Announcing the First Daylily Bloom!

I dug out my "big girl" camera last night.  I have been using a Canon Elph, but I think it is worn out and has lost it's edge.  After all, that little camera has taken thousands of photos over the past seven years. My "big girl" camera has been around for a while, but hasn't been used a lot.  It's a Minolta Diamage A2 ... I hope you notice an improvement in my blog photos as time goes by.  I took a few photos with it this evening when I got home from work.  I will be off work on vacation next week, so I'll have plenty of time to practice with the camera, garden like crazy and blog!  It's time to recharge. :-)

Stella d'Oro Bud

Announcing the first daylily of the season ... Stella d'Oro!

Dianthus - Chili

Dianthus

Coreopsis

Honeysuckle

This is the current garden perfume right now ... it smells heavenly!

Even my blog space is blooming now!  It was time to replace the area rug so here's the new one.  The photo doesn't do it justice ... it's a deep chocolate brown with deeply hued flowers.  It brings the garden indoors. :-)

Lowe's Garden Center (again) and Carrabba's

A trip was made to the Garden Center once again where I found more herbs and flowers.  This time I ended up with:

The Coveted Marjoram

Now that I finally found the marjoram, I 'm set to make spaghetti sauce with only fresh herbs.  I found the oregano and basil previously, but searched high and low before finally finding the marjoram.  I was lucky!  The plant I found was not doing well due to lack of water.  I knew I better get this pitiful plant anyway, so I put it in the cart and immediately headed for the fountain area.  Then, I inconspicuously (at least I thought so) held this thirsty (to put it mildly) plant under the trickle of a fountain for resuscitation purposes. I was desperate and so was the marjoram!

English Lavender

I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I just had to have this one.  Do you have any ideas?

Cherry Tomato

I love to put these in salads or just eat them as a snack.  Don't they smell great?

Heirloom Brandywine Tomato

Haven't tried this one before so this should be interesting.  The picture is pretty on the tag.  There is also a Homestead tomato in the mix, but it didn't photograph well.

Mammoth Jalapeno Peppers

I can't wait to see these.  They are supposed to grow to approximately four inches in length.  I'll use these for salsa, guacamole and armadillo eggs.  I'll be sure to post my recipes when I use these. :-)

Now, for the blooms:

Dwarf Coreopsis

Bloomin' Doormat

Carrabba's Insalata Johnny Rocco

The perfect end to a lovely day.  We were able to sit outside and enjoy the weather.  I had the Insalata Johnny Rocco which was delicious.  It is a bed of mixed greens topped with roasted red peppers, olives, grilled shrimp and scallops, ricotta and vinaigrette.  Of course, there was a glass of chardonnay to go with it (no headache this time :-).

Spring Bloom Safari!

Red Bottle Brush Tree Bloom



Bridal Wreath Spirea



Beautiful white bird house built by my father-in-law.  He was a master carpenter in his spare time.   What a roofline on that birdhouse!

Mighty sycamore tree ... just as mighty as any oak.  This is one of my favorite trees.
What is your favorite tree?

Sycamore tree again ... my husband planted this when he was three!!!

Today was a gorgeous day here!  I spent the morning weeding the main daylily bed, fertilizing, and planting.  The dianthus and chives I bought last weekend are finally in the ground!  It looks like things are really running ahead of schedule in the plant world around here.  Normally, the irises bloom followed by the daylilies.  Well, not this year ... I have several daylilies with buds, so daylily bloom season should begin in about two weeks (very early for daylilies).  Wow!  Irises and daylilies blooming at the same time.  This is going to be quite a garden party! :-)

Pretty in Pink - Dianthus & Loropetulum

Earlier this week, I went out looking for new blooms as soon as I got home from work.
Here's what I found:

Dianthus 

These don't officially count because they were still in their pot from the garden center.  Just had to snap them anyway...



Loropetalum



This one is so pretty ... love its fringe y flowers.

Loropetulum

We had rain and thundershowers last night.  Today, everything in the garden looks at least an inch taller.  It is amazing!  Irises and daylilies are right around the corner.  :-)

Giveaway!

Please check out Annabelle Serendipity's giveaway here:  Giveaway
The winner will be drawn on March 25th.

O is for Orchid!

Well, well, well, I managed to make it to the Lowes Garden Center once again.  Yesterday, my husband was looking for paint, so that gave me plenty of time to browse in the world of plants ...

 

 I'm partial to white orchids.  Thought this one was a beauty ...

 and this one ...

Very exotic!  I had to take a close look to make sure it was a real flower.

Pretty in Pink

If a tropical drink were a flower, I think this one would be it. 

Symphony

My shopping cart ... notice I'm being strong.  There's not an orchid in it (this time ;-).  I did get an onion chive and a beautiful dianthus.  I have found that dianthus weathers our scorching summers quite well.  Our summers seem to be getting hotter with long periods of drought, so I've started appreciating drought tolerant plants over the last two or three years.  I baby the daylilies and the irises, but everything else has to be pretty tough.  It was 87 here today!

And a little something for the hummingbirds ...

Antebellum Home

One of my favorite antebellum homes in town ...

A Favorite Antebellum Home (a phone pic ... checkered sky :-)

It's a Green Day!

I thought it fitting to post about all things green today, 

so here are a few special green things in my life today ...



- Hollywood Hall Teapot - Chartreuse -



I just had to snap this on my way out the door ... one of my many green teapots in my Hall teapot collection.  This one is a "Hollywood."



- Glazed Green Pot ... My Favorite Pot! -



Love this pot!  It will soon be planted with impatiens or petunias ...



- The "Weed Bucket" -



This has become my "weed bucket" ... it will be brimming over again soon with briars, pruning from the palms, and all sorts of evil weeds.



- Dogwood Tree -



The beautiful dogwood tree ... it has green centers so it counts :-)



- Wooly Lambs Ear -



- Stella d'Oro Daylily -



Yippee!  

The first buds on a daylily!  Although this is not one of my designer daylilies, it's a great daylily to have in the garden.  Stella d'Oro is small in stature, a pretty shade of yellow, always the first to bloom in my garden, aaaand it's a repeat bloomer.  I'll post bloom pics soon.



- Just a View -



Just a view of the main daylily bed.

It looks small in this picture to have 88 daylilies in it.  This is definitely an optical illusion because it is HUGE when I have to weed it. :-)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

May the sun shine all day long,

everything go right, and nothing go wrong.

May those you love bring love back to you,

and may all the wishes you wish come true!

- http://tacomaweekly.tripod.com/Irish-Quotations.html

Bethany

Honeysuckle



Yellow and White Honeysuckle

 Honeysuckle is my other garden perfume besides confederate jasmine and tea olive.  I have this planted on the corner of a fence with my non fragrant carolina jasmine.  I can almost smell the honeysuckle when I look at this picture.  I'm not sure what kind I have because I grew mine from a cutting from a wild honeysuckle bush.  Whatever it is, I have a very tough species because it survives our scorching Alabama summers with very little extra care!  I know of very few plants that can do that unless they are in the succulent/cactus family!  Did you know that honeysuckle nectar is used in herbal cough medicines?  Another plus is that hummingbirds love it!  I have only seen one hummingbird so far.  I heard whirring in the air and turned around to see a male ruby throated hummingbird hovering right behind me.  He was such a dark grey that he was almost black with a brilliant ruby throat.  This one must have just been passing through because I haven't seen him since.  I had to name him of course, since he was the first one this year ... he looked like a "Sebastian." :-)

All about honeysuckle.

Sentimental Zinnias ... Flower Power ...



Hot Pink Zinnia

 Yet another bloom from the past.  It won't be long now until I post current blooms. :-)  I took this while playing with the macro setting on my camera.  Zinnias are one of my sentimental flowers.  I have quite a few sentimental flowers that I'm sure will be blogged about as time goes by.  Zinnias remind me of my Grandma Helen.  She used to plant them in mixed colors every year along the walk way going down the hill from the front of she and my grandfather's house to the back.  It's funny how certain things are etched in one's memory.  These are a few things that also come to mind when I think of Grandma Helen:

• my dear grandfather
• fun times for my dear brother John and for me
• the state of Illinois
• a charming white gingerbread style house with a beautiful yard
• african violets (she had quite a collection)
• dear dachshunds (Beethoven who was black and Pinocchio who was tan) sled-riding dogs ... such good sports
• angel food cake (made especially for me)
• devil's food cake (made especially for John)
• Coke floats topped with whipped cream, nuts and cherries
• learning to bake
• hummingbirds
• a white, very loved and spoiled poodle (Bon Bon) - he unwrapped his own caramels
• a beautiful sycamore tree in the front yard (John and I loved to climb in it)
• snowflakes
• sledding
• hot cocoa
• candied popcorn (her special recipe)
• General Hospital (her favorite soap opera)
• petunias (there were two baskets hung on the porch each spring)
• makeup and nail polish
• shopping bags hidden in the basement to be smuggled upstairs later after her "bumming" trips on Thursdays ... these trips were downtown with her friend where they would spend their "mad" money (and then some :-)
• her danish wedding cookies
• her strawberry blonde hair
• cherished memories of two wonderful grandparents, and two very loved and spoiled grandchildren named John and Bethany

:-)

Three Blue Jays

I was lucky enough to catch the 

three Blue Jays

right before their first flights ...



- Blue Jays -



 Thinking ...

Still thinking about it ... serious business ...

Whee e!

Where'd they go?

Thinking ...

Hope you enjoyed these pics from a spring of the past.  

I have high hopes that these three grew up to be law abiding citizens ... I've seen a lot of rambunctious Jays that aren't ...
:-)

Local Alligator

While I'm waiting for the flowers to bloom, I thought I'd blog about one of our "neighbors" 

who was out and about yesterday

a local alligator who lives about a mile from our home ... 

Rex

approximately 80 pounds, five feet tall ...

 muddy brown skin ... 

good personality ...

looking for a good home with a loving family ...

loves seafood ...

will chase intruders ...

willing to relocate (even to London) ... 

a member of the swim team ...

and the aquatic ballet

Note:  Rex is one of our smaller gators.  I believe the Alabama state record is 838 pounds, 14' 2".

:-)