Tell Mr. DeMille ...

...we're ready for our close up.

I find the small details of how flowers are put together really fascinating and surprisingly beautiful. Especially when it comes to the pistels and stamen. (I will have to ask Owen again which is which.)

[Click on any image for a magnified view.]

Verbascum (mullein)

Gaura

Cosmo (the first one came out this morning)

The sweet peas have been growing but not making buds. July is supposed to be way too late for peas anyhow, but I thought it would be worth a try to protect them more from the heat and sun.

I was rewarded with a sweet pea blossom yesterday.

Climbing Mount Fuji


















We have a lot of snails in our garden this year, which probably isn't considered a good thing. But so far, it hasn't caused any problems. (However, I think I ought to read up on it before there are problems.) This snail is several feet up a mullein stalk, on its way down. I guess there's not much to do at the top of a mullein stalk: admire the view, then head back. It reminded me of this haiku by Issa:

Climb Mount Fuji,
O snail,
but slowly, slowly.

Because I like Issa, here is another of his haiku:

Approaching my village:

Don't know about the people,
but all the scarecrows
are crooked.












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June issues forth

Roses (or Rose, as the case may be)

After a spell of crazy hot weather, the garden is now licking its wounds, and, thanks to plenty of rain and a dose of nice weather, doing okay. (I know how concerned you were.) It's June again in Brooklyn, and that means roses.














[Click on any image for a magnified view.]

The first bloom of roses, which was plentiful and luxurious, got scorched. This time around they're holding back. There is only one rose right now.



Oh ye of little faith!

Admit it, you thought that the dogwood was a dud. You thought it was DOA and would end as expensive compost fodder. Not so fast, sister!





















Maybe it was just waiting for that wave of 99-degree weather before coming into its own. If so, it will be quite happy in our Brooklyn backyard. We get lots of that 99-degree weather, just usually in August, not June.







* * *


Personally, I had no idea what mullein was capable of. I'm pretty impressed! It's got to be about five feet tall now.


















Another mullein plant is a bit behind, but looking nice as well.


















Gaura and friends

I didn't even know that gaura existed until Robert gave me this plant last year for Mothers Day or our anniversary or something.















This variety is called "Ballerina" and Robert picked it out for me because at the time, I was finishing up a book about ballerinas. (Ballerina Dreams: A True Story, published by Feiwel & Friends). I really like it -- sort of wild and refined at the same time. It has just started blooming.

Other friends are still getting warmed up. The hollyhock is stretching up and soon it will bloom for the first time -- I only planted it last year.

















And then there is the Mystery Plant #2. Its buds are starting to form. I keep expecting to have my memory jogged -- after all, I am the one who bought it and planted it -- but I'm still at a loss.

















They call me spready ...















Ah, lamium. It never holds back, it just leaps at life, and anything else it encounters. Usually I pull some out every other day or so, but I left it just so that I could take this photo and write about it here. (Pathetic, I know.)

This is what it was doing a few weeks ago. Actually, I weeded it heavily after this photo; since then it's come back, and then some.
















Jolanta is my dear neighbor who first gave me a little clump of lamium a few years ago, duly warning me of its homesteading tendencies. Jolanta, if you are reading this, please don't take my good-natured rants personally. Do forgive me, as I have forgiven you. ;-)




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