Monday, June 9, 2008

Peonies & Poppies




My parents have a beautifully landscaped front yard and one of the many plants they grow are peonies. These are just three of the more than a dozen plants they have in the front and back yards. My mother's mother loved peonies and managed to get them to grow in the hard scrabble desert dirt of southwestern Wyoming. These are a tribute to her.




The Commonwealth of Virginia does a fairly lovely job of planting a rotating variety of flowers along its highway medians and exits, particularly along I-66. Beautiful spring colors start appearing first with swaths of daffodils. These are then followed by trees blossoming. Not long after that, poppies and daisies appear. The last of the spring varietals to bloom are lilies. The above two photos show poppies and daises along the median of Exit 62 in Fairfax County.

5 comments:

Maya said...

Love all the flower shots! I especially like the poppy and daisies shot. I just love daisies and the red from the poppies really sets them off!

The Artful Eye said...

What beautiful flowers! Your grandmother would be proud of this display. I love the poppies too.

I wish they did more with the center mediums here, we have the perfect weather and they always seem to plant the same shrub. Thank goodness for the beautiful,natural wildflower displays, no thanks to Caltrans.

Janet Kincaid said...

Maya: Thanks! If you could see where I took these, you'd laugh. And I'm sure all the cars whizzing past me were wondering what the hell I was doing!

Andrea: Yeah, Caltrans is famous for throwing up banks of rhododendrons and then walking away. I suppose they make nice crash barriers... Still, it is nice to have some variety along the medians and shoulders. I noticed yesterday that the lilies are starting to pop. Guess I'll have to find a safe way to photograph some of those, too!

 gmirage said...

I envy your poppies! I always wanted to take a shot too bad I always forget my camera! lol....Great images as usual!

Janet Kincaid said...

Mirage: Thanks! They're rather pretty, aren't they?