rapture

Where better than in a garden, can one contemplate the rapture of being alive?

Astilbe x arendsii 'Bridal Veil'.

And this is exactly what it looks like, the top-heavy flowering stalk of delphinium has flopped and snapped in the wind. It is supposed to be the shorter and sturdier variety Magic Fountains 'Sky Blue', but is obviously not short and sturdy!

I don't recall which varieties of geranium, hosta and fern these are...Every geranium variety I have is very attractive to insects: bees, small moths, butterflies.

Digitalis.

Clematis.

Pelargonium.

Verbena 'Ruby Queen' and Geranium 'Orion'.

Rosa 'Golden Wings', a bit chewed up by ?earwigs.

Since I refuse to use poisons in the garden, I must allow for some nibbles on the rose bush.

Dianthus.

Purple-flowering raspberry, Rubus odoratus. The bumble-bees are busy competing with the moths and bees.

The spent blooms of the iris are kind of interesting too.

The large mock orange bush was covered in heavily perfumed blossoms that were wildly attractive to all kinds of insects. The blossoms are just beginning to shatter now.

what's happening?

Here's a happy colour combination, the silvery grey of the artemisia with the purple blooms of Ajuga reptans. This variety has purplish leaves.

The wild columbine in front of the foliage and climbing tendrils of a purple clematis, under my kitchen window. I don't know for sure the name of the clematis, probably a Jackmanii.

Pleasing spiky shapes of iris, this bunch near the acid green hops vine that climbs to an old bird house at the corner of the back deck.

The first of the iris to bloom. These unnamed iris were here, buried under blackberry brambles and oregano. I've moved and divided them and they seem to flourish quite well wherever I've put them!

I've realized that I love this particular shade of acid green. It used to be called "French Green" in my box of crayons, I think. Is it chartreuse? Love it with the purple-blue of the spiderwort blossoms!

The gorgeous deep purple columbine is scattered around the foot of the back deck and is seeding itself around and between the patio stones. As I find the seedlings, I'm lifting them and moving them to places where I'd prefer to see them appearing.

The last of the tulips around here. They were gathered from the woods and the oddest corners where, no doubt, the squirrels had planted them after digging them up from where humans might have planted them once upon a time. The squirrels' ideas about the aesthetics of garden design differ a bit from those of most humans I know.