This one's for Rhonda

My friend Rhonda always posts such beautiful photos of her flower gardens and while my gardens are no where as spectacular and hers and Russell's (nor are my photos as professional as hers) I wanted to share some of our beauties.

This is our little sitting area on the east side of the house.  The retaining wall provides shade most of the day for the hostas and the one behind the bench is really taking off.  The coral bells in the foreground were a 'share' from a co-worker about 15 years ago.  I have taken them through 2 moves and still have one that has survived.  
At the home we lived in when I got them I had a row of these along the north flower bed.  When they were blooming it looked like a pink cloud hovering about the flower bed.  It was so sad to drive by recently and see that they had not only torn out the coral bells but the whole flower bed!  :-(

Here is a closer look at the hostas.  Sorry Rhonda - have no idea what their names are.  There is also a fern hidden behind it - had to have a couple ferns in the garden :-)

This is another coral bell - it has cream colored flowers.   I had a couple other varieties but they did not make it.   This one has not bloomed yet this year.  My google search found that they bloom from June to August.   Guess the pink one doesn't realize it is still May.

Another hosta - I like the variety of colors we have.  They are all in a row along the retaining wall.

And another hosta.  This one gets more sun so surprised it is doing so well.   

The weeping willow was one of the first things we planted - probably in the spring of 2007.  It was just a small spindly tree at that time. It has certainly done well.  Kids like to run through it's branches or sit under it.

We have a couple roses blooming.  They are pretty care free.  I just trim them occasionally and cut off the dead blooms.  When I remember I give them some food.   (It was hard to tell in the sun if my photo was clear - I may have to try again when the sun has moved behind the trees.

 We also have some salmon colored roses.   The yellow and pink did not have any blooms this morning.  Maybe soon.

Our newest addition is a hanging fuschia on the front porch.   I got this huge plant from the produce co-op :-)   It is full of buds and now has two huge blooms. 

 See all the buds. It is fun watching them - seems like they just suddenly pop open and .....

a lovely purple flower is revealed.    Can't wait to see it when it is in full bloom.

So Rhonda- there is a tour of our gardens (and that is almost all of them).  Nothing compared to yours but pretty good since neither Tom nor I put much time into them.

Roses, Roses, Roses

This morning the rose bushes are filling out with blooms. I just had to snap a couple photos to share.

This is the bush that had the first rose to bloom this year. It is now accompanied by several more HUGE flowers.

















And this yellow bush is packed with buds. In a couple weeks or less this one will be beautiful.

Roses are in bloom!

Our first rose bloomed today! I am not a serious gardener but last year did manage to have roses blooming all summer long. This year the bushes are full of buds again!



5/6/09 -the bud starts to open























5/8/09 open a little bit more















5/9/09 a.m - Open at last (I thought)













5/9/09 - p.m. Fully open - What a huge bloom!
















Here are some more garden pictures taken today :


The plum tree has bounced back after the storm.














An 'aerial' view of the bench - taken from top of the retaining wall.











DH spreading some weed killer on the lawn. We had quite a bumper crop of dandelions this year. I have never seen so many - our front yard was a sea of dandelions and once they went to seed it almost looked like snow :-) - I'm sure our neighbors were not impressed!

Gardening

DH and I don't do a lot of gardening but we have been working on the flower beds this weekend. We put in a large rock bed on the east side of the house 2 years ago and last year added the bench and a few plants

We planted the coral bells - 4 varieties last year and they are doing very well in that spot. This year we added the hostas along the retaining wall.

The green-leafed coral bell closest to the bench has blooms already. A friend at work gave several plants of that variety from her garden about 15 years ago (2 houses ago) and they did wonderfully in that bed. We had a coral haze all along the flower bed for about 2 weeks in May. I left most at that house but had about 3 or 4 at the second house - unfortunately we were only there 2 years and I never found the 'best spot' for them - but was able to bring one along to this house. I think I have found the spot. I am looking forward to splitting that plant next year and filling in more of the bed with them.



We tried a few ferns but there was too much morning sunlight for most of them. One did survive - I guess it was shaded by the bench and another one behind the bench at the base of the shepherd's crook, has a small sprout coming up.
In the 'bare area' on the right of the photo, I planted some lilies from the same friend at work who gave me the coral bells. She called them canna lilies but when I looked those up on the internet it had bulbs pictured and these were more like iris rhizomes. I read up on calla lilies and these sound more like those rhizomes - so I am anxious to see how what they are. I planted several here, 7 or 8 scattered throughout the rest of the bed and along the top of the retaining wall. We also put some out in the far end of the yard next to the weeping willow that we planted last year. They have to be dug up in the fall so we can always change their locations next year - for now I am hoping they will fill in between the perennials.


At the other end of the retaining wall, we placed 4 of these blue flowers. I believe they are delphiniums - they were not labeled. We had some delphiniums last summer and they did very well in this area but did not come back this year. I was reading up on them today and one article said they can be annual or perennial. These pots were marked as perennial. Behind these and along the top of the retaining wall we have a butterfly bush, flowering plum and several burning bushes.



We also made a semi-circular bed around the mailbox last year. We love this rock - it has a lot of deep color when it is wet. We had the center juniper plant and some grasses last year but the grasses did not come back. We added some more juniper for ground cover and alternated some white and pink flowers around the outer edge. (Can't recall the names but I did keep the information stakes so I can learn them).




Last year we also put in some rose bushes, just outside the kitchen door. We had roses blooming all summer long so I think we find the right spot for these :-). Look at all the buds on these - can't wait for them to burst open!
We will have red, pink, yellow and orange roses again this year.
And while we were shopping we could not resist this beautiful fuchsia hanging plant for the front porch.
Don't you love the purple and pink blooms? One gardening article compares them to ballerinas - I can see them spinning in the tutus.

We put in a rock bed on the west side of the house (along the garage) last year and will have to start thinking of what we want to plant there- but that's another weekend and paycheck :-)