nature's surprises

We've lived in our house for 2 full years now, and we're starting our third summer here. You'd think I'd know what plants we inherited from the previous owners already, but I was surprised yesterday to find this growing behind our compost bin/tub area. Peonies!

I knew that area had wild strawberries and that the chickens ate up any berries that ever surfaced, so I never bothered to go back there and mess around. Mark deals with almost all the composting in our house, so this was a big surprise.

Also a surprise was the resurrection of my rose bush. My best friend gave me a rose bush as a house warming gift when we moved in. It did really well the first year, but last year wasn't so great and I thought it died completely over the winter. I watched a video online about trimming and pruning rose bushes and tried to do my best to salvage it, thinking there wasn't any hope. Then yesterday, this:

A bud! One large bud and lots of other smaller ones. Not really sure what's up with the few leaves that look blighted. But the new growth is exciting. It's like a zombie plant. I think I'll call it the Undead Rose.

I was even more excited this morning to discover the bud had turned to a bloom.

Perhaps there's hope for my flower gardening after all!