Perfect Perch

It's the perfect perch for a garden tour when you're feeling wary and your feet are sore:). Oh, to be young. Happy May Day!

We Gardeners, A Passionate Lot

Have you ever known a gardener with a glass half empty attitude? People who garden tend to see beyond the day to day obstacles in life. They see things from a different perspective. They are often in awe of the beautiful growth around them.



I once believed that I was an obsessional gardener. The thought of my favorite past time being an obsession carried with it a bit of a negative connotation and left me with a pang of guilt whenever I participated in my much loved obsessional gardening activities. Perhaps I should be doing something more constructive, like housework.



I soon came to realize however that the term "obsessional"was not the right word to describe the way I felt about my gardening. It was much more than the need to participate in an activity over and over again. The feeling was more one of passion, of excitement, of anticipation in participating in this wondrous activity. I am now a guilt free gardener, enjoying every minute of this wonderful passionate feeling:).

Green With Envy No Longer

Bouquet therapy truly works when you are craving blooms in your garden. I especially love this color combination from yesterday's bouquet.

Bloom Envy

After recently developing a mild case of bloom envy (my garden is barely budding at this time), I found that the most effective therapy for this condition was to fetch a beautiful bouquet and take multiple shots from every angle. I feel that I have been cured...temporarily:).

Spring

As our maritime gardens change from shades of brown to green, it's hard to contain that feeling of anticipation with each new day.

Rachel Lambertson

This is another daylily from Art Gallery Gardens in Florida. It's a very pretty ruffled pink with a purple edge and eye. It put up a late scape which started to bloom late in September of last year and therefore was brought inside to avoid frost damage. We were able to gather the pollen and freeze it for future hybridizing efforts. I'm so looking forward to spreading this pollen.

The Garden Is Stirring.

We are far behind many in our gardening season, though the intensity of our anticipation is no less. First blooms in the garden were discovered today,and what a wondrous day it was.



A single periwinkle blossom, to be followed shortly by thousands more.



Fresh green daffodil foliage concealing swelling buds.



Sedum basking on a rock.



And the last of our sparkling snow, still 6 inches deep in some spots, but sure to melt shortly in the beautiful days ahead.

Freudian Slip

Freudian Slip is a beautiful daylily hybridized by Curt Hanson in 1999. It's got such a wonderful name it's hard not to get psychoanalytical about it.

Wordless Wednesday: A Mother's Gift

Hydrangea

I love hydrangeas in the garden. Here are pictures of a Mother's Day Hydrangea (Hydrangea Macrophylla) that I received several years ago. I planted it in the ground after it had finished blooming, and so far it has survived several of our zone 5 winters, and blooming for the first time since planting last year with several showy blooms.

Magnificent Hummingbird

It won't be long now before daylily Magnificent Hummingbird will be seen fluttering throughout the garden. It has a beautiful delicate bloom that resembles a bird in flight. It's another of the wonderful blue eyed daylilies hybridized by L Lambertson of Art Gallery Gardens in Florida

Song Writer

Since my garden is brown, and the only things I have growing inside on my windowsills are hundreds and hundreds of daylily seedlings, I must resort to posting a picture of another one of my favorite daylilies... Song Writer, hybridized by Stamile in 2003. This daylily is gorgeous with a huge 6.75 inch deep rose colored bloom and a citron green throat. I also love the name of this daylily, and consider it to be very fitting:).

Alas... My Garden Is Brown

spirea
weeping purple beech, budding
empty magnolia seed pod

Although, I really do like brown. Some of my favorite things are brown...chocolate, coffee, chocolate . There is a subtle stirring suggestive of spring as tiny buds on the trees start to swell, and bird sounds fill the air. It won't be long now.

Daylily: Nancy Billingslea

I received this beautiful daylily as a bonus last year. How lucky is that?!! The blooms were huge and the softest salmon pink color. I love it. There's always enough room for another daylily in the garden:).

Frosted Branches

A beautiful feathery frost formed on the branches of the trees Monday morning. The frost sparkled as the sunlight shone through the tiny crystals, and quickly melted away moments after it was captured on camera.

Frost is formed when surfaces are colder than the dew point of the surrounding air. White frost is a heavy coating of hoar frost that forms. The water condenses slowly into big crystals, and forms a feathery appearance. We had a lot of fog that morning which no doubt contributed to this frosty morn.

Comfrey

Comfrey is an old medicinal plant used in the past for it's healing properties. It should never be taken internally as it contains minute quantities of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. I grow it in my garden for it's attractive purple flowers, and cut it back throughout the season for rebloom.

Daylily: Omelet Ruffles

Eggs anyone? This daylily was hybridized by Reckamp-Klehm 2003. It's a dormant tetraploid.

It's a wonderful daylily with an interesting edge. It has a wonderful pale yellow porcelain bloom, that reminds me of omelets every time I see it. Yummm.

Heuchera

We have a lot of heuchera in the garden, mainly burgundy varieties. I love the dainty sprays of tiny bell shaped flowers, as much as I love the bright colored foliage. It's very hardy in our zone 5 garden, and very easy to divide.

Weigela

I have a number of different varieties of weigela in my garden. I'm always amazed when they become profusely laden with beautiful pink blossoms.

Tulips

Memories of burgundy tulips past. It won't be long now!

I really enjoy burgundy flowers in the garden.

Daylily Seedling

Seedling from seeds purchased on the Lily Auction in 2005, planted in 2006, and bloomed in 2007. Parents are Fairest Of Them x Shores Of Time. It's so much fun to plant daylily seeds, as each seedling that results is a one of a kind daylily. Just as we are unique individuals resulting from two parents, so are daylily hybrids to their parents. They may be similar to, or a combination of the two, or something totally unique and nothing at all like their parents. It's so much fun to await the first flower opening of a new daylily seedling, that's never been seen before.