Gorgeous Weekend in the Gardens

The iris are just starting to blossom here in Oakville, so I figured there would be a bit of show at the Royal Botanical Gardens this weekend. The Iris gardens were redone over the past few years - dug up and the beds redesigned so I wanted to see how they were coming along. Also, I love their scent and can live on the experience for days.

The iris are at the Laking Garden (perennials, peonies, hosta (pictured above) & grasses) if you are thinking about going. They've just started to show. The tree peonies were whacked with rain the day before, but still very lovely as you can see. Kevin & I grabbed one of the last parking spots in the shade - jumped out and dashed around to free the hound. Only to discover that I'd been inadvertently driving a Pecker-Mobile. Some darling little child had taken an indelible marker and used my silver car as a canvas for his/her Big & Busy Pecker drawing skills. Half a bottle of Purell hand sanitizer later, my car was Pecker free. It could be the beginning of a very long summer.

I am in awe of these plants and their flowers. So big & beautiful - absolutely worth dedicating space for at least one. I know they don't last long, but neither does a perfect martini.

The gardens will have a year or two to go before they're full and lush.

Just a few iris out, but my they were pretty.

Taken just as you enter the Laking Gardens.

Still with enough time to go before Kevin had to get to work we managed to do a quick tour over by the main building and gardens.

I'd never spent too much time looking at the perennial material planted on the wall by the main allee. It's right at eye height. Kind of fun to be able to look some of these smaller plants right in the eye.

So nice and fuzzy.

This particular Centauria has never been one of my favs. It takes fair bit of room, flowers last for about 90 minutes, and the leaves are a bit coarse.

What I didn't realize was just how cool the buds and centre of the plant are.

So, if I'm ever rich enough, I'm going to have someone build me a wall and I'm going to plant at least one so I can have a really good look at it every morning while I drink my coffee that someone else will have prepared for me.

A very sweet little geranium...

Kevin on the phone waiting for me to be finished taking photographs.

Over in the "These Plants Came from Asia" bed is a gorgeous pop of poppies.

And, probably too much and too many pictures, but just wanted to show you the Laburnum down the street. I was so excited to see it in bloom, I didn't realize I was standing in the way of the owner trying to back out.

Down by the lake this a.m. - refreshing now - temps scheduled to be 29C - ridiculously high for this time of year (87F). Fun to find a few escapees.

I'm going to mark where this little fellow is - really like the colour of the blossoms and will go back to collect some seed.

It's a day on the computer today - with a little gardening and I suspect quite a bit of hand-watering for the new plants I put in. I'll use this as my screen saver to remember our early morning walk.