On a beautiful, warm day I walked the gardens looking at and enjoying the serendipitous floral pairings and singular blooms, innocent of what was to come.
A "black" iris and the first pink peony blossom to open make drama together!
Red Flanders poppies and blue cornflowers. Soon, the cloud tansy amidst these blooms will open and create a patriotic display of red, white, and blue!
Shasta daisies in an old rustic half whiskey barrel make a pretty display.
A lavender iris softens the look of the cracks in the block barn .
In the Back Garden, a curving path beckons past a fragrant yellow rose to a shady sitting area under an old elm.
And, then...
...the wind began to blow at 3:00 a.m. on Friday morning before the Memorial Day weekend. It's force as it slammed into the Cottage awakened me as I shot out of bed and began to close all open windows.
Soon a full scale windstorm was howling around the Cottage flattening plants, bowing trees. Shingles flapped on the roof. Chickens huddled under bushes, and cats headed for the block barn. For two wind-shredded days the air was filled with flying branches and twigs making it unsafe to go outside.
During a brief lull in the storm I darted outside and rescued all the peony blossoms and brought them in lest they be shredded before I had a chance to enjoy them.
Sunday morning the wind stopped and I emerged from the house into the tattered gardens. Wind-ripped leaves carpeted the lawn and flower beds looking like they'd been through a grinder. The front parking area outside the fence was littered with twigs.
Blessedly, no large limbs fell from the old elms just twigs and small branches which once raked will be broken up by treading on them and recycled onto many of the garden paths as decorative mulch.
The shingles flapping on the roof managed to stay in place. The wind devastated the iris which had been at their glorious peak.
Iris throughout the gardens were wind seared and shriveled.
My beautiful black iris, also at their peak, were bowed down by the wind and sucked of moisture.
Leaves on apple and other trees, and vines, appear blighted, but it's actually wind-caused damage.
Rescued peony blossoms pair nicely with centranthus in bouquets upstairs and down.
* * * *
Abundance is...the first perfect peony blossom of the season!
I LOVE peonies! Unfortunately, they don't grown in Southern California.
Posted by: Maureen (Mo) Hemler | 05/29/2012 at 08:56 PM