Home Through the Garden

The new gate bars unwanted intruders from my garden, but you are with me, so lets go inside with the night insects to see what is blooming.  

As soon as we shut the gate behind us, the soft lavender blooms of irises catch our attention. Right before the irises, against the stone wall we see a patch of cup plants Silphium perfoliatum the plants are already close to three feet tall. They will be seven or eight feet high by the time they bloom with a profusion of yellow sunflowers, each three-four inches across. Notice in the back, near the arbor gate how the white peonies shine.  How could a moth or other night creature resist?

Lets go a bit further. Behind the log blacksmith shop are some delicate white irises backed by an airy blue flower whose name I don not know.  I have been told that it was a bottle brush flower, but it doesn't look like any pictures in the books or online.  The unopened iris buds look like paintbrushes dipped in thick white paint.

 I wonder if any night creatures visit the bird bath sitting amid the hostas beneath a Kousa dogwood? Its center is painted with a large blue and yellow sunflower. There is a pair of thrushes that visit it in the day.  I suspect they have a nest nearby but I haven't found it yet. Tonight the bath is unoccupied.

Before we leave the garden, exiting through the bell gate let's take one last look back toward some Siberian irises, their graceful stems gently swaying with the night breeze. 

All is now dark in the garden.The dim light from my kitchen invite us in for a cup on tea but first let's admire the pink blush of an opening peony. For tonight we say, "Good-bye."