Day in Old New Castle with record heat

Many years (other than the last 3 years when the tour was not held) we worried about rain impacting this oldest house and garden tour. This year it was the heat in the upper 90's which wilted this tour-goer.  Our first garden was at the old RR station where we sat in the secret garden and looked at the Delaware River and the steamy view (picture above).  An appropriate plant found in one garden was a cactus, not usually found in a lot of gardens here.

 But my friend Diane and I did get a chance to play "what's that plant," and no one was grading us, so we were free with our answers. A couple of times, other garden visitors asked us if we knew names of plants, and we could usually come up with the answers. One garden on The Strand (riverfront) had a lovely wisteria growing on an archway and the owner told us how when her old trellis died, they just folded back the plant and tucked a new framework under it and it did just fine.

The peonies were in fine form and provided bright pops of color in many gardens (this one also on river). There were a few homes open but after a lunch break, we were too wilted to see them after visiting the new exhibit on travel in the past in the Frank Furness-designed Old Library building.