May Plants in Bloom at the Jarvis House Garden

Most of the Peony plants at the Jarvis House Garden came from my mother's garden in Nassau County.  This is the largest pink .  I keep the extra buds on the plant so that the blooms don't get so large that they are drooping on the ground.  Even with the wire cages, these are heavy when they get wet.

This is a very large deep fuchsia bloom that was purchased from a catalog years ago. It took many seasons to get this plant to put out blooms, but this year there were many and the wire cages helped to keep the flowers erect.

The Jarvis Garden is located in a very wet area.  These Yellow Flag Iris love the environment, and spread easily.

I planted them at the base of a Quince tree which is in a swampy low area.  They can grow in standing water, so this clump did very well and is about three feet tall.   The leaves last all summer and are very beautiful even after the flowers fade.

Today the large deciduous Azalea, which grew in a tree-like form,  bloomed.  It is a late blooming plant that has been out front for almost thirty years.  

I partnered it with the ancient large boxwood shrubs that I brought from my mother's garden.  Over time it grew so tall,  that I should have planted it elsewhere, but I cannot bear to try to transplant it for the fear of it not surviving.

The boxwood are probably around one hundred years old.  They are very happy here, but several were lost when I transplanted them about thirty five years ago.

They are mostly shrub, not so many roots.  Over time I have introduced others around the garden, but they are always small plants.

All of the gardens are lined with common Hosta.  I got this idea from a neighbor who planted boarders of Hosta two houses away from mine.  Their leaves are wonderful for keeping weeds down, and  lawn mowers can skim right underneath them and create a very neat boarder.

  It has taken me all the years that I have been here to split and divide the Hosta so that all boarders are trimmed.  It was a great way to use my obsessive compulsive energy.

Way out back the Carolina Allspice bush is putting out its wooden like flowers.

This is an unusual shrub, but its blooms can add to a quirky variety to the garden.

This is a "Knock Out" rose which I planted in a sunny spot two years ago.  It did so well that I purchased several others last fall and am waiting to see how they do.  In the interim, other colors were developed, so I now have one that should be an orange-red.

This is my split leaf maple which I have grown from a seedling that came from a usual red leaf maple.  At the time I didn't realize how it would spread out horizontally.  Last Fall, I trimmed this tree so that my car could get into the driveway.  I hated to do it, but now you can actually see the beautiful nature of its limbs, and miniature Hostas and other tiny specimen plants grow underneath.

A faithful and easily propagated plant is this perennial Geranium.  It has a mounding habit and can cover odd spots,  It has fleshy roots that can be divided and started in other locations, and it loves to d roop over rock boarders.  The spiky leavs are interesting as well and the blooms continue for months.

These are the leaves of my fig tree.  I am lax about wrapping it over the winter months, so its figs don't get a long enough season here to ripen.  Relatives had this plant in huge pots on wheels, so that they can roll them indoors in the fall.

This plant came from my mother's garden and was  cutting from her father's garden.  I have given babies to my sister and to my cousin.   I guess that this shows that I was lucky to have parents who loved to garden.