Ask and you shall receive?!

Yesterday I said I hoped the dry spell of writing and weather were coming to an end and at the last check of the rain gauge we had received 4 inches since yesterday afternoon and its still coming down with verve out there.  This is more rain than we've had in the past two or three months combined!  The creeks will be out of their banks for sure.  I'm very relieved, we had reached a critical point of dry in our garden here at home and all three of the community gardens were almost out of water with no source other than rainwater to rely on.  This deluge will definitely be filling up the cisterns and rainbarrels and hopefully carry all the gardens forward for a while now.

In respect to my reference yesterday to creating more time for myself, I gave my notice today at Camellia Forest.  After over 3 years of off an on work there, mainly during the busy shipping seasons of spring and fall, I made the decision it was time for me to move on and focus on other priorities, like writing and taking care of my own garden.  It's been an interesting chapter in my life, being able to walk to work through the woods, doing physical work outdoors, and learning more than I ever imagined about camellias.  I also added lots of exceptional new plants to my garden including some very special trees and shrubs.  I made some good new friends with my co-workers there and will miss seeing them on a regular basis.  I appreciated the flexibility I was given to take extended leaves to travel, but I won't miss working outside when its 95 and humid or 45 and raining!  Another work life chapter draws to a close.

On the home front I'm featuring some peonies today, I'm sure this rain will put the few remaining flowers in the mud but they are my favorite and so I have to share some pics from a bit earlier in the season.  At the top is a lovely the name of which I cannot remember.  Just above is a new addition called Moonstone. This photo does not do justice to the tranluscent quality of the outer petals upon first opening, the palest of pinks and almost transparent, like vellum.  I see where they got the name.

And last up another new variety, Raspberry Sunday. A bit gaudy and well, thats one of the reasons to grow peonies, is it not?  This one has an ethereal fragrance; a cross between rose and lemon, scrumptious.  My only regret about peonies is the shortness of their bloom season.  For about 3 weeks we crowd the house with vases of their giant fragrant pompoms, piles of silky petals fall to the tables and countertops, and we are sad when the last one nods its head for the season.  It seems the most fragrant flowers come in springtime; roses, peonies, dianthes, lilies of the valley, bearded iris.  The hedgerows have been heavy lately with the scent of honeysuckle, so seductive but sadly, so invasive.  If you can recommend any flowers with fragrance that bloom in the heat of a Carolina summer, please send your ideas my way.