Iris sighting!

When we sold the home that I grew up in, my mother gave me the rhizomes of some amazing bearded iris. They were beautiful purple and white flowers. They have been in one of the flower beds in the front of the house for years now, but last year they did not bloom at all. When I checked the rhizomes, they were dried out and dead. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the plants sending up leaves and flowers this year. I am reading up on how to propagate these plants in one of my favorite gardening books, Perennial All Stars. In about six weeks I will need to remember to dig up the entire bed and "refresh" them, but it will be worth it. They are a real treasure to me. I used to always make an arrangement for my mother and she loved them.

Flowers as enlightenment

One of my favorite things to do is- browse in book stores. Isn't that crazy! I work in a library, but when I go to a book store I see all these titles that I want to read NOW. So, when I was at Barnes & Nobles over the weekend, I made a list of the titles that I want to read this summer. I just finished reading The Shack, and now I'm starting A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. It's one of our Quick Picks, so I better dive in quick.

So true to my theme of gardens, the beginning is about the about the Flowering of Human Consciousness. It starts: "Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun." What a great start!

To follow up on the RSS assignment, I wanted to let you know that I chose Google Reader and the feeds I signed up for are related to some of my interests. They are:Gardening Ideas, Oil Painting Video, Room to Read Gail Borden Learns, The Shifted Librarian and The Shack. I probably won't continue to use all of them, but they are interesting.

Loved the prize for Thing 1! Everyone can use that!

The ants are busy

It's that time of year again. The big black ants are busy working on the peonies. The first peony opened up this morning. I have 10 peony bushes and the ones with the southern exposure are always the first to bloom. The first flowers are the bright pinks and they are beautiful with the purlple iris that are just about to join them.

I'm still fighting this cold, so I really didn't do much again today. I made an arrangement with a few of the peonies for the kitchen table. They match the bleeding hearts arrangement in the hanging vase on the wall. Mostly I just watched HGTV and a program on the top 25 gardening mistakes.

I was very disappointed with the rain damage to some of my plants. I intended to make some sketches of some new white flowers and now all that's left are the stems. Last night when I was searching for RSS feeds, I looked up one of my favorite artists/authors/gardeners- Tasha Tudor. I wasn't even sure she was still alive. She is in her 90's. I love her studies of natural flowers and she is known for her heirloom seeds. I really need to find time to start drawing and painting again.

The Shack

Today I had a terrible cold. I overslept and when I woke up, I could not stop sneezing and I felt miserable. My neighbor, Fred, came over and gave me a rose bush he didn't want anymore. I didn't feel like going outside at all- but it was a beautiful day, so I went over to look at it. His wife, Char, couldn't remember what color it was, but I ended up taking it anyway. I guess it will be a surprise.

Basically, I stayed in the house and drank hot tea and slept. I am reading, The Shack, by William P. Young. I guess I can't completely get away from gardens. I especially enjoyed the chapter, A Long Time Ago, In a Garden Far,Far Away. Mack is told that the garden that he calls a mess, is really his soul. It is a very interesting story. Like Mack, sometimes I wonder how God can allow bad things to happen. This book really presents the Holy Trinity in a very unique way. I hope to finish it tonight.

Well, the Nyquil is setting in, so I'm signing off. I worked on the RSS feed and read about a really cool library in Holland.

Addition of a butterfly feature

This morning the sun was shining and I grabbed my camera to try to capture the morning light. I took a couple of pictures of some of the flowers that I have written about to add to the blog. I'm going to try to download them in a minute.

Also, based on the Creative Ideas magazine from Lowes, I worked on an area on the side of the house next to the potting shed to attract butterflies. Basically, all I needed to do was lay out a small area of stepping stones and a small patch of sand. The butterflies like to rest on the rocks, which absorb heat from the sun. The sand holds moisture and the butterflies drink water and get minerals from the sand. I bought a couple of bright blue salvia to add to the area. This area is really just my "nursery" where I am propagating new plants for the pond area- if that ever really gets finished. Although, I have to admit it was fun to see a pair of mallards swimming in the pond after the last big rain. Anyway, I spread out a few bags of mulch and moved the bird bath over there to give it a more finished look. It was a fun little project and I hope we will have some company soon. A few weeks from now the nearby bushes will be bursting into bloom and little orange butterflies- I think they are called Admiral butterflies, will be swarming them. It will be interesting to see if they really do like the new feature I worked on.

Well wish me luck, I'm going to try to download my pictures...Well, it looked like it was working, but I don't see anything. Guess I will have to try again next week with a little (lot) of help.

A Funny Flower

One of my favorite gifts was a notebook/calendar from my friend, Marcie. She knows that I love gardening and art. The notebook was based on Monet's garden and it was designed to record my memories of the garden each month. I saved lots of pictures of my favorite flowers in the pockets of the book.

I think that this blog will be my new memory keeper for this year's garden.

The very first special discovery this spring happened very early on a cold morning. I was just about to go to work, but I decided to cut some daffodils for a small vase. I love daffodils and have about a half dozen varieties. One in particular is a creamy white with a trumpet center. One of the flowers that I was about to cut looked deformed. So, I looked more closely at it. To my surprise, a white butterfly was sleeping inside the flower. I couldn't disturb her, so I left that flower uncut. It has been such a cold and wet spring that it was wonderful to find such a pleasant surprise and a great way to start my day.

Yesterday I had another surprise. I spotted a bright, big ball of purple floating two feet off the ground. It was that crazy allium that Gary planted a few years ago. It is such an odd plant. I just pops up almost overnight and then when it is done blooming, it just seems to disappear. I will have to try to take a picture of it for my blog. It is such a funny plant. I just remembered that Martha Stewart dedicated one of the covers of her Living magazine to alliums last year. I will have to find that issue and read up on them.

What's blooming?

I love this time of year. Every morning I enjoy taking a walk around the yard to see what's new. Today I enjoyed seeing some new blooms on the bleeding heart plants. They have really spread this year. I will need to divide them and share with friends. I especially love the scent of the lilies of the valley. I have a few cut flowers on the dining table and they are really pretty.



It looks like it has snowed in the back yard. Both of the flowering crabtrees have lost their petals, but the dogwood is still in full bloom.



I can't wait for my daughter to buy her first home, so I can share my plants with her.