When I was a boy, I thought scent was contained in dewdrops on flowers and if I got up very early in the morning, I could collect it and make perfume.
Oscar De La Renta
The garden has jumped into hyper-drive with the hot summer air and frequent rain storms that are nourishing the soil and plants. And if I were to try and showcase all that is blooming these days, we might just overdose on flowers….although I am not sure that could actually ever happen for a gardener.
I decided instead to highlight my favorite blooms right now…many are scented and still going strong or just coming on in July which is late for many of these blooms this year. I am linking in with a few memes in this post. First I will be joining Carol@May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.
Roses were quite late this year in blooming. Many are just now blooming and some are still trying to grow back from such a cold winter.
I have a variety of roses from a red Knockout top left to a climber that has bloomed for over a month, ‘William Baffin’ second left. The pale pink top right is an climber whose name I lost. Bottom row consists of a Fairy rose, a pink Knockout, a native swamp rose and a miniature pink rose. The swamp rose has the most incredible scent and is an easy grower. The deer seem to love it and many of my roses for a snack.
Next are the first lilies blooming. I have a variety of lilies of various colors but mostly pink as you can see here and in the picture at the top of the post. I have many more lilies with buds fattening up as we await their perfumed flowers. The deer also love all my lilies and I have to keep spraying them to keep the buggers away.
Lastly are the lavenders that survived the voles and the frigid winter. Many of my lavender died or were chewed to shreds. The hearty souls shown here are coming on strong and producing intoxicating scents for both me and the pollinators.
I thought for this GBBD, I would also show off a few blooms that were casualties of the voles and a recent super storm that ripped through the garden. The lily at the top of the post was found bent over and seemed to need a bit of propping until I found it chewed off at the base. I knew immediately that the voles were laying waste to these perceived monstrosities as they were in the way of one of their favorite paths.
So what better way to show off blooms that are cut for you than to put them in a vase. But I didn’t want to just plop them in a vase and be done with it. I thought instead,’ this would be a perfect time to join in a new meme’. Cathy@Rambling in the Garden has a fun way to showcase your cut flowers called, In a Vase on Monday.
After the voles chewed down a few more lilies, I went about the garden to chose some companions for the vase.
As you can see I chose some of the Shasta daisies blooming, knautias and the wonderful top to a weed called ‘curly dock’. The foliage is from one of my huge baptisias. For my first vase I thought it looked rather lovely.
Here’s a closeup of the flowers.
I wanted to place it in a few spots and liked it in front of our antique china cabinet. You can see the lilies that were not open, did open the next day. The flowers seemed to last a long time which is great to know…I plan to cut more flowers in the future for another vase.
The lily, echinacea and Filipendula rubra ‘Queen of the Prairie’ blew down in the bad storm we had. I added some of the monarda growing wild and used the Filipendula leaves to fill out the vase. Again I really liked this arrangement and found it quite easy to put together. I must confess I have learned a lot by reading the posts on Cathy’s meme.
To end the post I thought I would highlight the wonderful foliage around the garden growing now, and link in with Pam@Digging for her Foliage Follow Up on the 16th, and Christina@Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for her Garden Bloggers Foliage Day on the 22nd.
First are the wonderful beet greens before the deer got to them. I love the look and taste of beet greens. What a perfect veggie beets…you can eat the entire plant from leaf to root. The stems are a particular favorite as they have a mild beet taste.
The early morning light was hitting the summersweet shrub growing next to the house. It is just about to bloom, but I really loved the leaves turning Chartreuse in the dawn light.
This fabulous grass borders one end of my pond near the hidden filter. It is Arundo donax ‘Variegata’ and reminds me of corn growing. It is not as tall this year as it usually gets 7-8 feet tall. But I love how it looks in the early morning light.
This is native Northern Sea Oats that I have growing all about the garden. It is just producing its ‘oats’, and isn’t it stunning lighting up in the waning sunlight.
What would a foliage highlight be without showing off hosta. I love how they look after they have been washed by the rain.
I hope you will visit these wonderful memes to see what other blooms and greens are growing around the world.
It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
And now for something completely different:
As many of you know, I have been blogging once a month at Vision and Verb. The blog will be closing at the end of the month, and while I am sad, I am grateful for the opportunity to have found my voice again. I have been contemplating 
starting a second blog, and now that I have the time, I have gone ahead and done it (with the help of my friend Steven).
I will begin posting next week on Thursdays. While there is not much there yet, you can sign up for a subscription by WordPress, email, Bloglovin or Feedly. I do hope you will join me there too. I do understand that this type of personal blog about life may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you are so inclined I would be happy to see you there.
The name of the blog is Living From Happiness. I also hope to have a Facebook page to go along with the blog soon. So much to do, but I am so excited to continue writing working toward my end goal of writing books.
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Next up on the blog: Thursday, July 17th, I will have a fun food post. And Monday brings another Native Plant profile with Simply The Best Natives.
I am linking in with Michelle@Rambling Woods for her Nature Notes meme. It is a great way to see what is happening in nature around the world every Tuesday.
I hope you will join me for my posts once a month at Beautiful Wildlife Garden.
I can also be found blogging once a month at Vision and Verb. You can find my most recent post today. It will be my last post as the website is closing down at the end of July.
As always, I’ll be joining Tootsie Time’s Fertilizer Friday.
I am also joining in I Heart Macro with Laura@Shine The Divine that happens every Saturday.
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