It's a given...or so it seems - when the peonies bloom we have thunderstorms and water pours from the sky. It rains buckets...cats and dogs...and sometimes just steady, light rain. The majority of our June days held showers or thunderstorms this year, making it hard to get decent photos of the peonies before they flopped.
Some days there have been glimpses of blue sky between the clouds..... 
....but more often than not, the skies have been gray. If you click to enlarge the photos you'll see that there's a border of peonies across the front yard.
The largest, most spectacular Peony blooms are in the Lilac Garden. The yellow flowers are Evening Primrose (Oenothera) and the silver foliage is artemisia, which is a pretty filler, but needs to be thinned ruthlessly.
All my peonies are passalongs and, unfortunately, the names weren't passed along with the plants.
At the other end of the Lilac Garden the same light shade of pink blooms beside huge magenta flowers. The background shrub is Weigela, and the red in front is self-sown Sweet William. I actually photographed this first peony bloom on June 15th, but forgot to include it in my Bloom Day post.
Foxglove is still blooming, but the Columbine flowers are gone, leaving dozens of seed heads to be cut off before they pop open and spread themselves liberally.
I love this weigela! Sweet William is a very easy care plant, and simple to move around by division or seed collection. This clump is in the Driveway Garden. Campanulas are adding their lovely blue to the mix of colors at the moment, with Verbascum at their feet,
....and lemon lilies behind them here.
A few lovely white Campanulas are mixed in.
Down in the Fence Garden the Foxglove are still looking good,
...but the pretty white Lupine is finished. I was pleased to see several beautiful blooms on the two white Peony bushes this year.
There's the tiniest touch of magenta on the edge of the center petals.
I still haven't managed to capture a decent photo of this border with most of the bushes looking good. The blooms are either drooping or dropping their lovely petals on the ground.
This lovely bloom has two glorious shades of pink. This smaller flowered magenta Peony has the most delicious scent of all.
And it stands up well against the elements.
Oh look, there's a glimpse of blue sky!
Not so on this evening! I caught this golden light through the front porch as the sun was setting during a cloudburst. The air was warm, and mist swirled up toward the sky, creating a spectacular effect...breathtaking beauty indeed! The pouring rain didn't deter this tiny hummingbird (click to enlarge if you'd like a closer look).
The first male arrived here on May 14th this spring....3 days later than last year.
His red throat is hard to capture with the light shining on it at just the right angle to make it show.
I saw the first sweet little lady on May 18th. It's very good to have our tiny friends back.
The abundant rain certainly makes everything grow fast, including the lawn and weeds! I'm having a very hard time keeping up with everything, especially with days like yesterday, when the rain poured down for most of the day.
We've also had a visit from our son and DIL and our two little grandsons, which was wonderful fun, and a nice respite from the garden chores. But today we're seeing snatches of sun, so it's back to work, and hopefully I'll get something accomplished between the rain drops.
Oh dear, I spoke too soon and the rain is pouring down again now..... One good thing about the rain is that I've had plenty of chances to wear my Muck Boots and I've found I like them so much that I wanted to mention them again. This is totally voluntary. It's not often I find a product I like so much and want to share. It was such a pleasure to do business with them, and they didn't request this as part of the offer (just a link in a post), but I want to put a link to the Garden Shoes Online site on my sidebar just to say thank you to those good people for these wonderful shoes.
Thanks so much to all who have visited and left a comment on my recent infrequent posts. So sorry if I haven't managed to visit and comment in return. I'm working on it, and hope to catch up with you all eventually! Isn't it ironic that when the most is going on in our Northern hemisphere gardens we're often too busy to visit each other?
Wishing all my American friends a very
happy Fourth of July,
and may God bless our country!
P.S. The rain has stopped and the sun is shining again! I'm off to the garden right after lunch, but I'd better hurry! Hope to see you soon!