Some May Blooms For You

The Last of the house repairs have been completed and all is starting to return to normal around our home. We still need to repaint the shutters; doors and trim work and also pressure wash the bricks to remove some of the tar left from flying shingles. I don’t really consider that repairs, it’s more like maintenance. Everything needed a new coat of paint anyway; I had just commented to someone that the shutters were starting to look a little faded. What a relief to be done with all that.

We’ve been steadily sticking things here and there in the garden and the beds are starting to fill up some. Either this Sunday afternoon or next weekend we are going to start getting the mulch replaced in the beds. I know we are running a little behind with that, but we had planted a bunch of seeds and I wanted to give them a chance to come up before we spread it all out. After a tremendous amount of floundering around, we decided to go with small pine bark. I like it because it’s a dark color, it’s cheap and hopefully it will improve the soil as it breaks down. Everything is going to look so much better once all that is done.

Friday night we are headed a hundred miles south of here to spend the weekend with our dear friend Carol. She’s a total garden junky just like the two of us and it should be a lot of fun. We will no doubt hit all the local nurseries. Yay! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I hope you enjoy the flower pictures below.

This is one of the new spirea we got the past weekend at Petals From the Past. Isn’t it beautiful?

'Anthony Waterer'

Jamie’s ‘Nikko Blue’ hydrangea is doing very well in its new spot. I think we did good when we decided to put it there.

'Nikko Blue'

Here is the other spirea we got this past weekend.

'Little Princess'

We also added another lantana to the mix. I noticed this week that none of the others are blooming right now and I don’t know why, they just stopped.

'Denholm'

Plumbago 'Hardy Blue'

'Red Velvet'

'Double Decker'

We decided to build our collection of roses back up. I recently tossed a bunch of hybrids two years ago because of black spot. Seeing Phillip’s posts on his roses have inspired us to give it another try, but this time we are using old fashion and antique roses. I hope we do well with them…

'Dortmund'

'Red Rum'

'Red Hot Poker'

'Sound of Silence'

I’m guessing this is some variety of crinum that Carol gave us. Her home is a wonderful old farm house that is fast approaching or has recently passed 100 years old and I suspect these have been there about the same length of time.

'Warm Igloo'

'Aztec Gold'

'Regency Dandy'

A Thank You and Photos

Hello everyone! I wanted to catch you guys up on all the progress. What’s happening in our garden is absolutely nothing short of amazing. With all the help we have received from everyone in our garden clubs and our friends, the garden is absolutely coming together. I never would have dreamed that we would have recovered to the point we are so rapidly. I haven’t posted any pictures because everything is so small it doesn’t really show up. But, I can already see in my minds eye a beautiful garden developing. We’ve only made one boo boo with some maples trees we planted, that can be corrected by moving one or we may leave it just as it is. We thought we had two different types but they turned out to be exactly the same and they are planted side by side. So now in the front yard we have two dogwoods on the left and two red maples on the right, which was our intention, just not the same ones. I’m just not feeling it… Jamie likes it, but to me it looks a little like poor planning. At any rate, considering how fast everything is coming together if that’s the only mistake we’ve made we are doing excellent.

A gardening friend of ours from down south that hasn’t seen us since the storm came up and spent the weekend with us. There was a huge sale north of us and she wanted to go and buy us some plants to help with the process. She was so amazed at everything; all she could do was just stand at the kitchen window looking out. She was with us through the entire process with the previous garden and now just a little over two months later everything has completely changed and she was having a hard time processing the new view. It is the polar opposite of what it was, from shade to full sun. On top of all that there is practically a new garden already in place. It has a long way to go but you can see a plan is being executed and something wonderful is being born. I’m telling you guys, you just wouldn’t believe it. In a couple of months things will be getting large enough to photograph. Now of course all the foliage from the bulbs is truly adding a lot of interest where there really isn’t much, so I hope it all hangs on awhile.

I just wanted to share my excitement with you all. Our garden is being reborn. It’s absolutely 100% completely different than it was before, we have a long way to go, but we have no doubt we will be walking thru a place of enchantment in no time. I’m feeling so incredibly positive right now! Jamie and I want you to know how grateful we are for all the help you have given us, both mentally and with your gifts of generosity. I don’t think we can adequately express the feelings we have about all that everyone has done. We do want you to know this. With out all of you, this garden would never be happening and we have been truly blessed by your kindness.

Here are some of the things that are currently blooming in the garden. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

'New Gold'

I need a name for these next two, Annie I know you can help me out here. :-)

Lady Banks Victorian Rose 'Lutea'

A Purple Japanese Iris.

'Bethie's Iris'

'Peace'

'Don Juan'

'English Dogwood'

Lady Banks 'Alba Plena'

'Whisper White' Diascia