Spring Days, Summer Flowers

I had roses in bloom this morning. Roses. It's not even June quite yet - this has to be the earliest I've had blooming roses in the 18 years we've been in residence. 'Burgundy Iceberg', 'Fragrant Memory' and 'Carding Mill' were open today. "Gertrude Jekyll' and 'Nancy Reagan' are not far behind. 'Peace', alas, has gone to its reward. There are only a few anemic leaves coming out, and those not more than a couple of inches high. My guess is that the voles in that area must have munched on the roots over the winter. Possibly over the last few winters - it's been struggling and declining for a while now. I know, I know - another one is easily come by, but this hurts. It was my late mother's favorite rose, and the first one I purchased for my home. Ah well......

What an extreme spring this has been here in western New York! Everything is pretty much 2 weeks ahead of normal. For instance, my delphiniums are probably a week or less from opening. Typically I don't see flower stalks until the second week in June. I wouldn't be surprised if local strawberries come into the market in the next 10 days (one hopes - yum!). Meanwhile, the iris and the peonies are emerging in all their glory. There's a farmer about 25 miles from here, down a country lane, who sells (and hybridizes) iris and peonies; a great lot of them. Looking at his fields this time of year is not unlike looking at a land-based rainbow. My gardens are graced with many purchases from Mr. Borglum. Every year I say I won't go out there this year. Then it becomes, "Well, I'll go but I won't buy anything". Once I get there, it all goes to hell in the proverbial handbasket and I arrive home with multiple bags of iris and peonies. Some of my favorite iris are simply admired for what they are; the cultivar name is long forgotten. There's a magnificent mahogany-colored one, about 3 feet high with huge, broad flowers. An equally huge, batik-style one in a rich shade of raspberry/grape. As for peonies, I have two beauties. 'Etched Salmon' looks like a David Austin English rose - bright strawberry pink with an almost imperceptible dark pink edging. The other is 'Nancy Nora', a blush-pink bomb type with the light, sweet fragrance I recall from a peony in my parents' yard. It's Borglum's fault. You go out to the beds, point out the clump you want, and he digs it up. If he gets some of the adjacent clump along with it, he'll toss it in. I ask you, how can you turn that down? Stop me before I spend again..........