Flower Power

The season of beautiful flowers has begun on the Vineyard. In rustic, rural dooryards up-Island riots of pink and white clematis tumble over weathered fences and stone walls. Bridal wreath (spirea) has nearly gone by, sending showers of tiny shell-like blossoms across lawns and back stoops. Look up — towering native locusts are topped with fragrant white blooms.

In the more formal, stately gardens of Vineyard Haven and Edgartown, azaleas, rhododendrons and voluptuous peonies all are in bloom in various shades of pink, red and white, framing white clapboard and gray shingled New England houses like so many picture postcards. Window boxes on colorful Victorian cottages in Oak Bluffs are filled with shasta daisies, ageratum, trailing ivy — and of course that time-honored staple of summer, geraniums.

Soon to come are bright daylilies in orange and lemon yellow, hydrangeas as blue as the ocean on a summer day and roses on picket fences — acres and acres of roses.

Time to get out the best vases for the kitchen table.