A Month of Peonies

Over the past few weeks the peonies have been beautiful. First the bright frilly pinkish red ones in the middle of May…

Then the simpler pink one, a couple of weeks later…

… and now the big fluffy perfumed white ones, tightly closed…

…just opening…

… and in full glory!

Can you smell them? The whole garden is bathed in peony fragrance, and the house too since some of them had to be cut. (They get so top heavy despite staking.)

The last one to open is a new one to my garden, the only one I thought I could name… it has, however, no resemblance to its label! Still, it’s very pretty. It might possibly be “Bowl of Cream”. It is standing up to the heat extremely well, and also has a lovely perfume.

Do you have a favourite fragrance in your garden?

Tuesday at Two (18th June)

Over 32°C (90°F) in the shade… 

… much too hot for walking around the garden! Sadly the peonies are drooping and won’t last long. But I have taken some indoors and will post a few photos soon.

Christina at Creating my own garden of the Hesperides is joining me today, to show her slope on Tuesdays. So take a look at her lovely post, here.

Any ideas of the correct name for this rock plant?

Some kind of Sempervivum I assume? I’m hoping it will flower this year.

I’m now going to chill out! Have a good week everyone!

June and Veronica

The month of June is blithe and gay,

Driving winter’s ills away.

“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.”
L. M. Montgomery

The Month of June

Happy Birthday to my Man of Many Talents!

Hope it’s warm and sunny and work can be put aside for a couple of hours.

xxx

(That’s his birthday cake – Lemony Lemon Cake. You can find the recipe here!)

Wild Orchid

In the shade of a pine tree and under the Kolkwitzia a rare beauty has bloomed. Single flowers have been spotted before in my garden, but this year there are six or seven of these strange plants.

White Helleborine

(Cephalanthera damasonium)

The German name is lovely: Weiße Waldvöglein

Weiß is white, and Waldvöglein is a little woodland bird.

This member of the orchid family prefers chalky limestone soil – exactly what we have here. It is very shy of the sun, and since it is autogamous, i.e. it self-pollinates, it does not depend on insects and is able to flower in very deep shade. In fact the ivory coloured flowers hardly ever really open enough to expose the yellow lip.

In Sarah Raven’s “Wild Flowers” she writes that its pale and somewhat ghostly appearance and upright stance is like “a strait-laced librarian… a spinster who turns herself out neatly in public”!

I have read that the plants take at least eight years to develop from seed, and it can take up to two or three years after that for a flower to form. Although not endangered in Germany, it is therefore a rare find. I’m very pleased that it has found a suitable place in my garden so that I can enjoy it!

Have you ever spotted any rarities in or near your garden?