The Constant Gardener
Okay I did not like that film – no chemistry BUT I was in yoga today and Michele’s message was the Gardener – to pull your weeds (do your work) and then plant your seeds (fill your life with what you want) and then sit back and enjoy the flowers. So I was looking at my back and side yard and relishing the fact that pretty soon this little cold spell that we are enjoying now will pass and the heat will come and these plants will pop. As it is the Vitex and Magnolia trees are about ready to burst. The calas on the side have been already blooming and the Knockout roses are already gorgeous as well as the David Austins up along the side front yard. Hip Hip Hooray.
There used to be a black bamboo that was a nice screen for the HVAC system here but the nonrunning bamboo turned out to be a sprinter, not a runner, so many years after trying to kill that sucker, I’m able to finally plant here. The Cestrum “Orange Zest” is going to grow large and sprawl and hopefully screen while in front is the Henry’s Garnet Sweetspire (lovely scented spires I might add) with a scattering of bulbine and autumn fern (the sweet little fern that blooms bronze then turns green – the reverse of aging).
Here are the Louisiana irises that I have been adding to for years now and they are in bloom everywhere around City Park and the Bayou.
This is where some of the elephant ears were that died back in the last freezes and so now in back is Kerria japonica plentiflora which will hopefully thrive in back and get sprawly and in front are oakleaf hydrangeas and one native azalea (rhododendron) with a few heucheras fronting this mass.
Along the back between the crepes is the lora petalum in front but now a Brugmansia that I hope gets big and arching with its lovely angel’s trumpets, and in the very front are Chinese ground orchids, so lovely.
And then there is a delicious Aloysia virgata – sweet almond in back of the gardenia bush and along the side I love these maiden hair ferns breaking up the strong calas.
April 9th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Ah a breath of fresh air, these flowers! You may be having a “cold spell” but that looks like sunshine. Makes me wish I could pull up stakes and move south so I could grow elephant ears again–plus all that other good stuff. Do you s’pose I could will something like that to happen? We’re under snow all day today–as was yesterday and the day before. I’m sick of grey skies!