PARADISE LOST

Click on this link to see My Lost Garden This is the garden I made. This is the place the hirelings of the municipality of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, sanctioned by the mayor and town council, invaded, on 11 August 2011 to cut my trees.  They took more that twenty-five year trees. They also took away my sense of being secure in my own property. May it never happen to you.I have been working in this garden since 1989. I started planting flowers and trees before my house was built. Now it is all tainted by this act of violence and thuggery.

LOVE THAT SAXIFRAGALE

A fine silver peony by Anne Choi, my favourite bead maker.

California peony.

Athena, a Saunders peony.

Duchesse de Nemours.

It is time to plant peonies. My choices, Duchess de Nemours and Baroness Schroeder, date back to the mid-eighteen hundreds. That happens to coincide with the period when French hybridisers released more than a hundred Noisette roses into the global market. West Virginia is not Noisette country. They need warmer climate such as that of South Carolina where Philippe Noisette brother grew the first Blush Noisette from seeds of a cross between a pink China rose and R.moschata. White, fragrant Sombreuil is an exception to that rule. It grows beautifully in Zone 6 and I suspect that Gloire de Dijon would do fine if planted next to a wall with southern exposure.

Good old Festiva Maxima partners my Sombreuil well--my Gloire de Dijon is still its infancy--but just as one can never be too rich, one can never have enough peonies. The good thing is there is a huge variety from which to choose. The bad thing is that there is a huge variety from which to choose. Peek at Klehm's Song Sparrow catalog and you will see how easy it would be to fling caution to the window and order a truckload of, say, Saunders' Athena. Multiply sixty dollars by a truckload and you might be flirting with insolvency. It might be more sensible to pick Coral Charm, which costs only twenty four dollars. But either is a good investment. Peonies multiply and they usually outlive those who plant them. What better legacy to leave than a lovely peony border?

Gardeners who prefer all American plants might want to look at California peonies, one of our native species. I have no problems with immigrants. French, Japanese, Dutch peonies are all welcome in my garden. I am currently eyeing the yellow Bartsella, an Itoh peony. It would look lovely with Gloire de Dijon.

BULB AND RHIZOME HUNGER

BULB AND RHIZOME HUNGER

Gardeners need incentives from time to time. It is a given that as the temperature and humid climb, energy flags to the point that some of us need to fix our hopes on future rewards. Mid-June is one of the stages of intense work in my garden. Basically, I am trying to tame a jungle that wants to revert to its original state. Consequently, it requires constant vigilance as an increase in rainfall infuses new crops of weeds and invasive trees with astonishing vigor.

This is the time plant nurseries choose for hard to resist sales. My mailbox overflows with tantalising offers from some of my favorite purveyors of glorious plants--Whiteflower Farms, Bluestone Perennials, Jung Seeds and Logee's, among others. Being a plant lover rather than I designer, I succumb. That is how I find myself in possession of twenty four peonies--the white Baroness Schroder, pink Sarah Bernhardt and red Kansas, and assortment of yellow and blue German irises. This only awakens my appetite for more, more and more bulbs and rhizomes whose flowers I will enjoy at a cooler and less hectic time.

Ideally, I would plant a huge drift of white peonies--the beginnings, perhaps of a moon garden. would choose Nick Shailor, Duchesse de Nemours and Bowl of Cream. To those I would I would add Bridal Icing, Camellia Heart, Crystal Cream, Elsa Sass and Moonstone, all available at Klehm's Song Sparrow, home of some of the most delectable peonies. Those should do nicely with the white Fialla's Remembrance, Krasavitsa Moscow and Edith Cavell lilacs I bought from Bluestone Perennials, Jung's seeds and miller's Nurseries, respectively. The white peonies I got from Freecycle last summer bloomed so beautifully with my Sombreuil rose I can envision an enormous border filled with peonies and roses. My budget is the catch. In order to execute such a plan I need to hire a couple of sturdy helpers, come up with amendments for the impoverish soil that lies beneath the lawn, as well as pay for the plants I will no doubt decide I must add to the border.

I will probably order a few more peonies though June seems a strange time in which to plant them. Those I added to the garden last year did well and that convinced me to take advantage of summer sale. My purchases will be modest, all the same. In theory, I will get truckloads of roots and rhizomes. In practice, I will pare my list to suit my means. That is OK. I am hard pressed to keep up with the garden as it is.

ALMOST HEAVEN

It doesn't het much better than this.

Pass-along peony.Festiva maxima?

Coral Charm's swan song.

Da Bomb peony

Krinkled White peony

Japanese peony

LET THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME

Enzo, named after the Enzo Ferrari racing car, rest in the spice barrel after a dip in the fish pool.

Please note snail damage to basil seedlings in foreground. French persons fond of sizzling the critters responsible in garlic butter may apply for the post of Escargot Hunters. As for me, well, I can try the old trick of baiting them--the escargot, not the French persons--with beer, but it seems a misuse of Stella Artois. I can also surround the basil with a nice layer of sand, which the beasties find unpleasant to navigate. Somehow the garlic butter treatment seems more appropriate.

The inner Enzo, photographed by the Ferrari makers.

Hybridiser Sam McGredy relied on the apple scented, pink Bantry Bay shrub and red, single flowered climber Altissimo to produce this gorgeous Dublin Bay shrub in 1976. Often paired with white Iceberg, for contrast, it is a slow growing pillar rose suitable for small spaces.

Sombreuil rose and peony.

Sweetly scented, remontant Hermosa, introduced in 1832, is one of the few Chinas capable of surviving zone 6 winters. In his informative Antique Rose Emporium catalog Michael Shoup mentions that it was a popular container rose for European window gardens. At the Brambles, it firs beatly under the Persian lilacs in the doorway garden.

Heritage, the only English rose to survive in my garden, blooms at the same time as Siberian iris Flight of Butterflies, Shasta daisies, Fortuniana and Sir Thomas Lipton roses.

Another shot of Sombreuil and peony.

Three shots of coral peony taken at half hour intervals.

Photos

Rhododendron is our state flower. This one, grown from a cutting, took four years to bloom.

Rolling salad is a moveable feast.

Snow peas, beets, peppers with potato bin and asparagus and berry bed in the background.

A Klehm peony is a work of art.
While purchased from Klehm's Song Sparrow Farm, Coral Charm is a Samuel Wissing-Roy Klehm creation.








Much maligned multiflora rose has a delicate charm.

The first Sombreuil rose of the season glimmers in the rain.

Peony Coral Charm after a rain shower.

Coral Charm in softer light.

Sir Thomas Lipton continues to dazzle.

Yellow rugosa's scent

earns it a sunny place in the garden.




Cecile Brunner explodes into color.

Rain drenched Cecile Brunner.

A better shot of the windowsill project.

Cecile Brunner yet again.

Fortuniana rose is a joy to behold.

William Baffin rose bud.