cut flowers and shrubs

I really loved seeing the lilac bloom- it just started to fade a week ago. The scent was lovely.

I cut some to bring in the house.

I missed getting a photo of them when open, but the peony buds were near-bursting for ages it felt like. I had those in a vase in the house for a week, too. The petals are falling now, but there are two more buds out there I'm going to cut when they open as well (they get ruined by the rain so quickly, it's more worthwhile to cut them and enjoy longer indoors).

In a back corner is another shrub that bloomed earlier- I don't bother to cut forsythia but my youngest likes picking all the yellow flowers. I keep checking on it to be sure it's getting enough water and mulch, next year I'll probably just leave it to its own devices. It still has a kind of scraggly contour but I'm letting it grow another year before I start pruning to shape it.

I never really noticed before, the leaves with their serrated edges are kind of pretty on their own.