Last rose of summer

This gorgeous tea rose is making a last stand before it just gets too cold for any more buds to form. Called Wild Blue Yonder, the rose is really raspberry colored, not the strong pink it appears to be on my screen. And it has a strong, delicious, spicy rose scent.

Other last stands around the neighborhood include the laggard monarch butterfly hiding in the middle of this lush border, at Louise Little's on North Street. He should have gone south several weeks ago.

Finally I just noticed the Green Man guarding this gate entrance at 31 North. The Green Man is the traditional, pre-Christian deity of growing things and the forest in Britain. Not a late flower, but certainly a reminder throughout the winter that April is just 6 months away.

Chihuly does New York

Glassblower Dale Chihuly has done it again, with his installation of organic glass forms at the New York Botanic Garden. Chihuly showed his work at the Portland Museum of Art a couple of years ago, but glass objects on black tables at the museum looked disappointingly like jewels in a showroom case. They really shine at the NYBG, where the exhibit is on display until the end of October.
Among his most successful installations are suspended clusters of colored glass over pools of water. Both these photos are of the inverted reflections of works with the grace of flowering vines, the first being inside a glass house, the second outdoors.





Also stunning were his boats filled with glass floats in a pond next to the glass houses. The glass floats were inspired by floats used by Southeast Asian fisherman to hold their nets in the water, the installation in dories by the Finnish volunteers who helped Chihuly disassemble an installation in Finland by loading glass floats in their boats.

Fall color is extraordinary this year

There is no doubt about it: the color is terrific this year, undoubtedly due to the ample rainfall in the spring. Here on the Hill, the last of the tomatoes and summer squash are limping along in the fading light waiting for the first frost to occur. Fall flowers such as mums, impatiens, Montauk daisies, snakeroot and asters are at their height--and high they are, again due to spring rains. Woody plants are just beginning to show red--maples, burning bush, and the native enkianthus (below), which will eventually be about 8 feet tall and wide.


Also beautiful at this time of year are the subtle beauty of buds, already set for next year's show of flowers, and visible throughout the winter months. Especially lovely are the cigar-shaped leaf buds of beech trees, the cascading sprays of pieris andromeda flower buds (below), and the upright buds of florida dogwoods, little pagoda-shaped packages holding the glorious huge white flowers of May.

Harvest fair fare

The Cumberland Fair featured a smaller than expected display of prize winning and giant vegetables this year. However, this food art display made up for it. It appears to be a collection of birds carved from fruits--a swan, a turkey trussed and ready for the oven, and a bird in flight--plus a tropical beach group, including a shell, a palm tree, and something with a wave pattern on the side, perhaps a beach hut.