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Hydrangeas and an American flag are a quintessential summer sight here in New England.
I love the early variety which was always a creamy white color. This house is just around the corner from me and I pass it on my daily walks.
Hollyhocks are the flower of my home town of Marblehead, MA.
They are so pretty growing tall and colourful up through the cracks of sidewalks and walkways.
They are a biennial and the trick to growing them is to have poor soil. They are a challenge to establish but once they are established they will re-seed every year.
My great aunt Vera once wrote a poem which was titled Hollyhocks.
She had a book of poems published a very long time ago and I have a copy of it.
Erect against the garden wall
they grow, the tallest flower of all.
Like grandmamas they seem to know
the reason why strange things are so.
I live in the old town section of Marblehead on a very narrow winding street where the houses are hundreds of years old and sit right up next to the street. This is not an area with front yards. As you can see this little garden of globe amaranths grows in a tiny patch of land just against a fence and spills out onto the street quite sweetly.
Just to the right of the yellow house where the people are walking is the town landing and
Marblehead harbor which is absolutely beautiful.
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