garden june 2014

peony garden planted last year with a dozen peonies

garden update of the season.  dahlias are in, all 235 of them across 60 or so varieties.  the bleeding hearts and lilies of the valley came and went in a short-lived but glorious burst.  the poppies are reaching peak.  zinnias and cosmos are coming up.  peonies are about to open.  clematis are climbing and blooming.

'bourbon' clematis

the clematis are having a great time, with bourbon being the most vigorous out of my 6 varieties.  but a few others are really trying to put on a good show.  i've been drenching them with an aerated tea of compost, kelp and fish.  my fingers smell like fish for days afterwards, but worth it.  the plants seem to love it.

my strawberries that i planted yesterday are definitely bearing the fruits of my labor (quite literally).  they were pitiful little things but look at them now!  i think i messed up with planting them last year; buried the crowns too deeply.  perhaps that delayed fruiting last year; no matter, this year's crop seems to be making up for it.

yeah, it's a constant struggle with sweet peas.  really i need a cold frame to properly raise the seedlings.  these don't look bad but it's a gamble as to whether they'll bloom before it gets too hot.

i have poppies on the left and cosmos on the right.  well, next year i've decided to do an entire bed of poppies.  i bought pint size 'champagne bubble' poppy plants from a wholesale grower in town.  plan to do the same thing next year, but this time i hope to snag a pink one.  this year, i seem to have only white, yellow and orange, which are great and all but a little more color variety would be nice.  the cosmos are doing well.  not much to say other than they're fairly easy to germinate.

close up of the peony garden.  they're about to blow!!!

dahlia beds 1 and 2, same ones as last year.  the weeding shouldn't be so bad this time around.

dahlia beds 3 and 4, new ones.  our plan is to wait until the weeds get a little taller and then start yanking them out and cover with mulch.

sensation lilacs

sensation lilacs with champagne roses, mock orange, ninebark and parrot tulips

spring in nyc seems to turn into summer within a few weeks time and the transition feels even faster now that i'm older.  i suppose that's the benefit of having a garden further north; at least we get to hold onto spring for a bit longer.

i was perusing the flower market over the weekend, mostly to prepare for a wedding later this month.  with my eyes full of hope, i stopped shop after shop asking whether flowering branches (any other than mountain laurel -- color doesn't work) would be around.  give me something, people -- viburnum, spirea, lilacs (no hope of that)!  all i got is check in two weeks beforehand.  boo!  i have a back-up plan but flowering branches make large arrangements so effortless and so good.

i couldn't walk away empty-handed though.  there were bales and bales of beautiful lilacs from canada and i had to grab a bunch.  and then i had a moment with my lilacs.  i pressed them against my nose and i took a deep yoga-style inhale.  their perfume is so perfect.  these sensation lilacs are sensational.

mother's day 2014 and upcoming garden work

another year, another mother's day.  unlike last year, i was in the city to make and deliver arrangements.  we are thoroughly exhausted and will spend the rest of the week saving our energy for garden work this weekend.

our garden is in western mass and the climate there seems to be 2-4 weeks behind nyc (it's a very cold zone 5a).  i hear that my hellebores from last year are in bloom and perhaps some of the other ones i planted earlier produced a second flush of blooms.  and i'm excited to see how the poppies, foxgloves, bleeding hearts and columbines are faring.  back in march i trimmed back and re-tied my clematises; i think one will bloom earlier this year.  it's my third year for these clematises and two of the three are going really strong.

for this coming weekend, we have to dig new beds, order compost, buy more plants (perennials and annuals) and plant some of my seedlings that i've been doting on in my apartment.  i have some sweet peas that needed to go in a month ago but obligations have kept me from doing so.  so they will be a complete experiment as to how long they'll last into summer.  my zinnias are suffering from aphids and i'm picking them off and killing by hand.  ugh.  it was going so well until it wasn't.

but anyways, more mother day arrangements below filled with loads of peonies.  peonies get me every eff-ing time.

heck yeah, carnations!

hand-tied bouquet of carnations, fritillaries, sweet peas, tres chic tulips, foxgloves,
hellebores, pistachio foliage and lemon leaf

i had some extra flowers left over and a whole bunch of carnations and somehow the perfect ribbon to go with the color palette.  

i used to be a carnation hater way back when they only came in garish colors of pinks, reds and purples.  and let's not mention the whites ones that asians use for funerals.  uh huh.  once flowers go there, it's hard to mentally come back.  but plant breeders got smart and developed delicate muted hues that's so irresistible.  and so easy to fall in love with.

spring flowers

arrangement of hellebores, clematis, peonies, lilacs and viburnum

i seem to do a post every april featuring peonies, so this is my 2014 contribution.  we're doing a wedding this weekend and our very tiny studio apartment is getting pretty full with loveliness.  sigh -- flower problems.  they're really the only type of problems to have.  should we include more peonies or sweet peas or poppies?  terrible decisions, really.  honestly, if the world stopped to smell the roses, perhaps there would finally be peace.  funny how nature can do that….

for you, Q, photos taken with mamiya 645AFD (i can't justify the expense of a contax 645, hence with a very used model from ebay) and some fuji 400H film.  the results aren't bad either.

arrangement of coral peonies, ranunculus, hellebores and viburnum

bouquet of lilacs, hellebores, ranunculus and viburnum

peonies and lilacs from last year

coral peonies accompanied by purple lilac, spirea, pink hawthorn, pennycress and astrantia

combing through the archives the other day and found these.  i arranged this same time last year.

growing and wedding season is now hitting me at full force, with a wedding in the coming weeks and another trip to massachusetts to plant hellebores, sweet peas, etc.  i now have stuff growing in my parents backyard and this weekend invading pete's parents home too.  we're trying to get a place of our own (now searching for 2+ years), but nothing and more of nothing.

so my family and friends can tell you that i can get single-minded about stuff (i.e., obsessive compulsive, and i'm not ashamed).  i've decided that my next skill is to bake really good cakes.  pete and i have been indulging ourselves in old episodes of the mind of a chef and just finished an episode of christina tosi and her cakes.  and now i'm inspired.  watch out, waistlines of my friends and family!

yay, pink hawthorn!

monthlies

i tend to have flowers around pretty much all the time, sometimes freshly cut, other times not so much (but as any florist would say, even flowers a few days old are still worth hanging onto).  a few of my very loyal customers asked me about doing seasonal arrangements on a monthly basis.  deal is any flower combo my heart desires and any time that works for me.  are you kidding me?  i feel like people are paying me to run around and be a kid all over again (actually, that is what's happening).  so here's the first in the series -- poppies, bleeding hearts, columbines, ranunculus, andromeda and viburnum.