Flowers and Gardens

While in Maine, one of the things that attracted me to a lot of the places we visiting were the gardens and flowers that were in bloom. Some were unusual and I've never seen them before.

These are called Swamp Candles. I originally thought they were some type of Azalea because of their shape and the way they were in clusters. After much investigation on the internet, I found out they are Swamp Candles. They are also known as Bog Loosestrife. They were in the garden at Webhannet Falls in Wells.

The next one is a rare variety of Peony. I love the bright red color with the creamy white centers. I knew it was some kind of Peony, but didn't realize that this variety is rare. They are just as sweet smelling as any other Peony, which was my first hint that they were Peonies. These were in the gardens at St Anthony's Franciscan Monastery in Kennebunk.

Finally, I spotted these Foxgloves. These I was able to identify without the help of the internet. They're fairly common, but I've never seen them in Florida gardens. Maybe they just don't take to the heat very well. These were also in the little garden at Webhannet Falls in Wells.

Most everywhere we went we found flowers and gardens. It just adds so much to the beauty of this area. This also pleased my daughter-in-law. She loves to garden and loves beautiful flowers. She was in her glory.

Peony

I love the sweet smell of Peonies and the size of these showy flowers. The Peony or Paeony (Paeonia) is the only genus in the flowering plant family Paeoniceae. They are native to Asia, southern Europe and western North America. There are many cultivars as well as shapes and sizes.

The most common are single peonies, which have one row of petals surrounding yellow stamen, semidouble types have additional 1 or 2 rows of petals, double which you see in this photo are very full with broad petals and the stamen are either absent or inconspicuous, and finally Japanese Peopnies have a single row of petals surrounding a central mass of thin, petal-like segments called staminodes. They also come in many colors and combination of colors ranging from red, to rose, to white, and yellow. Some smell like Roses, but are not in the Rose family.

This Peony (cultivar unknown) was taken in Oswego, NY at Ft Ontario overlooking beautiful Lake Ontario. It is by far my favorite variety because of its sweet fragrance.

I chose to create this image by allowing it to dominate the frame partially due to the beautiful lighting and to show it in all its glory.