The summer garden

Sarah was up here on Tuesday for a tiny motor vehicle glitch.

After a quick trip to the DMV....we had a lovely lunch in Mahopac at the Freight House Cafe.
Delicious homemade, healthy food.

Back home, she made and photographed flower arrangements all afternoon. Then cooked a luscious dinner of lamb sausage, raita, and grilled zucchini.

My guests last night thought my porch looked like a flower shop. She brought some flowers with her from the shop, but lots were just cut from my wild garden. The extras she brought from the shop, and left here, looked like an arrangement as it was. So, I put it on my front steps!

now that's what I'm talkin' about

Finally...the unbearable heat on Wed. brought these beauties into full bloom! This is the 3rd year for these two peonies and they are spectacular this year.

Sarah arrived yesterday morning and we made our annual trip to Rudolph Gardens.
Bought a carload of gorgeous perennials and came back to my house to plant:

Mock Orange by the porch door so we can enjoy the lovely fragrance:
Yellow digitalis grows wild in my garden. Sarah planted some in and around the Etruscan pottery relic I found last year at Erie Basin! That's blue bell flower behind.
More yellow digitalis and a new variety added to it...
Sarah composed this lovely color combo with a red lupine, pink/yellow columbine behind some lambs ear...and more digitalis...and a euphorbia myrsinites on the rock...
We had a lovely day even though it was a bit of a busman's holiday for Sarah.

after 2 flower school classes....

I'm ready to venture out on my own. I took a second class at the little flower school on the Saturday before Mother's Day....it was a mother/daughter class...so I 'had' to attend.
My arrangement from that day is gone....(OK I forgot to add water and then I wondered why it wilted)

But today I did one on my own. With some help from Saipua flowers that have been out on my 55 degree porch since Monday. And this time I changed the water and clipped the stems to keep them going.

So I started with a base of Mountain Laurel from my bush out by the front step. It needs to be pruned anyway:

Then I added some "show" flowers. Gorgeous tree peonies....

And then I filled in with solomon's seal, lavender, rosemary sprigs, lambs ear and white iris (from my garden) and more peonies and some garden roses.
Here is the result: (oh and a couple of ranunculus for 'gestures'....)

How'd I do Sarah?

flower girl

Sarah arrived yesterday for the afternoon and evening bringing all sorts of flower goodies from Saipua.

1. forsythia cut from my 'wild' bush in the back.
2. johnny jump ups planted in the pot by the front door.
3. new hellebores for my garden...she planted them, too.
4. last years hellebores coming up....she found it for me.

later a dinner of Penne with Lamb Ragu....thanks to Last Night's Dinner.

did I mention

that I went to flower school yesterday?

The teacher becomes the student.....I took the flowering quince class at Saipua and had such fun.

(daughter) Sarah and Nicolette presented the class in such a lovely way and we each went home with gorgeous arrangements!

I think mine looked a bit better before I got it home....maybe the drive wasn't the best thing for it. But it sure beats sticking a bunch of tulips in a vase and letting the fall where they will.

BTW...those are anemones, purple sweet peas, seeded eucalyptus, jasmine, some lilac, lavender and of courses flowering quince.

Happy Anniversay flowers

from Saipua:
We celebrated 29 years this week.

Dinner home with Sarah and Eric: I made Braised Chicken w/ Artichokes and Peas with Brown Rice and Barley. For a sweet treat: Lemon Cornmeal Cake....all from Epicurious.

Then the next night....dinner out at our favorite local restaurant: Tuscan Oven.

Flowers everywhere

The kids from Saipua came up last night bringing flowers. Such a treat to have magnolia in the house in February along with pink ranunculus.



Dinner was Beef Short Ribs in Chipotle and Green Chili Sauce on top of Baked Cheese Grits. Yummm.
Nea came, too and wanted to see the woodshop!

always flowers

A trip to Brooklyn is always fun.

A visit with Sarah and Eric, lunch out, and always flowers!





These were left from the weekend and are now gracing my kitchen!

Yellow ranunculus and muscari....or grape hyacinths as I always called them. One of my favorites.

Wrapping it up

I spent Sunday at Saipua, while Sarah and Eric were at the Brooklyn Flea. I like being the shopkeeper once in a while and talking to folks that come by.


Yesterday was pretty quite in the neighborhood, it being a holiday weekend and all....so I wrapped soap.



When they came back from the market, the three of us headed over to The Farm for dinner. Great ambiance, delicious food....but no strawberry rhubarb crisp. The only item on the dessert menu that could have convinced me to go for dessert.

I did score some lovely anemones from the shop
before I left....one of my favorite flowers.



Sarah and Eric are in the midst of a very busy
wedding season. For photos of the wedding they did at Wave Hill last weekend, check out this blog at Little Winter Bride.

Love in Bloom

Lilacs from the bushes that I dug up as 'suckers' from my dad's yard years ago....and parrot tulips and astilbe that I brought home from Saipua on Sunday. I love spring! So many flowers in bloom! And the fragrance is amazing!

The only thing I'm missing is peonies. I need to get some this year. Another of my favorite flowers!

Cool Nights, Warm Days

It's a glorious morning and my garden is beginning it's full bloom.

Siberian Iris are beginning to multiply nicely and if you look closely, you'll see slender purple buds getting ready to open in June.

To the left is Rudbeckia. That won't flower for awhile. Lamb's Ear in the right foreground.



These Azaleas were here when I came to this house in 1970. I expect they could be upwards of 60 years old. I've cut them almost to the ground many times.....and they've always given me beautiful blossoms every spring!

Home from Brooklyn with goodies....

Spent a lovely mother's day with daughter Sarah at the Saipua shop in Brooklyn. When we closed the store, she made a scruptious dinner of lamb chops, oven fries and asparagus....AND rosemary aioli....yummmm!

Came home on Monday with these. At left is the lovely dried flower arrangement that Sarah did for my bathroom.



Below are the heirloom tomato seedlings she started weeks ago. These are my share, destined for my garden as soon as the soil warms a bit.