Peonies and Roses Doing Today's Weather

According to my sources, it's wet outside. Again.

Some Peonies I Have Followed and Envied

Not so long ago, less than two months back it was, these blooming peonies were just emerging out of the ground after winter. Most trees were still leafless then and only the earliest of the spring flowers like daffodils and magnolias were in bloom.

Time seems to fly to me in spring, and  perhaps this is so because so much happens it is hard to keep up. 

Seriously??? Styrax japonicus, (Snowbell), Sensational!

Wowser! Does this pretty little tree look sensational catching the mid-morning sunlight or what?

And it smells delicious too? Ding ding ding! I am sold.

Styrax japonicus, you had me at hello.

Deutzia! You Might Be an Old-Timey Garden Plant, but You are New to Me

I have been waiting on a name for a plant for a few weeks now, ever since the flower buds on a shrub caught my eye one morning.

I made it my habit to stop and visit this plant every chance I got, just to see how those sweet star-tipped buds were developing, all the while wondering what the flowers I was waiting on would look like.

Did all the waiting and watching pay off? I'd say so. Yesterday I discovered that my mystery shrub was a Deutzia. And I have a new spring crush!

On May's Showers and Flowers

I could no more have counted all the raindrops than all of May's flowers this year. Though it seemed most days it was either raining or threatening to, in the end May departed on a dry evening and June flew in this morning whistling a sunny tune with the Kousa dogwoods in bloom.

Forget counting the blooms or raindrops. Try counting or naming just May's many colors.

What exactly is the color of Catmint and the name of that flower that looks like a star or a dangling bell or a ball full of stars?

I remember the first spring after I started gardening, it was as if I had never seen a spring before and it felt like it was entirely possible that I had been walking around with my eyes closed for most of my life until that moment. 

I have been smitten ever since.