Peonies and Roses

With the Memorial Day holiday just passed, my mind has turned to cemeteries. The peonies in the graveyards are beautiful here this time of year with everyone decorating the graves for Memorial Day and the peonies blooming on the graves. Until I moved to this area I had never grown peonies. After relocating my mother in law was nice enough to gift me with starts of my own peonies for my farm. Back home everyone planted rose bushes on graves and the graveyards were a great place to collect small cuttings of old heirloom rose bush varieties. Here everyone plants peonies on graves. With all the rains of late the peonies are large and lush as are the roses.  

The roses are also enjoying the mild temperatures and heavy rainfall. and tumble in wild abandon in the flowerbeds and borders among the herbs and irises, peonies and columbine.

None of these are expensive and time consuming tea roses but rather shrub roses passed along by friends and neighbors. Loving shared over the back garden gate as they say. Just farm roses and a bit of food for the soul for the farm wife : )

With straw mulch and lots of rabbit manure these Knockout rose bushes are now huge and lush!

Not as fragrant as some of the older varieties though!

This old Rugosa rose of my mother's smells divine and the smell of rose blossoms just hangs on the air.

The name is long lost but the memories of the person who shared it remain now forever tied with this flower.

And these old red running roses. Blood red with petals like velvet they ramble over a clothesline post.  

The peonies not to be outdone are huge this year. The rain tends to make them a bit ragged but beautiful none the less. Perfection is not a prerequisite for beauty on the farm where  life is slow and simple. Imperfection maybe simply a sign of having lived long and well. 

Again names long lost these flowers will forever more be associated with my mother in law and are passed lovingly to my own daughter whose yard now bears the blooms of her grandmothers flowers as well. Generations pass but the blossoms remain the same. 

The beautiful large red peonies also grace my father in laws grave.

You can see here the size of the blossoms. These peonies grow in with a bed of giant yellow daffodils and naked ladies which is a type of lily similar to the red spider lily for those of you in the south.

The iris blooms are winding down now and I have started cutting them off. 

The perennial salvia has started blooming along with the other summer perennials. 

The columbine are also winding down as they start to set seed pods. The hummingbirds still buzz around them trying to enjoy every last bloom. I will start cutting them off before the seeds set to avoid having a huge crop of seedlings next year : ) 

The yellow yarrow is just starting to open up.

The catmint is large and lush and covered with honey bees. 

Spring has been cool, rainy and wet. Flowers are a nice break from late snows and mud everywhere and indeed food for the soul when it is sorely needed. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter