{"id":2399,"date":"2011-05-24T11:49:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T15:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2011-05-24T11:49:57","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T15:49:57","slug":"maximum-may-slugfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/?p=2399","title":{"rendered":"Maximum May Slugfest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Catmint\/Baptesia\/Coral Bells Rose Garden<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a lot going on in the gardens right now. \u00a0Everyday a new flower emerges and Beth rearranges what is showing in the house as well. \u00a0Even as things change there is one constant theme for May and that is a struggle for our attention between the Iris and the Peonies. \u00a0This is the first year for the Itoh Peonies to bloom for us. \u00a0They are a wonderful combination of the best of the foliage and form of the Tree Peonies and the fullness of the normal herbaceous lactiflora varieties. \u00a0And, unlike the full-flowered lactifloras, they do not flop. \u00a0Not that I would complain about any of the Peonies \u2014 they are all wonderful \u2014 but we are really liking the Itohs, especially Julie Rose.<\/p>\n

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Itoh Peony 'Julie Rose'<\/p><\/div>\n

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Itoh Peony 'Singing in the Rain'<\/p><\/div>\n

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Last flower from the Yellow Tree Peony<\/p><\/div>\n

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Paonia lactiflora 'Honey Gold'<\/p><\/div>\n

We often bring the Peonies inside for closer enjoyment. \u00a0They last fairly well and many have a nice fragrance (especially Festiva Maxima). \u00a0But it is hard to compete with the eye-stopping display that the Bearded Iris provide.<\/p>\n

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Bearded Iris<\/p><\/div>\n

They need constant attention \u2014 the buds in flower change daily and the dead flowers have powerful dyes when they drop. \u00a0But the colors are superb and the fragrance grabs your attention when you walk by. \u00a0In the garden they pull you toward their sentinel flowers from a distance seem to be impervious (like the Peonies) to deer predation. \u00a0This purely cranberry colored Iris is one of my favorites.<\/p>\n

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Cranberry colored Bearded Iris<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to their fragrance and color the Iris are also so very distinctive in the architecture of the flowers. \u00a0They have exquisite detail that rewards close examination.<\/p>\n

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Iris 'Ginger Snap' profile<\/p><\/div>\n

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Iris Beard<\/p><\/div>\n

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Orange Iris Beard<\/p><\/div>\n

Even with all the attention given to the Iris and Peonies, I would be not be serving by constituent flowers fairly if I didn’t mention a couple of other star performers right now. \u00a0The Baptisia are looking better than ever and the variety ‘Twilight’ makes a lovely photo subject.<\/p>\n

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Bapteisia 'Twilight'<\/p><\/div>\n

And for an ex-California I was delighted to see that the California Poppies that I planted last spring have decided to come up this year.<\/p>\n

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Calif Poppy in bud<\/p><\/div>\n

I should also mention the creatures that have been visiting. \u00a0The first hummingbird of the year has come zooming past with it’s motorboat-sounding wings. \u00a0There have also been a lot more clearwing moths than I remember previously.<\/p>\n

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Clearwing Moth<\/p><\/div>\n

I enjoy their high tech sunglasses and long proboscis.<\/p>\n

And then there was the Black Snake that we noticed while eating dinner on the deck last night.<\/p>\n

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Black Snake Planter<\/p><\/div>\n

Think of this as a new design for planters…<\/p>\n

This is also the time for the monthly photo contest at Gardening Gone Wild<\/a> and the focus this month is on lighting with Macro Images. \u00a0I looked at using one of the images above but I’m going to return instead to a favorite closeup shot of a backlit Tulip where the light just seemed to emanate from the base of the flower.<\/p>\n

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Tulip 'Flaming Purissima'<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a lot going on in the gardens right now. \u00a0Everyday a new flower emerges and Beth rearranges what is showing in the house as well. \u00a0Even as things change there is one constant theme for May and that is a struggle for our attention between the Iris and the Peonies. \u00a0This is the first year for the Itoh Peonies to bloom for us. \u00a0They are a wonderful combination of the best of the foliage and form of the Tree Peonies and the fullness of the normal herbaceous lactiflora varieties. \u00a0And, unlike the full-flowered lactifloras, they do not flop. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,29],"tags":[26,38,52],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insectsetc","category-flowers","category-ggw-photo-contest","tag-butterflies","tag-flowers","tag-ggw-photo-contest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/2418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}