• Subject: Spring
• From: A*@aol.com
• Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 10:33:35 -0400 (EDT)

Despite the crazy weather this spring, I can't remember a year 
with more plentiful and colorful blooms.  Everything seemed to
be trying to get there first.  
 
As I suppose you all know by now, I'm not a neat gardener, and
I let lots of things grow that other people call weeds.  This spring
my whole yard is full of Dame's Rocket (Matricaria), purple, white
and shades in between.  I've had it for many years - first saw it
when I was picking up my son from Colgate one spring and the
roadsides in upstate NY were covered with it and  I brought home a
few seeds. That must have been in about 1980.  It still isn't a 
common wildflower around here, but I do see rare patches of it.
 
Another such plant is the perennial yellow foxglove (Digitalis ambigua).
which is also blooming earlier than usual this year.  Many of my 
gardener friends call it a weed because it easily reseeds, but in my
mind it is a choice plant.  Not only do I love the yellow spikes, but
it has the added advantages of growing in shade, and the deer don't
touch it.  
 
And wild yellow iris has invaded one end of my pond.  My friend who
bought a grand place in Connecticut that had a pond with about
20 feet of these beauties, had them bulldozed out because they were
wild.  Oh well.
 
I do have some cultivated plants, too.  My peonies are making an 
early and spectacular display.  The cultivar 'Gai Paree' has already
begun to open, and I counted 37 buds on that plant alone. A few of
the older plants only have a few stems, so I will have to give them
some attention, but of the twenty or so plants I have, only one has
not shown buds yet.  The tree peony bloomed weeks ago and was
as spectacular as ever.
 
It's been dry, but is sprinkling this morning and promises to rain 
during the week.
 
Here's hoping everyone else is having as good a spring.
Auralie

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