Tangled Brush

Things are growing in the magic corner. The mystery flower faded - I now know it was a kind of columbine! New and wondrous things growing here lately: Black eyed Susan: And this mysterious plant. What is it? It wasn't here last year. At first I thought it might be Chinese lantern, those bright orange, papery pods that are so popular at Halloween. But after some vigorous research (taking all of 5 min on all knowing Google) I kind of wonder if it might be Cape Gooseberry. All I know is, it wasn't here last year!  What is the latest mystery plant from this ever surprising garden? Time will tell! 

Watch this space, for sunflowers are a -growing! These are GIANT sunflowers! I think they will look nice against the fence, if the voracious squirrels leave them alone (my neighbors have warned me). This is the highly neglected side patch of lawn. It had scary big dandelions and thistles last summer. Even this spring there were a lot of dandelions but they seem smaller. I went to work digging up a patch and adding bags of sheep manure, determined to make a garden out of it. In my mind I have dubbed it the 'Arizona' garden, and have put in plants that, to my mind, do well in dry, arid conditions. (I still don't have a hose for the front, so this is not just me being fanciful!) Sunflowers, cosmos and wildflowers - all from seed, no less! I also planted orange marigolds, sapphire blue lobelia, and colourful portulaca, that dessert succulent with rose-like blooms. Everything seems pretty happy! I had portulaca in my garden growing up. I recalled it as being low

Now these are the tendrils that nobody minds - those of the glorious purple clematis! A close up? But of course! An odd thing (to me, who knows little about the ways of clematises - or is it clematii? Clematae?) is that some of the blooms had 4 petals, some had 5, and some had 6! We have been in this house a year now, so I did actually have the pleasure of seeing this last year. So when the first tendrils came twirling up, I knew what a glorious show we were in for. Last year the trellis was positioned insecurely, against the patio railing, and the whole mass fell down, which made me feel bad. This year it is against the wall, and seems more secure. My grandfather had a clematis at his house, so I have fond memories of these flowers. A photo of moi with the clematis? Mais oui! I am wearing a flowered dress, of course!

I think it is pretty big news that my cornflowers are blooming! I grew them 'from seed', which is what real, cool gardeners do! I planted them in mid-May, 'after all danger of frost had passed' (we had snow on May 8!) but I do think I could have planted them sooner, as lots of other things were growing then, even with the cold temperatures. Yesterday I saw that a house on the main road had cornflowers blooming; thick stems, many blooms - brilliant blue and pale pink flowers. I rushed home to see if mine had bloomed yet. They had! I had pale pink... Burgundy... And a modest bud that harkened to be the deep blue that I was so longing for. Yay! It opened up a little today, and I tried to take a photo, but it was waving around in the wind, and I couldn't get a clear shot. Many buds, so I am looking forward to more blooms!

Lilies are blooming all over the neighborhood. I felt left out until, yesterday when... my garden roared at me! I had been keeping an eye on this plant, and I rather thought it was a tiger lily, but something is eating it, and I wasn't sure the scraggly plant would amount to much. It did, and spectacularly! There are two buds that also look good, so I will have a splash of orange in the garden for a few weeks! Alas, another, weaker plant beside it has been totally eaten by some vicious creature, including the bud. You can see the poor thing in the picture. Grrr..

M is for mystery! There is a neglected spot (yes, one of many!) behind the house that, last year, had a healthy crop of deadly nightshade (swiftly pulled out by me when discovered - I have little children!). This year there is milkweed growing profusely, which makes me happy because, monarch butterflies and all. A neglected spot...wouldn't it benefit from the addition of some POPPIES??? I love poppies, I love them so much. The red silken skirts of the blooms, the black eyes, the leaves that look prickly but aren't. Such romance to them. I picture golden fields of wheat, with scarlet poppies dancing amongst them. And, of course, the poppies of Flanders Fields, the poem which always makes my eyes prickle. Poppies were always in the plan for this garden, no matter how long we stay here (or don't). And so, I planted poppies! The first place I put them was in a small brick-encircled patch in the main backyard (more on that later) in early May (about 8 weeks ago). I al