S and T with a side of Happy Easter!

Sorry. Been remiss about the daily blog thing. Yesterday ended up being a bit on the busy side with a house project I decided to tackle which was repainting all of the white around the front door of our house. There's a LOT of white trim out there with tons of moulding and little details like dentil moulding atop tons of other fancy mouldings. And, if you do the job correctly, which I have learned to do now over all the years and years of paint jobs I've done, first you fill in dings and holes and places where things have separated over time to make them look all pretty and whole again. Then, you sand those parts after the spackle has hardened (I use this lightweight stuff called Onetime for most of the dings and imperfections. It's easy easy to apply, dries very quickly and washes off your hands with water!). Then, you use "Killz" on whatever nails have rusted or any other stains that you want to cover. After THAT dries, then you paint. And unless you're doing a very different color, you don't have to prime. Priming is for babies!! hee!

The other reason I've been remiss in blogging here daily is because my husband and I are ADDICTED to this show we're getting through Netflix called Breaking Bad...I know I've mentioned it on here before, but that is ONE well-done, VERY well-acted show. Violent at times and sometimes a bit too graphic (not sex or anything like that) but it is really, really worth watching if you like shows like Dexter or Weeds or things like that. Very edgy.

So, one good excuse, and then one terrible excuse! I'm human! Shoot me!

It's also been rain rain raining and it's not supposed to stop until late Monday, so there's that too. The laziness factor that comes with the bad weather! Very unmotivating is what it is!

Ok. Now I've got that out of the way. Shall we move on to planties?

S. S is for shamrocks!

I bought these for the talk I did in March for the Wilmington Garden Club. Let's just say it was one of my...uhhh, less effusive crowds! zzzzzzzzzz

hee hee

T is for:
Tulips!

What can I say? Tulips are among my most favorite flowers.

And Tourenia!

The tourenia is on the left-most side of this picture.

And here it is the purple on the left side of the planter.

Most people do not know from the tourenia. It is a WONDERFUL, very versatile flowering plant that comes in a few varieties - pinks, purples, white and a neat combo of yellow with purple inside the "bell" of the flower. They trail AND they mound. They like shade and light. I just love them! Here is a link to a site that has photos of the different varieties...

Ok. I'm gonna scoot. We are heading over to my husband's Dad's house in a bit to see my hubby's sister who is home for the weekend from college!

Have a very Happy Easter! Don't eat too much chocolate! : )

Q and R today

Yesterday it completely skipped my mind that I needed to do a blog entry. Probably because I do not have one thing in my yard that is "Q" related. The only thing I can even think of is Queen Anne's Lace and Quince. I'll go find pictures of them!

Just a sec...Here. You can entertain yourself with this for a moment:

How stinkin' cute is THAT? Ack!!!

I do love the delicate flower heads, but they do NOT smell so good.

And quince are cute, aren't they? Look at how pretty the blossoms are:See? You just never know what you're going to learn on some days, do you? I had no idea the tree and bloom would be so pretty! Now I officially like quinces!

And you know what, now that I've done a survey of the yard? I don't have any "R" plants out there either!! I don't grow roses. Roses hate me. So do azaleas. I've tried tried tried to grow them both and they just give up and die on me. So, here, instead is a lovely picture of a rose that I took while we were in Spain last summer:


Also starting with R are some of my favorite cut flowers called ranunculus. I found them recently as plants at the Marblehead Garden Center where I do 99% of my shopping, and used them as part of my demonstration during my talk for the Cottage Garden Club there. Among other things I used the lovely columbine I found with creamy white ranunculus:
Here is the type of columbine I used:
SOOOOo pretty together!

Well, I've got to run. Meeting a friend for lunch and then a number of errands are on the horizon for me.

Hope you're having a good week!

Happy almost Friday!

P is for PHOOEY!

Another rainy, cool day here in New England. I swear! This spring has just been the PITS! We've had a few nice days where it actually felt like spring, but for the most part? It's just been cold and really not so nice. Last year was just so dreamy and nice and WARM. This year is just ACK.

So, today, first and foremost, P is for PHOOOEY on this icky weather!

And since it's cold and rainy out there I'm not going to go out and photograph the little nub that is going to be a peony! I planted a bunch of peonies last year, and it looks like only one made it, unfortunately. So, I guess I'll just have to go out and buy me some more!

Here are some of the peony pictures from a previous period (nice alliteration there, no?!!):
See all of those plants there? The bleeding hearts, the pulmonaria (there's another p for you!) and the peonies? They all died. Every last one of them. Phooey AGAIN!


These peonies and other plants were for a client's yard.

P is also for Phlox!
This is the tall phlox that I have. I inherited some from my husband's stepmother who is an AMAZING gardener and has the most lovely perennial garden.

I also like the creeping phlox, but the blooms are just so short-lived.

P is also for petunias!
This is a cute arrangement I did a few years back for a client. She loved it so much, she makes me replicate it each year!!

And, last for today, P is for Poppies!
I have done orange ones each year except this year...We have one yellow one out front right now. I'm crazy for yellow this year, it seems!

P is also for paint. Which is what I'm about to do! I need to finish a fairly small project that was interrupted by my bouts with vertigo, so we'll see how that goes today!

Hope you are having a lovely week!

Bye for now!

O Boy!

I decidedly do not have anything "O" related in my garden right now. I don't even have anything orange going on this year! A few years back I couldn't get enough of the combination of orange and purple flowers together. Every conceivable place I could put them, I had orange and purple flower arranged - in the back yard, side yards, flower boxes, planters - they were literally everywhere! I get a bit nuts sometimes, what can I tell you?!!

So, for today, I guess I will revisit some of my favorite arrangements from the year I mentioned, above, and also will add some photos of other things I have had in the garden and then also some from Spain. The flowers in Spain were ABSOLUTELY stunning and there was one in particular that starts with the letter "O" that was in its full glory when we were there last June.

O is for ORANGE!

Here are the orange Icelandic poppies that I put in nearly each spring. They are stunning up close:
Isn't that a pretty picture?

Orange and purple violas. So cheerful!

And orange tiger lilies that a friend gave me. She gave me the tiniest clump and they have spread spread spread like wildfire! I do love them, though!

Here were the flower boxes from that orange and purple summer:
In the center between all the grasses are osteospermum. They are a wonderful, long-lasting flower that I will use again and again. I also had orange million bells in there, purple angelonia, purple brachyscome, mini-licorice, ponytail grass and papyrus. They were pretty spectacular if I do say so myself!!

One of the garden beds by our driveway door: This was also pretty spectacular with the orange osteospermum, orange/yellow lantana, purple brachyscome and angelonia, ice plants, perennial grass and I can't remember what those tall guys were in the back there...

Now, moving on to Spain! O is for Oleander!! It was everywhere and it was just gorgeous!!



So beautiful, no?

And, for no reason whatsoever, I'm including this photo from Spain:
It's a jacaronda tree and they were just sooooo cool!!

Well, that's all for today, my friends! Hope you are enjoying your alphabetical tour of plants! On to P for tomorrow (that's an easy one!)...

Have a great Monday!