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! :-)

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 ...

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.