Behold a New Poppy, Thanks to the Bees!

"Munstead" English lavender is in bloom in a drift across the front of one of my raised beds. I've yet to do anything terribly crafty or delicious with my lavender, but I'm open to any ideas! I've read that lavender induces delta waves of sleep on an EEG and its smell alone can replace sleeping pills. My deep-seated lavender-memory is from university days, when I tried to mask the smell of cadavers with a lab coat steeped in lavender essential oil. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but later I had some creepy lavender flashbacks.

Lily "Cote d'Azur" is a great little pink lily. Most impressively, I started with one plant and now I seem to have them all over my yard. Lilies are so amazingly hardy and resistant to my division techniques, which often result in lily beheadings.

I'm really excited about this new garden event: Behold the purple poppy (A).

Then, behold the pink and mauve poppy (B).

Take a bee that likes purple and pink poppies and you have: Pink and Purple Poppy (A+B=C). This is my second year of growing Papaver somniferum and I find this little genetic shuffle rather neat! I 'll be taking seeds from this one and spreading them around.

Pink poppies and blue cornflowers. Both self-seeded. What a pair!

The flowerbed alongside the driveway contains some flourishing perennials and a rose that survived my harsh pruning this spring. In fact, I think it looks pretty good!

Lavender Triumph

LA Hybrid Lilies: Probably "Fangio", a dark reddish-pink Asiatic hybrid (crossed with Aurelians/Trumpets).
Close-up of one of the tall Delphinium elatum "Summer Skies".



I am very excited about the survival of the lavender (Lavendula angustifolia "Munstead") which grows in the perennial border next to the driveway (loaded with snow in winter) and in the rockgarden on a slope (no special protection). This is apparently a dwarf strain and the hardiest of English lavenders. Its foliage and flowers smell lovely and I wish I had huge patch of it. Veseys calls it zone 4, others call it zone 5. Essentially, this is a ground-breaking triumph...or maybe it's just global warming.