn't get my kids to stop trampling it when they played in the water, so I moved it.  I was pretty sure it would snap back because it has endured so much abuse in the past and managed to recover.

It's amazing to me how long some perennials live, growing stronger and more beautiful each year.  If you can bottle that, I'll be your first customer!