After a very busy July and a frazzled first week in August, I finally got to the garden today. What joy! I bought three late blooming daylilies Sunday to keep the white phlox company in the front border. Davis Brook Farm http://davisbrookfarm.com/ is a wonderful place to visit. It is located just outside of Hancock village, one of the most picturesque towns in New Hampshire. "Preppy Pink" is in fact a mid-blooming variety, but is still going great guns in August. It is a petite plant with warm pink flowers with a green throat. I planted it amongst the red Coleus. "Bonanza", a fragrant soft yellow with burgundy eyezone went next to the phlox along with Perovskia "Little Spire" and Crocosmia "Lucifer", and an orange species daylily that hasn't yet begun to bloom.
The poor crocosmia spent its best blooming time in a pot in front of my stone wall, and now that the wonderful scarlet flowers have gone to seed, it finally is in the ground. That's just how it goes some times. I am only grateful that it didn't die while waiting around. I was on such a roll, that I dug up the overgrown iris and moved more daylilies around, dividing the "Stella d'Oro", and filling in some holes. I relocated some coral bells into a nice chartreuse grouping and moved a hosta over by the peonies.
I became even more inspired, and divided some over grown "Frances Williams" hosta, and now have numerous little yellow and green-edged hostas taking root on the slope in front of my house. That is such a difficult spot. the mulch runs off in a cloudburst and ends up in my driveway. I am hoping that in a few years the hosta will be thick and ground-cover-ey and won't need mulching. at least it is better than when I first moved here and had to mow a six foot wide strip of grass on a terrace by the road.
I worked till I got staggering silly tired, and then spent the rest of the day in a lawn chair reading my latest mystery (one by Louise Penny http://www.louisepenny.com/) and dozing off. I thought I would let little Esme, my new cairn terrier mix, dig that hole she has been longing to dig, but thought better of it when she started barking in Chinese. I had to drag her away from the hole but she finally settled in under the chair.
Anyway... I have finally gotten to the point of today's blog title, "late summer fragrance". As I sat luxuriating in the recliner, the loveliest lemony fragrance wafted past my nose. The sun had warmed the lemon balm and a breeze was in the air. It made me glad that I hadn't pulled out that weedy spreading plant altogether.
On my walk earlier in the day, I got close to the Clethra a. "Ruby Spice", just the sweetest smelling shrub in bloom. I went over to the potted kumquat trees to check on their fruit, and took a sniff of the blossoms so much like an orange blossom. Then after having moved to the "at long last shady" patio, for my evening glass of wine, the gentlest of fragrances blew by. I don't know what it was, maybe a mixture of fresh dug earth and zinnias, but I felt blessed to have a late summer day in the garden.
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