In Bloom....

After a couple of attempts of visiting Nichols Arboretum, I was finally able to make it over there tonight.  I couldn't believe how busy it was tonight.  The peonies were pretty much in full bloom and from the sounds of it, it was a good thing that I went tonight.  It is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow night which means that many of the petals will be gone. 

 I think this is loosestrife, but I am not sure.  I kind of liked the way that it looked though especially with the back out of focus.

Last time I was at the Arboretum was on May 30th.  At that time, about 10% of the garden was in bloom.  When I got there tonight, much more of it was in bloom.  I would guess that at least 90% of it was in bloom and that is pretty cool because there is a large variety of peonies there.

I know that some of the peonies are over 100 years old and I believe the Arboretum is one of the larger continuous growth peonie gardens out there.  With the late spring, they came out a little later this year, but I'm fine with that.

 It's amazing how one group of flowers can have such a wide variety of shapes and colors in it.

 I kind of like the ones that look they have tentacles in them.

 A view of one of them from the side.

 I think this is the same flower from above.

 Another deeper pink one from the side. 

 A closeup of one of the flowers.  I was trying a different approach to the flowers tonight.  There is quite a variety of color in this one flower.

 Another closeup of a flower.  I kind of like how this one obscures the middle part.

Another pink flower.  I really like how it sets off against the green leaves.

 I really like this one.  It's another one that looks like a tentacle monster.

 This one had the most variety of colors in it.

 Another white flower.  This one has a pink center.  I suspect some of these color combinations are through interbreeding.

 And a pink one.

 Another view from the side.

 I kind of like this one too.  I like the pinkish center.

 Another white one with a yellow center.

 I tried to get the full extent of the field here.  I'm not sure how the picture works out though.

Looking at another white flower.

 I really like this one.

 This is a white rose.

Another white peony.

 Just a view of the whole garden.  You can see all the people in this one.

Another flower that I'm not sure of, but I will leave you with it.  I like how the purple is set off against the green background.