Clever or Captured?

Thanks to the rain, we've had roses once again this Summer :)

And the Black Spots are still on many of the leaves :( I keep clipping the bad leaves off, but they keep coming back. I am hoping it will clear up when I prune the bushes in the fall.

But this week, I spotted something new on one of the bushes...

Do you see it?

At first, I thought it was some sort of white fungal growth on that one leaf...



No...

It's a spider!

And all I could think is "Did he mean to be in there?" 

WEEDS!

It has been one hot summer and I haven't pulled weeds in ages....

I know that weeds will spread if not kep in check, but I've NEVER seen them like this!!!

Anyone know a good weed poison?

And if we can't kill them off, I guess it won't be all that bad.

They are kinda pretty :)

Roses in bloom

What could be more beautiful than these roses?

The "red" ones that Kim convinced to bloom in a dark shade of pink are from Valentine's Day 2010. The Peach ones are new for 2011 :)

I have to say the peach ones are positively gorgeous in person and they are more fragrant than the previous ones... and they remind me of my favorite Barbie from my younger years :) Anyone else remember Peaches n Cream Barbie? I wanted her dress SO badly when I was little... and you know what, I still kinda do :)

A Rose by Any Other Name...

 It's finally rose season once again!
I've been looking forward to this ever since the first leaves started to appear on my bushes :)


Unfortunately, our rose bushes have developed a few problems :(


The leaves appear to have a bad case of blackspot  (Well-named, huh?) and that sounds like it's gonna be a booger to get rid of :\

 

They also have this weed growing all over them. As weeds go, this one is kind of pretty. It has little pods and teeny tiny purple flowers -there is one almost in the center of this photo. I'm curious what this plant is and where it came from. anyone have any ideas?

 

Despite these two set-backs, the roses are growing beautifully. In fact, the white rose bush has a whopping 23 buds already!!!

Not to be outdone, the pink Tropicana bush has almost as many buds on it :)

It's like those two bushes are competing to be my favorite :)  Even the red rose bush is trying to put out a handful of buds...

I love them all, of course, but if they want to be my favorite they'll have to step up their game because there's a new bloom in town :)

 

With such prolific roses I might need to add a flower arranging class or two to my Lifelong To DO List :)

Looks like I have a LOT to learn :)

Trying Something New

I'm pretty excited :) I have started something that I have wanted to try for YEARS!

It may sound incredibly simple, but I've always wanted to grow my own herbs. I blame my mom for this (and if she reads this, I'm sure she's proud)

So, Mom Smith helped me pick out some pots... which was possibly the trickiest part! And she donated some seeds to the cause :)

I am now anxiously awaiting:

Sweet Basil, Cilantro / Coriander and two kinds of Parsley

How do you like my DIY labels?


Another Mom Smith addition is phlox. I spotted her pots of phlox and thought they were fun so she took me to see if I saw any varieties I might like....


At first, I admit, I was not sure I really needed any more flowers.... But then I discovered that these are perennials!! I like the idea that I won't have to replant these next year (sorry, pansies) So we got three batches of these sweet purple flowers:

In addition to the new flowers, I am really happy to see some returning from last year...


Let me rephrase that... I was "happy" to see the tulips again this spring because they were so beautiful last year.


But I can admit that bulbs are fairly reliable. My growing number of daffodils doesn't impress me...


What does impress me (and Wes) is that my ranunculus are back!! In fact, the one plant that bloomed last year is back and LARGER :) If you'll recall... It looked like THIS  last year.

What's really cool is that I think I have figured out what conditions are needed to grow these flowers. I had one successful plant last year. Figuring out why that one worked, I planted 6 more in the fall.... So the 2 year old plant has about 6 or 7 buds / blooms... and the 1st year plants are all humming along with 1 or 2 buds (like the one last year)

SO - Just IMAGINE how beautiful all of the plants will be NEXT spring! I can't wait!!

And, there is one last new thing I've discovered.

Thanks to Wesley I have happily added a few orange accents in the flower bed... Such as the ranunculus.. and "his" pansies and snapdragons...

And you know what I've discovered?

Orange looks surprisingly good with purple :)

Wouldn't you agree?

Spring is Here!

I am so thankful that Spring is making its annual debut! I have had enough Winter and cold / dreary weather!

And, with Spring comes a variety of flowers.

Our beautiful trees in the front yard are in full bloom making me and the birds very happy :)

All the pansies I planted in the cold months are blooming wonderfully with the sunshine beaming down on them!

The yellow and orange ones are Wesley's so we periodically go check on them so he can see that "his" pansies are doing well. I can't wait for him to get back from seeing his grandparents so he can see "his" snapdragons are putting on new buds!!

I have several tulips blooming, as well... And I won't even blame Kim. This time, I purposefully planted several pink varieties! Wouldn't you know they all came in first?

Seeing all the flowers smiling in the front yard looks much more impressive in person (you're welcome to come see for yourselves!)

And, just for fun, I would like to bring back everyone's favorite game:

Name that Plant!

I have noticed some of my tulips are on little short stalks the first year they bloom and then the 2nd year they are normal height....

But now I have these new flowers that aren't showing any stalks under the beautiful little flowers...

Any ideas what these might be: 



Mystery Plant #2

This new plant / vine appeared inteh front flower bed... Two characteristics worth noting:

1 - Heart-shaped leaves


2 - Tiny, white flowers

The floor is now open to guesses :) No prizes are available at this time... Except braggin rights ;)

Passion for Purple Plants

I recently inherited three new plants that are right up my alley!

I've always loved Wandering Jew and now I have some!

And... some of this stuff:


And one of these :)

The back porch looks so happy whenever I go out to visit these guys :)

The new trouble I'm having is that last year's purple mums are struggling. Could it be that they're getting too much sun? heat? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Where Have We Been?!

Alot has been happening since I last posted! Let's see...

Wesley got glasses -




And then he turned nine!!!




We had a huge end of the year party for AWANA




And, Wesley had a successful sinus surgery.



May was a very busy month, to say the least!

Now that June is practically here, how about I post a few garden updates :)

The petunias I planted are blooming like mad - I think I just found my new summer favorite :)




And yes, those are pansies you see in the background. That's a complete surprise since we've had temps in the 90s lately! Most of them have died off, but the two patches near the front door are still alive and kickin. I'm curious to see how long they survive :)

Even though Kim convinced it to bloom pink, I'm officially in love with my hydrangea (special thanks to Mom Smith!)





And the white rose bush outdid itself earlier in the month - It had close to 20 blooms all at once and they were gorgeous! It is resting up now so I am anxious to see when the blooms return if there will be another explosion like this one:




Brad's blueberry bushes are humming along nicely, too. He has enjoyed having handfuls of blueberries on his cereal lately :)

Oh - and have you SEEN the corn lately?

Maybe we can relax and enjoy our gardens for a while now. I'm so glad May is almost over and that summer has arrived. Nothing but blessings and sunshine spreading out before us! *sigh*

Workin on the Garden

I don't know if you've noticed, but the weather has been GORGEOUS this weekend :) And we decided to capitalize on that yesterday. We started by doing a little shopping - Particularly, we went plant shopping!

Brad and I have had our eye on this large, bushy tree at the end of our porch lately. Neither of us like it and it scratches our column and gutters. PLUS, it obscures the view of the daylillies that are planted behind it. So we decided to replace it with a few azaleas.

Here is the BEFORE picture:


It took all three of us to get the job done. I sheared off several branches - Brad sawed the tree down - and Wes hauled all the branches to the backyard. Afterwards, I dug holes and placed the new azalea bushes. We were all three absolutely worn out, but the results are well worth the effort.

See for yourself:




In the process, I was able to relocate some daylillies to the front part of the garden so I am really happy to have recycled them :)




Oh - and Wes was super proud of himself when he was done hauling branches. I have to say, he did an impressive job. Take a look:

The azaleas are going to be a great addition to the front yard. One is absolutely covered in Blaauws Pink Azaleas and the other, slightly smaller one is an Encore Azalea named Autumn Amethyst. The cool thing is not only will it have the beautiful purple blooms from Spring through Fall, but when the blooms fade in winter, they leave behind Purple-ish Foilage How cool is that?

If you can't see them well enough in the photo, click the links in the previous paragraph :)

While I was at it yesterday, I planted my Red Hydrangea in front of the blue one from Mom Smith. I centered the red on in front of the kitchen window because word on the street tells me that another Mom Smith Hydrangea *might* be headed my way... But shh - you didn't hear that from me! :)

Besides, the red on still has a while before it catches up with the first one :) I just am hoping for some blooms this year :)

That's about all we worked on yesterday -But there will be more daylilly relocations scheduled for next weekend. Oh and there are now 4 small rose buds and a handful of green blueberries sprouting up in the back yard. Needless to day, I'm about to have lots of updating to do :)

Stay tuned for fun updates from the AWANA Grand Prix next Saturday :)

Tulip Time

I am really enjoying the early spring flowers in bloom right now so I thought I'd share a sampling :)

First off- Hyacinth :) They smell nice and most of mine came up purple so what's not to love?



And now for the excessive Tulip footage:

Last Saturday was our church's Easter Egg hunt. Brad was a little under the weather so he missed out, but Wes and I had a great time :)

Hello, Springtime, Is that You?

Last month's snow was absolutely gorgeous... I always love a good snow day because it justifies (sortof) the cold and wet weather if you get to have a day of fun to make up for it.

BUT SERIOUSLY!!! I am so ready to be done with Winter! I know lots of you are ready, too. So imagine my delight when I started to see a little green in my flower beds :) Whew, thank goodness! Spring will be here soon!

The first evidence we had was on the fig tree - as you can see it has gone crazy!!
Remember it used to look like THIS!

We might still have to wait for the figs to be delicious and plentiful - so in the meantime, enjoy these sights from my front yard:

Ah, dafodils - all of mine are restricted to this patch in the rear / center of the flowerbed... not sure who planted them like that so I'll probably redistribute them when they quit being so beautiful :)

This little sprig is new growth on my hydrangea! Yippee! I can't wait to see how it does this year! It had better bloom!!

These are some hyacinth bulbs I clustered in a pot - actually 2 pots - on my front porch :) They'll be so pretty when they bloom :)

The pansies have really taken off now that we have had some sun mixed in with the wind and rain :) Here's an impressive bunch:

And just look what I found over in front of the Iris bed - a hyacinth about to blossom :) in the background you can see the irises beginning to make little green shoots:

And we have something new to look forward to this summer - Last year Brad gave me the pink and white rose bushes for Valentine's Day and this year he sweetly gave me a Red Rose bush. I put it in the ground last weekend and look at how much it has grown since then:

Yes, I am officially looking forward to spring and summer time. I've got lots of bulbs in the ground and I can't wait to see how they do. I have alreday chosen the perfect spot to sit and watch the garden grow...

I'll save ya a seat if you care to join me :)