Sunflower Magic

No, this is not a sunflower field in the south of France or in the hills of Italy....

It's in my backyard in Upstate New York! And really, to be very honest with you, i didn't even PLANT these sunflowers...the birds did!

Stray sunflower seeds must have dropped out of the bird feeders and filtered down thru the tiger lily bed below. And because of all the rain we have been getting, we had an explosion of sunflower magic!

Here is a closeup of how big these flower heads get! That is one of the last of the tiger lily flowers below... Already a few of the sunflower heads have gone to seed and the birds and squirrels are having a feast cleaning the seeds out. Never a dull moment around here!

Old Friends Return (Or Ode to the Survivors)

I went out early this morning after the rain showers passed and took some pictures of my old friends in the gardens. These are the survivors of the construction that has been going on here for the past three years. They have survived being stomped on, run over by bulldozers, crushed by building supplies...you name it! I am thrilled that so many of my beloved plants have come back this year. It really is amazing....

This is a wild rose that i dug up at the cottage we used to stay at in Cape Cod. I have a few of these bushes here that started out as a little sprig that i carefully carried home and transplanted in the ground over 20 years ago, when my children were small.

I also brought home this wild honeysuckle from the Cape, and even tho it's supporting fence was torn out early this Spring, it too, came back...

The wild geranium came back against all odds

As did the sweet peas i planted many years ago...

This Queen Elizabeth rose took the most abuse, with a truck rolling over it with a full supply of house siding. The trunk of this bush was smashed flat to the ground, but sure enough, soft green canes came up around the old crushed center....

The area i worried about the most was the small shade garden in the back. When the masons did their job putting in the new garage floor, they just pushed tons of old broken concrete from the old floor back up under the soil there. I had spent years collecting different types of hosta, ferns, lily of the valley and bleeding heart, and in a few days they totalled that area. I had no hope that the hosta would come back...but they did! I did loose the lilies and ferns, but i am lucky to have any survivors at all. I had a landscaper come in to take out the concrete chunks and i lovingly transplanted the hosta back to their rightful place.

Last week i added a new bleeding heart. Also, the hybrid honeysuckle came back. The hummingbirds love that stuff...

So, in the end, we did loose some beloved plants, like my Grandmother's lilac bush, and my fairy roses....But the phlox are coming back, as are the purple coneflower, the trumpet vine, and the morning glories that were first planted by my Mother's Grandfather at her home. And of course, i have my tiger lilies back too! Gardens are amazing, living, breathing things to me. They can be so resilient, no matter what comes at them. I hope i can learn to be as resilient and face whatever comes at me, and at the same time add something beautiful and positive to the world. We all learn to bloom where we are planted!