Sunday, May 29, 2005

The garden explodes into bloom

I planted this salvia "May Night" last spring. Salvia is really just a showy sage. May Night, voted plant of the year 1997, has a very pungent smell, a cross between a strong sage and a sexy lily. May NIght's fragrance fills the air around one big area of the garden. It started blooming about a week ago but this morning, I found bees and butterflies working it like mad. Below it is my first rose of the year. It bloomed this morning! It is a Madame Isaac Periere, my favorite rose because of it's extremely strong raspberry-rose fragrance, and it occupies a special garden near the front of the house where its ten to fifteen foot canes are arched and pegged to the ground for maximum flower production. My irises and rhododendrons are also in bloom in great bunches everywhere. The red rhodo is about twelve feet high and in front of it are several long swaths of iris pallida (the one used in perfumery). If you get within 10 feet of the irises you literally choke from the strong sweet fragrance. The bottom photograph captures the insane color but not the power of the massed bloom. It's like a circus out there!



1 comment:

Kate said...

Love the pictures. I have "May Night" too and I love it. It blooms for so long. :-)