View Into the Purple Gardens

It's hard to believe it, I know, but it had been three whole weeks since I'd visited the Arboretum! I'd been taking the bus for two weeks while my car was down for the count, and the first bus drops me off in the central part of campus. The Arboretum is just a little too far to walk to and back from there in 20 minutes, my typical wait time until the second bus that takes me out to our offices in Innovation Park.

So you could say that I returned to the gardens in triumph on this day, excited to have my wheels back, able to go wherever I want to go again. The last time I was in the gardens, the whole story was all about the tulips, tulips, tulips. The tulips are gone now, but I found an assortment of other kinds of wonderful flowers.

The news from the gardens is this: it is time for roses and irises galore! There are also peonies, allium, clematis, columbine, osteospermum in several shades, poppies, and the very start of mountain laurel, the Pennsylvania state flower.

One of the things I love about the Arboretum is that they pay attention to the little things. In some areas, different kinds of flowers in similar colors are planted together. That was the case as I stole a glance into the rose and fragrance garden on this, the final day of May: all kinds of shades of lavender and purple, such a lovely view.

The song: the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with Purple Haze.