Shooting stars and a savage garden

I missed the fireworks tonight but I have my own starburst display in the front yard. The Whirling Butterflies (gaura) are shooting out right and left, reminding me of those cool starburst fireworks that rain down from Fourth of July skies.

The slightest breeze sets the blossoms fluttering on their long, wand-like stems, imitating a cloud of white butterflies flitting across my yard. This guara is called Geyser White.

What do you do with a day off in the middle of the week, with two days of work behind you, and two more to come? A holiday in the middle of the week doesn’t lend itself to serious pursuits like heavy-duty gardening chores. No, much better to fritter the day away, which I did, with this book.

A Savage Garden? How can that be? Finding the answer was a pleasant summer read - a delicious trip through a mysterious 15th century garden (which is much more than it appears to be) in the heart of Tuscany. Complete with a 400 year old mystery, a World War II murder, and a young scholar trying to unravel numerous threads; it was like reading The Da Vinci Code, only without the religion, and with a garden as the main character. I liked it.

Occasionally I got up and wandered around and pulled a weed or two, and petted a neighbor’s cat that prefers my back porch during the day. I was treated to the sight of four fighter jets flying in formation overhead, and later the deep boom of fireworks. I can no longer see them from my back porch as well as I could 30 years ago before the trees got bigger. Just a hint of shooting stars overhead.

FOURTH OF JULY FIRECRACKER

"The bombs bursting in air...." or rather, the Monarda bursting in the garden on Independence Day. This sure looks like the fireworks I saw the other night. Good thing we went to a Sunday night show since the rain tonight put a damper on a lot of fireworks displays. This is "Marshall's Delight" in its third year in my garden. After languishing on spindly stalks for the past two summers and fighting off powdery mildew, this year the Monarda has reinforced the old adage about perennials and vines, "The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap."
And according to many gardeners they will leap all over the garden given half a chance. These are in an enclosed bed and if they want to crowd out the phlox that have turned a washed-out lavender they're welcome to it. Actually I think the phlox was a washed-out lavender when I received it from a co-worker who was thinning out her flower beds several years ago. That's the trouble with planting something that you can't see in bloom at the garden center, you never know what you're going to get. It was free but I'd rather have beautiful.