Summer solstice on the 21st inaugurated a season full of fragrance with Chinese trumpet lily ‘Regale’, sweetbay magnolia and swamp milkweed layering sweetness through the air. Most garden scents are even stronger after dark in the heat when it’s still. I’ve been watching the moon rise and breathing the heady heavy air all week.
The rose is ‘Penny Lane’, a climber from Heirloom Roses, Rose of the Year in England, 1998. Good clean foliage, vigorous growth, lovely classic double fragrant flowers that have had a second flush since first beginning to bloom over a month ago.
Have a few more old-fashioned Nicotiana alata ‘Fragrant Cloud’ to set out where the daffodil and Leucojum foliage is gone. Using zinnia, nicotiana, white cleome, and larkspur in hot dry front beds that are vulnerable to deer when Milo slumbers.