The nepeta (catnip) was such a tiny thing and being eaten by cats and rabbits, that I put a chime into the bush to scare the critters away. Well it grew so large and bloomed so vociferously that the bees keep hitting the chimes. As a result, the nepeta is a moving and fragrant bush that softly chimes every minute or two.
This is the walkway where Mme. Isaac Periere once dominated. As you can see, the lilies have grown up all around and inside her now, and stand about 10 feet tall. Each bloom is a little bigger than a dinner plate. This garden powerfully scents the entire neighborhood and cars tend to slow down or stop in order to glimpse the source of the scent. All the way in the back you can see an artemesia starting to bush out. This is artemesia abrosanthum, the one from which absinthe is made. What are all those sticks looking so messy? That's lavender just starting to bloom throughout the entire bottom layer of the garden, jutting up into the liles, roses, heliotrope - everywhere. Zack likes to eat the flowers.
The heliotrope has finally begun to bloom. It likes a lot of food and water. The leaves are an incredibly soft velvety texture and the blooms smell like dried black cherries, sweet woodruff (or just sheared hay), warm pie crust, and deep delicious cooking vanilla. You can smell these very tiny flowers all the way to the driveway, even over and above the powerful scent of the lilies. Heliotrope is an amazing fragrance garden additive!
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5 comments:
Oh what a gorgeous garden! Please tell me you eat breakfast outside on the weekends! If not, you should! At least a cup or two of tea!
Yes :-D in fact -- this Saturday I zoomed my first paycheck to the bank, then went straight to Flagg's Garden Emporium and bought a stunning three piece bistro set. I stuck it on the porch right in front of the heliotrope and lilies, and read my Saturday New York Times, with coffee, in my garden, an hour later. It was a blissful weekend, mostly spent at that little bistro set. :-D HUGE GRIN
Oh heliotrope. My grandmother used to let me pick all the flowers in her garden and yard, except for the heliotrope. She was quite precious about it, and the one time I did pluck some I sure got "what for" about it. Whenever I see heliotrope now, I think of my grandma, and how much she loved it. I've yet to find a heliotrope perfume that exactly nails the actual plant down. Some come close or get certain aspects of it correct, but there is nothing that is precise.
oooh, I'm so jealous of your garden. I can't even grow a potted spider plant in this dump.
Your garden is lovely! Mine is more sparse (I only have lilies), but doing very well :) And how is Zzzzzack? Is he up to munching on flowers now?
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