Maine in July was sunny, cool, misty, bright, rainy (but only at night), and altogether glorious. Our house in Cushing featured several beautiful borders, maintained by a pair of gardeners who chatted with me about the gardens. Here’s a view with the St. George’s River in the background.
In the way of northern gardens, everything seems to be in bloom at the same time. Here were day lilies, eryngium, sedums, and more.
This little garden by the side of the house had day lilies, Solomon’s seal, achillea, white columbine, balloon flower, and gloriously blooming lady’s mantle.
Here are the blooms.
Clearly, these plants are much happier in the cool, moist air of Maine than they are in my drought-ridden front garden.
My new sedum obsession was fed by this purple-leaved variety that reminded me of my New Zealand gardening friend.
More sedums – this one along the path on Monhegan.
This was a bit of a mystery plant. The gardeners guessed Joe-Pye weed, not yet in full bloom, and I think they were right.
You can see a little better in this closeup of the flowers.
A few other shots of classic Maine borders, the first down the road from us, the second on Monhegan Island. Note the gorgeous delphiniums and poppies.
But the most gorgeous of all were the eryngium. They had grown so prolifically that one of the gardeners’ major tasks was cutting them back and tying them up. Here they are in the clear Maine light.
and here is a close-up of their purply-blue stems.
We saw lots of purple spiky flowers along the roadside. Their form reminded us of lupines, but clearly it was too late for them, and these were the wrong color and leaf shape. The gardeners told me they were purple loosestrife, a garden thug that actually seems fairly well-behaved here.
Several more beautiful wildflowers. I think the first is spotted Joe Pye weed, the second may be water parsley,
and who knows about the third, with its antler-like bloom.. I bet Mom would have identified them right away.
Caroline's Garden and Travel Record 