Odds and Ends and Peonies to Dig

Pictures I took today, odds and ends, as the title says. This is a small row of annuals I planted to have some color after the daylilies finished blooming. There are zinnias, marigolds, bachelor's buttons and cosmos. All favorites from childhood. It's a small row, not nearly enough to really replace the sea of color that was the daylilies only a couple of weeds ago, but it cheers me in the morning when I go out for an early walk. They've only just started blooming, so I expect them to get even more colorful soon.

My other annuals planted this year are these balsam plants. It was a package of assorted colors and though they seemed to take forever to start blooming, they are wonderful now. The hummingbirds seem to like them.

Now for the butterfly that had landed on a cosmos. These orange cosmos, planted at the edge of our parking lot last year, that came back from self-seeding.

And this butterfly what was sitting on a butterfly bush - how perfect.

And this is the foliage on those seedling cannas I wrote about a few days ago and which someone asked about. I'm not totally pleased with the picture, but I hope you can see that it is thinner and more of a blue/green than most of the others which have broad leaves in green or variegated patterns. It is also very upright. As I said before, these only seem to grow about 3 feet tall.

A note on peonies. We rarely dig them because the bulk of the peony beds, all 800 or so plants in the collection, have been in place for over 20 years and come close to needing a backhoe (or someone much younger and stronger than we are) to dig. This fall we have decided to dig a dozen or so double pink ones that are in a place that has gotten a bit shadier. They are still blooming, but won't be happy if it gets any shadier than it is now, and I'm replacing them with hostas. So, it you'd be interested in a full sized clump of double pink peonies (check our Facebook page for a photo) let me know. We'll be doing the digging in mid to late October, depending on the weather. Most will be for pickup, though I guess I could ship them. They'll be dormant at that point and so won't mind being in a box for a few days. Anyway, let me know if you'd like one or two.

Jane