Floribunda (June 5-6-7)

The New York Botanical Garden just opened a new azalea garden in May. Unfortunately, we were a bit late to catch them in their glory. The hostas were lovely, fresh from their overnight watering.

In June, the rose garden is spectacular. The aroma lets you know that you are approaching, but the amazing array of colors still takes you by surprise as you look down from the top of the stone steps before descending into its splendor.

Wandering among the red, coral, purple, yellow, white, pink, and variegated blooms is a real treat. It was hard to pick a favorite. Becky and I favor the pinky coral and yellow blooms. Jerry likes the deep red of the climbing varieties. One type has clusters of blooms where the center, large bloom is mainly pink, and it is surrounded by smaller blooms that are mainly yellow. Leighton collected fallen petals to bring home to his growing collection of plant life.














Monday meant back to the school routine for one last week before summer vacation. Leighton has been going 4 mornings a week for a 2.5 hour program for 3 year olds. He loves it, and he will miss it over the summer. He has 3 friends in the class that he has known since play group plus lots of new buddies, so there will be lots of playdates to keep them occupied.

In the afternoon we visited the grounds of the Bartow Pell Mansion which is on Pelham Bay (part of Long Island Sound). The museum wasn't open, the the gardeners were hard at work planting and pruning. It was a peaceful place with lots of birds...we even heard an owl. Leighton enjoyed running up and down the grassy hills, seeing the fish in the pond, and watching 2 white butterflies.





We have been diligently watering the vegetables and flowers we planted in containers last week. Much to our utter amazement, the squash and beans poked through yesterday and the carrots are just barely showing today. It will be fun for Leighton to watch the plants grow and to eat his own vegetables in a couple of months.
Tuesday afternoon we all went to Snip Its so Leighton could get a haircut, then to Frank Pepe's, our favorite place for pizza. This outing provided a great opportunity to get a photo of Roy with the kids. He had been working very hard the entire time we were there.