Country Roads

It was a beautiful hot day for a drive through the country. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we needed to pick up a wine shipment. We decided to make a day of it by visiting Adelman's Peony Gardens. The gardens did not disappoint. I have a bunch of peony pictures to show, as you might guess. But first, there were a few things to do at home.

I planted the last of the cucumber seeds. They'd been soaking two days in wet paper towels, but none of them were sprouted. Still, I went ahead and planted them. One of the seeds I planted earlier had sprouted, and that was good to see. Also, I noticed two more zucchini had sprouted, for a total of three plants. I decided I didn't need to plant any more. Three zucchini plants will be more than enough. When I checked yesterday evening, I discovered one of the melon seeds had sprouted, and so things are looking up in the vegetable garden.

Taking a walk around, I'm seeing a lot more flowers of the sage plant. I'd like more before I try starting the sage blossom vinegar.

The cherry trees are loaded with cherries this year, a testament to what can happen when they bloom during a sunny spell. Timing is everything with these. We have a short camping trip planned for the beginning of July, and so I hope they'll consider our needs before ripening.

Also, I spotted the first sauce tomato in the greenhouse. I've been checking daily, but this one was hiding. It's already about the size of a prune.

The dark purple rhododendron is looking its seasonal best right now, and it is alive with bumblebees.

The "Fairy Princess" peony was showing promise of blooming yesterday morning.

When I looked at it later in the day...TA-DA!

Okay, so getting back to our outing, I had PT in the morning. Mike did a little shopping at the local feed store while he waited for me. Then, we got some lunch and headed to the winery. I love the drive on the back roads to this particular winery.

We were headed to Witness Tree Winery, although the winery has changed owners and names. It's now known as Elemental Cellars, which makes me sad. The original name honored this actual witness tree growing on their hillside. I take a picture of it every time we go. You can read a little bit about it right here. 

Looking across the vineyard, is a very old barn.

Once we had our wine loaded, our next stop was Adelman's Peony Gardens. Our drive started with some roads we hadn't traveled before, then skirting the city of Salem, then east of I-5. I love a field that looks like this, and we saw a lot of this yesterday.

At the gardens, we saw some real eye poppers. Beautiful daylilies were lining the parking lot.

The garden surrounding the residence there is stunningly beautiful and lovingly tended. We saw lupine in all colors.

I think these might be hollyhocks, but I've never seen this color before.

Beautiful dianthus.

This was an interesting plant. Its leaves are velvety soft. It's called Angel Wings.

And, of course, lots of pretty peonies. They were mostly bloomed out, and we should have visited earlier, but we still saw plenty. If I end up replacing my recalcitrant "Rosy Prospects," I'm going to get this one called "Ada Niva." Isn't this incredible?

And there were so many pretty ones. This one is called "Cora Louise."

There were lots of pretty yellow ones, but I liked this one best.

There were so many different colors and shapes, I could have spent the day taking pictures.

The fields were being watered while we were there, and so I didn't venture too far. I think you can get the idea from these two photos.

They had cut flowers for sale too.

As for my own disappointing plant, its one remaining bud is going to seed as the other one did without ever flowering. It's supposed to look like this:

All I've been able to get is this:

It's mainly just the flower center, with no petals. The woman at the garden suggested I take some pictures and email them to the address on their website, and so I'll do that. Maybe they have some ideas about what's going on. We've already determined we'll dig it up this fall and try burying it deeper. If it doesn't bloom next year, we'll replace it. Do you hear me talking, Peony? There's no "for better, for worse" here. Straighten up and do your one job, or I'll divorce you. (Yeah...I'm talking tough now. Pillow talk has gotten me nowhere.)

So that was our day, and it was a good day. We have a quick trip to the grocery store this morning...just enough to get us through the weekend. Also, I need to hoe weeds in the vegetable garden. I'm hoping to see more sprouts this morning. After that, I'll spend the day on my quilting and sewing. It's going to be another hot day today, but we're expecting cooler temperatures by next week. No jury duty for me this morning, and so I've managed to get through the first week of my month-long commitment without having to report even once. Fingers crossed it continues like that.