Floral Friday - A Few Favorite Bloomers (and my veggies)

I must confess, I'm not much of a vegetable gardener, but that is primarily because I don't have anywhere to plant a garden. We have a nice sized back yard (in fact we have almost 2/3 of an acre in total), but the back yard is very shady.

The front and side yards are out because we have a Home Owners Association, and other than to say the rules say we can't plant a vegetable garden in front, I just won't go there!

But I do manage to slip in a few things in the front. Like my four hills of squash - two yellow and two zucchini, and four tomato plants. I've also got a couple of sunflowers planted in between the squash. The neighborhood kids always enjoy those when they bloom.

So far, everything is kind of small, but they are coming along.

SQUASH

TOMATO

(By the way, did you know you should break off all but the top three or so stems of leaves and plant your tomatoes deep? Where the other leaves were, the tomato will send out roots, and it will be a much stronger plant!)

SUNFLOWER

(Staked to make it grow straighter and stronger.)

And now on to my current favorite bloomers.

This clematis is a marvel! It's been in the back yard for at least 4-5 years, and each spring it grows up tall and then the leaves on the trees shade it and it never blooms - until this year, when I moved it to the front yard where it will get plenty of sun. It's not the most beautiful bloom in the world, but it's pretty good for a non-bloomer! Don't you love the black obelisk???

And this is that tiny Penny Mack hydrangea that I moved 2-3 weeks ago, and she is blooming, even though she's only about 6 inches tall. Talk about a big improvement! (And it's not one of the new "Mini-Penney's", but a standard sized Penny Mack)

This lavendar is apparently happy, and the blooms are just beginning to open. It smells sooooooo good! The plant's base is probably almost 2 feet across.

Cat Mint - Love those lavender colored blooms!

This is my 'Greeting Garden' from the back side. This is where the morning glory, hyacinth bean and moonflower are beginning to climb up the trellis, and soon they will make a hiding place for the hummers who, by the way, are nesting in this area now. My friend Fay in Dothan gave me the angel years ago. (Hi Fay! I'll e-mail you sometime today!)

Glowing Peace Hybrid Tea Rose

And now some before and afters >>>

Tess of the d'Urbervilles Climber - David Austin Roses - Bud

Fully Bloomed

Heritage - David Austin Rose - Buds

(Can I just brag on myself for a sec? Do you see the sun's rays beaming down on that rosebud? I couldn't have done that if I tried, but it just happened in this pic! Amazing!)

Fully Bloomed Out

Isn't she lovely????

Well, that's my favorite bloomers in the yard right now. I'm so excited when each new thing starts blooming! And now, I must go get my super soaker water gun and attack a couple of squirrels on my deck bird feeders! It's a never-ending battle! Blessings! Becky

Now Blooming . . .

David Austin's 'Heritage' Rose

Rue - Butterflies and Bees love it!

David Austin 'William Shakespeare'

Purple Leafed Honeysuckle

(I just planted this a week or so ago to replace a climbing rose that died. He was never happy there, anyway, but it appears 'Honey' is already happy!)

Solomon's Seal

(This is growing up against the trunk of a sweet gum tree,and came up volunteer. I'm not bothering it, because it seems to be very happy there!)

Clematis

Sorry, can't remember name!

David Austin climbing rose

Tess Of The d'Urbervilles

And I wanted to share these with you as 'BEFORE' pictures! These are the two boxes I have on the rail of our back deck. The flowers are impatiens and ornamental 'sweet potato' vines in two colors - purple and chartreuse.

These will fill in and the vines will trail over the sides in no time, giving the birds a place to hide, and us a little extra privacy on the deck. The boxes have a channel down the middle so that they fit firmly over the deck railing, and come in two different widths. The drainage holes are on the lower sides, so no water sits on the deck rail. I got mine several years ago at Pikes, but many different garden centers carry them, or you may still be able to find them on QVC.com.

Thanks for visiting, Becky

A Messy Saturday . . .

. . . . Calls for some spring and summertime dreaming! And that's what I've been doing yesterday afternoon and in the sleepless wee hours of this morning - dreaming and surfing for my favorite flowers. Since I didn't get around to doing a 'Floral Friday' post yesterday, I thought I would share "Someday Saturday - Dreams of Blooms". Enjoy!

I have a top 5 list of flowers that I 'CAN' grow here. The top of the list are these lovelies - my all time number ONE favorite flower >>>

I couldn't resist this next picture, I mean since my dream house is a farmhouse, and my favorite flower is lilac - what else could I do but post this for all to see!

Probably my next most favorite flower, and one that is somewhat difficult, but possible, to grow, is the peony. Take a look at these beauties!

I have one very similar to this next one - mine is called Shirley Temple.

And next, being a Southern Girl, I have to include the gorgeous hydrangea! I have a number of hydrangeas, but the last three years I've had a hard time keeping them growing due to the extreme drought. So far, I don't think that will be a problem this year, thank goodness! And although I have several - I'd have dozens of these beauties if I had the money, space, energy and time to care for them.

In fourth place on my list of favorites is the rose - especially the David Austin or English roses. I have half a dozen David Austins, and probably 6-8 other varieties. But these are a few of the ones I'd love to add to my garden.

This next one is 'Graham Thomas'. I have a GT climber, but I'd love to have the non-climbing version!

Next up is a Heritage, and I have one, but if I could, I'd have many, many more. She's so beautiful, and the scent is even more gorgeous!

And last, but definitely not least on my list of top five favorite flowers is the majestic foxglove! These lovely plants can grow up to several feet tall, and the blooming period is long because the bottom blooms open first, and the top blooms open much later. I have several of these, and this spring I've seen several new babies from the seeds from year before last. Gotta love those re-seeding bloomers!

(All photos from Flickr)

So that's the list of my top five favorite flowers. I love almost everything that blooms, but these are just the ones that are nearest and dearest to my heart. So tell me, what are your top five favorites!

Have a blessed weekend, Becky