Fleeting Beauty

Last year I added 6 new peonies to the garden. They didn’t bloom last year, but this year they all provided me with at least one blossom each, some with many. Peonies are lovely flowers, you’d never know how tough the plants were by looking at the flowers. They’re wonderfully hardy plants, taking just about anything you throw at them after they’re established. The blooms on the other hand are delicate. They don’t last long in the garden, especially if the weather turns hot.

Right about the time the peonies started to bloom here in NE Ohio the the temperature climbed into the 90’s. As a result the peonies lasted only a few days. I was hoping to take a photo of the first bloom on the heirloom peony I got from my grandma’s house. I spotted it late one afternoon and by the next morning it was already past prime so I missed it. At least I got a few photos of the many of the other peonies in the garden, save a white one. Here are a few of the fleeting beauties in my garden from this spring.





A few weeks ago I added four more peonies to the garden. They were growing in an area of my mom’s garden that became shady because of the growth of other plants so she gave them to me. I can’t remember what the blooms will look like, but they’ll be beautiful whatever they turn out to be. It’s always nice to get peonies for free!

Do you grow peonies in your garden?

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The First Bouquet

This past week I spotted the first light pink double peony blooming and had to bring it indoors. I picked a few other flowers including: euphorbia, crimson clover, dutch iris, chives, single peony, ladies mantle, and east friesland hybrid sage.

After ready a few books like Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi Houseand The Kitchen Gardener’s HandbookI decided to try having freshly cut things from the garden in the house more often. It can be anything from some freshly harvested asparagus in a vase waiting to be eaten, a branch of forsythia being forced into early bloom, or a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the garden. Someday I will have a dedicated cutting garden filled with all sorts of things to bring indoors, but until then I’ll snip a little bloom here and there. They won’t even be missed in the garden and I’ll be able to enjoy them inside.

What’s your favorite cut flower to have in a vase on the table?

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Making Wild Violet Syrup

I mentioned yesterday that the wild violets were in full bloom and we’d been harvesting the blooms and the leaves for our salads. Since I don’t treat my lawn in any way, the violets have slowly taken over and now my entire lawn is dotted with beautiful purple blooms.

I decided to make some violet syrup this year. The syrup is a good source of vitamin C and is supposed to be a great cough syrup. It’s also said to help you fall asleep without making your drowsy. Since I can be a bit of an insomniac, this sounds wonderful to me!

Making violet syrup is no small feat, you need 8 oz of violet blossoms. At first this may not seem like a lot, until you start picking. I harvested a pint of blossoms and they weighed in at 1.2 oz. Out came the big half gallon mason jar and I spent some time sitting on the front lawn harvesting those tiny purple beauties. I’m sure my neighbors were wondering what in the world I was doing. It was quite relaxing though, I enjoyed myself. Mr Chiots saw me through the window and had to come out and get a photo.

It took me about an hour to pick a half gallon jar full of blossoms, which happened to weigh 8 oz. If you have kids this would be a great project for them to do, they would not doubt love this chore!

Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the blossoms and use a wooden spoon to slightly mash the blossoms down into the water. If you need a little more water to cover the blossoms add just enough to cover. I added an extra half cup of water. Let sit overnight on the counter. In the morning, strain out the blossoms and you’ll be left with a beautiful violet liquid. I bet this would be a wonderful natural dye for Easter eggs, or fabric.

Pour the violet water into a saucepan and add 2 cups of honey. Simmer for about 30 minutes until slightly thick and syrupy (keep an eye on it in the beginning as it can foam up and boil over). Pour into jar and store in the fridge. You can waterbath can this for 10 minutes if you’d like to make larger batches. I ended up with about two and a half cups of syrup.

I’m looking forward to using this syrup throughout the year. It tastes like honey and smells of violets and is a beautiful lavender color. It would taste wonderful on ice cream or in tea and as far as cough syrup goes, it’s so much better than the mediciny stuff you’d buy at the store.

Do you make any of your own herbal syrups?

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Parade of Tulips

I didn’t used to like tulips all that much, but they’re starting to grow on me. Perhaps I’d only been exposed to the big bright yellow and red ones (I’m still not a huge fan of those). I do like tulips that are purple, white, and buttery yellow. Most of mine run in those shades, but I do have a yellow and red tulip in my garden that was labeled as a ‘Mickey Mouse’ I planted the first year we moved in.



Tulips aren’t usually perennials here in NE Ohio, at least not the hybrid tulips. They often bloom nicely the year after you plant them, then you might get smaller blooms for another year or two but they eventually die out. I read that if you plant your bulbs deeper in the soil you will have better luck having them come back year after year. I’ve been lucky with most of mine, they seem to come back and some of them multiply each year. I can’t remember for sure what varieties I have, ‘Negrita’, ‘Shirley’ and ‘Mickey Mouse’ are the only ones I can remember.



I’m pretty lucky this year that I have so many tulips blooming. Generally the deer munch them off right before they bloom. This past winter was hard on the deer because it was so cold and we had snow cover for so long. As a result I haven’t seen as many deer in my garden and I get to enjoy my tulips. Of course this may be the reason they always come back and multiply. Since they never get to bloom they put all their energy into producing bulbs.


I haven’t planted any new tulips in 4-5 years. I think this fall I’ll finally add some more to my gardens. I would love to buy a lot of heirloom ones from Old House Gardens. They specialize in heirloom tulips and they’re all quite beautiful.


If you’ve never been to Longwood Gardens during their tulip show, I’d highly recommend that you go, it’s amazing! They plant over 200,000 tulip bulbs in the fall for the show. You’ll see tulips you never knew excited existed!

What’s your favorite spring blooming bulb?

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Still Hanging On

After the cold weather and the frosts we’ve been having lately (it was snowing last night when we went to bed), there’s not much left in the garden. I’m pleasantly suprised by the nicotiana that self-seeded in my front flowerbed. It’s still going strong despite the cold.

I thought it was a tender plant, but I guess it’s not as tender as I thought. The pollinators are truly happy that it’s still blooming as well since not much else is.

My mom had some red lettuce this summer that survived some really hot weather without bolting. I always enjoy it when a plant thrives when you don’t think it will or when it withstands things you don’t think it will.

Do you have anything that has surprised you this year in your climate despite heat or cold?

Here’s what I woke up to on Saturday morning:

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