24 posts tagged “gardens”

I have been very poor again at keeping up with posting here.... The past weeks have been filled with preparing for and vending at a quilt show, preparing a lecture for another guild, gathering  items to deliver for a sale, and more. I am also preparing to head back to  Fillmore, NY the end of this week to spend a few weeks with my grandmother. My parents Really need a vacation, so I will be staying with her while they are gone. And to add even more excitement.... Our son Zack who has been deployed in Iraq popped in unexpectedly last night on a 2 week leave!!

Zack

I have also been trying to add little bits here and there to my Facebook Fan Page. Follow the link to become one of my fans!

I will probably be MIA from the web a lot while at my gram's.... there is only very slow dial-up service there unless I go to my brother's house. I will be taking all my items listed for sale in my shops along with my shipping supplies so that I can fill any orders that come in while there.... It's really hard to teach Ken how to do that, and my storage units are portable.... Printing mailing labels online makes shipping packages so easy from anywhere....

Here are a couple photos from my gardens a few days ago....   The trees still have leaves, and a lot are still green....

October 16 Snow 5

October 16 Snow 3

Today I received a very nice hand written note informing me that my photo, "Waterfalls", was chosen for "The Eye of the Quilter" exhibit that will be at International Quilt Festival in Houston later this month! The exhibit will be a group of photos taken by quilters that give an idea of what inspires our quilts.  We sent digital images, and those selected will be printed and framed for the exhibit..... It should be a great selection of photos.... Here are the two photos that were not chosen...

Yellow Roses 1

Inniswood Arbor

Now that it has been two weeks since our trip to the Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia, PA, I am finally getting some of those photos posted... I took well over 300 photos.... here are just a few highlights.....

Morris Arboretum Nest

Morris Arboretum 1

Morris Arboretum Fernery 1

Morris Arboretum Fernery 3

Morris Arboretum Fernery 2

Morris Arboretum Cool Tree

Morris Arboretum Swan Pond

There are lots of interesting garden structures.... Here is one at the Swan Pond. We saw one swan, napping along the edge of the water... There were a number of geese and ducks happily swimming in the pond while we were there.

Anemone Pink

I did take lots of flower photos, but won't over do things with them... Here are a couple of pale pink late blooming Anemone flowers... They are great shade flowers that grow about three ft. tall.

Morris Arboretum Ginkgo

Ginkgo leaves!!! I love Ginkgos, and as we were walking along, I noticed some of the leaves from this tree on the ground before I found the tree. There must have been a nasty storm the day before, because there were small branches and lots of  leaves scattered about. Here are some leaves with the bright blue sky behind them. This tree was the biggest Ginkgo I have ever seen.... Arboretums are so great.... they have such a wide selection of trees, and some really huge, old specimens.

Morris Arboretum 10

Here is one of the last gardens we wandered through.... I love the gates that are at the entrances..... This garden was filled mostly with plants with foliage or flowers in shades of orange. Alongside this garden was another narrow one with a long pond filled with fountains, separated from this one by a wall of climbing runner beans and other blooming vines. Like walking from one room to another...

This was just a tiny number of photos I have to play with now..... There was so much to see.... I am thinking that next year, we need to visit again maybe in the spring.... Then another trip to explore the gardens in Columbus, OH area. There is so much more to see.....  

Now maybe if I can get rid of this stupid cold or whatever kind of crud I have, I will be able to put some of these photos to use in a quilt or two....

It's been a while since I showed any new flowers here, so here goes... The Echinaceas are in full bloom now, along with a few other pretties.

Lonely flower

Nearly White Echinacea

Nearly White Echinacea 2

Echinacea Sparkler 1

Echinacea Hope with butterfly

This variety is one that was sold with part of the sales going to breast cancer research. The name is "Hope" It has a much larger center than most Echinaceas. I even caught a visitor on this one.

Tall Flowers 1

More Echinaceas.... These are from a big group of plants that have seeded themselves over the years. Some of the flower petals droop more than others. It has been fun watching the Goldfinches this summer. They have been trying to pick seeds from these flowers even before they have a chance to form them. This photo also shows the really tall Thalictrum, or Meadow Rue towering over even the ornamental grass, with it's delicate lavender flowers. Most of the plants in this area of the garden are nearly armpit high... It will be even better when the tall Garden Phlox begin to bloom. I even allowed a few wild Milkweed plants to stay here for the Monarchs. They usually end up popping up where I have the shortest plants growing, and I have to pull them or leave them looking out of place.

Angelonia and Geranium

Last photo for tonight... Annual flowers in a planter- White and deep purple Angelonia with bright pink geraniums. I never thought I would be buying geraniums to plant around my home, but these were on a bargain rack at Lowes at half price. Beautiful plants, just not in bloom... With a little TLC, they are pretty now. I do like the color..

Now I just need to keep attacking the weed populations... Photos are great.... I can shoot around the weeds and no one knows how bad they really are:)

Again, time has flown since I last posted. I finally have my garden planting all done for this year!!

Former Garden Mess

Hosta Venusta

Front Walk Planters

The planters out front are looking great, too. I just wish I would be able to use my "outdoor studio" this summer.... The saw horse in the background is part of the remodel of the bathroom and bedroom. The front wall of the trailer had to be replaced because it had rotted out (no siding didn't help matters). My painting and sunprinting area is clogged up with lumber, tools and other such stuff... I really hope that means I will have my bathroom back again?

As for the quilt sale.....

Stacks of Mini Quilts

Here are some of the mini quilts I have made in the past few years. They are now kicked out of there storage space that was in the bedroom, and looking so sad... I am now getting photos done of them to get them listed in my Artfire Store online. Many shops there are running "Christmas in July" sales, and i am joining them. From now until the end of July, all items in my Artfire shop are 20% off their regular prices. In addition to that, I am giving away FREE ART QUILTS!! If you purchase 2 of these series of mini quilts, you will get a THIRD ONE FREE! (same or lesser value)

More Mini Quilts

Here is another group of my babies waiting to have their "Glamor Shots" taken so I can list them at Artfire. I have found that I can scan many of them while still in their bags... saves a lot of time and handling. These little guys are 5"x7", 8"x10", or 11"x14" in size, and are mostly from my sunprint series. I do have some silk photo pieces in the sale also. If you see something here that is not listed yet, let me know and I will get it listed for you or give you info. Like everyone else, I can use the $, and need to free up space in my home and brain so I can get new ideas into cloth. I also have different quilts listed on my Website- 5"x7" here, and 8"x10" here. If you email me, I will offer the same deal as those listed at Artfire- 20% off and buy two get one (same or lesser value).  

Testlayout3

This is one piece I am doing battle with right now using my flower photos printed onto fabric.... I played with it's photo in the computer and found that one problem is that there is very little contrast. When changed to black and white, everything looks the same.... More updates to come....

After spending a few days in my own gardens, I thought I would get back here and show off a few of the over 600 photos I took after QSDS.

Mini Rose Bud

Rose Cinco de Mayo 1

Pink Roses

Fountain at Rose Gardens

Yellow Roses 1

Evening Pink Roses

Inniswood Entrance Building

On Monday, after getting lost in Columbus trying to find the Dick Blick art store (I did finally find it- I'm not a city gal), I found my way eventually to Inniswood Metro Gardens. It is a very large garden that  is free and open to the public like the rose park. This is the building at the entrance to the gardens. It has a lot of interesting features.

Hosta Planters

Not too far from the entrance were these large pots of Hosta plopped in a shade garden. The plants are probably nearly 4 feet wide- beautiful!

Waterfalls at Inniswood 1

Just hitting a few highlights, here is a photo showing a couple of waterfalls with the plantings around them. It was a beautiful, sunny day and not too hot- just perfect for visiting.

Stonework Arbor at Inniswood 1

There were lots of architectural features through the gardens. Here is one of my favorites- an arbor over a walk lined by the curved stone wall with stone benches built into it. There was a small flowered Clematis blooming on the arbor.

Vine Gate at Inniswood

This gate was not too far from the arbor (I don't think... I did get a bit lost at times). I love the design with the leaves. Each leaf had a name of someone who had contributed to funding this part of the gardens. It must take a lot to keep everything looking so great.

Flowers with Bee

I guess some flower photos would be in order.... Here are some coreopsis flowers with a yellow Shasta Daisy, and I just happened to catch the bee at work.

Echinaceas mixed colors

There were lots of Echinaceas in bloom. Everything seemed to be blooming sooner than here at home. There were orange ones mixed with the traditional lavender ones here.

Inniswood Arbor 1

Another favorite bit of architecture.... I love the opening in this arbor, you can see what is growing inside and it makes you want to go in for a closer look.

Brown Hellebore Flowers

There are lots more photos of flowers from here, but here is the last one for now. Others will surely be popping in here and there as I pull them out to use in the future. These Hellebore flowers were really interesting.... I am not sure if they were brown to start with because most bloom very early Spring, but they didn't look dried up. The centers were chocolate brown with beige petals. 

Mud Splattered Planter

Thankfully upon returning home, I found most of my flowers had done well. These are spilling nicely out from their planter that has become very mud splattered from all the rain while I ws gone.

Stormy View

This has been a common sight.... We did get 2 days on the weekend without rain!! It is totally hiding much of our view in this photo.

Blackcaps

I got home just in time for the first blackcaps, or black raspberries to ripen- Yum!  These bushes are going to be pulled after the berries are gone- they are covering my water garden and there are more bushes in other places. It will be much easier to pick without all the old canes and new growth that I have cleared already.

Bodacious Returns Hemerocallis

Last photo before this post takes the whole page..... This Hemerocallis (Daylily) flower was Huge!! I guess it lives up to it's name- Bodacious Returns. It should rebloom later in the summer after the buds it has now are done.

As anyone can see, I have gotten a lot of new inspiration from my trip to Columbus and back at home. Now to just get myself back on track and back into the studio.... It has taken longer to recouperate from the trip than I hoped for, but it was worth it!

My camera and I went walking on Water Road again yesterday to see the progress of the opening Mountain Laurel flowers.

Mountain Laurel 3

Roadside

Baby Maple

Struggle

Ever felt like this poor flower cluster??? I think this shows just how I feel when my fibro decides to flare- Smashed down by a tree (or branch in this case). The flowers are still opening dispite being nearly buried.

Fuzzy Babies

Something more to keep my eye on.... Not sure what these little plants are. They are growing on a clump of moss on a pile of rocks. Looks like it might be a vine-like grower.

Feathery Ferns

Ferns are unfurling everywhere, now. This group looked so soft and feathery.

Baby Fern

A baby fern hiding among the other plants and dead branches and leaves.

Fern in Rock

How's this for overcoming obstacles!! This little guy is growing in a crack in the rock, and some days I think it is hard living where I do....

Another Fern

Final fern photo of today.... Not sure of the variety, different from the lacy wood ferns. Check out the upper left of this photo- a leaf from the Anemonella I found blooming earlier.

Pink Wild Rose 1

The tiny flowered wild roses can become very invasive, but this plant has pretty pink flowers instead of the usual white. I like the pink much better..  OK, I love the color pink..

Hemerocallis Pandora's Box

Back home..... Here is a Daylily we bought in Georgia- I had not seen this variety up here in PA. It is very different from any others I already have and they are super hardy and easy to grow.

Baby Cobweb Chicks

Baby cobweb chicks I got on our way home... I had been looking for these for quite a while- mine all died in a weed infested rock garden.

Double Balloon Flower

This pretty flower is another on a plant we picked up at one of the garden centers we stopped at. I hadn't seen the lavender available here- just the blue. This plant is now in it's new home in my biggest flower bed.

So far not much going on in the studio still.... today is a bit rainy and dreary, so a good time to hibernate in there while I can't "play" in the gardens. I am getting a lot of great photos to play with for when my creativity returns....

As promised, here are photos from a walk along Water Road to see the Mountain Laurel. I was sure to have freshly charged batteries in the camera, parked the min van and started discovering lots of treasures.

Mountain Laurel 2

Mossy Rocks

Another Mystery Plant

Lower Side of Water Road

View Down Water Road

Plumbago 1

Pink Verbena

Hawaii Coral Peony 1

My coral Peony flowers opened up! I love the color! They are quite bright and much different from any other I have seen. They only have a double row of petals, so hold up nicely in rain.

Single Pink Peony

This Peony plant was supposed to be a yellow tree Peony that turned out to be a bright pink fairly single regular one. It has been beautiful for years, but got moved today. You can see the evergreen branches in the background of a Balsam Fir that was a little Christmas tree planted many years ago. It has now almost covered the whole plant, so I cut the flowers, dug it up and planted five chunks in various locations. It is probably the worst time to move a Peony, but it was in a really hostile location.

Spirea Goldflame

This Goldflame Spirea is so beautiful when the leaves are unfurling in the Spring. They start out hot pink and change to bright gold, then deeper green as the summer progresses. It will also bloom with pale pink flowers.

Geranium lancastriense on a Rock

This little hardy Geranium is a very hardy little plant. I love the lacy foliage and delicate flowers for my sunprinting. I hope the weather will begin to cooperate so I can get my outdoor studio tent set up soon.

Iris siberica Deep Blue

My blue Siberian Iris have been seeding themselves all over. This is one of the babies that is a very deep color. The original plant was a lighter shade of blue purple. I love these Iris and wish the flowers lasted longer.

Front Yard Garden after Mowing

This is tha garden shown in the previous post after I got the grass mowed. It looks much neater, but still needs weeds removed. Three clumps of the blue Iris are in this bed.

Campanula persicifolia Alba

Right outside my front door are these flowers that are beginning to bloom. The white Campanula flowers are great to use as cut flowers.

Hungry Babies

The poor baby plants that got water but no fertilizer while we were away. After getting a drink of some liwuid fertilizer, they are starting toshow a bit more green color. The tomatoes and squash should recover. The plants in the pots look much better, after having their dose of long time release fertilizer- What a difference!

Garden Mess

This is my next major project..... The front of my huge Maple tree garden has been neglected for too long. Under the berry brambles is a water garden that has overgrown with water plants so the water barely shows. I used this area for veggie plants year before last, nothing last year. I did start to remove some old brambles, but didn't take the time to get a long sleeved shirt. Not a good idea- lots of scratches.... Always wear long sleeves when battling brambles. I am going to leave some of the black raspberry plants that are loaded with fat little green berries, until after I can pick them.

Our visit to GA came to an end and we headed home. Here are some more photos from the trip home, our stop at Kenilworth Gardens in DC, and what we were greeted with at home.

Planters for Nick

The horticulturist in me won't go away.... Here are a few planters I potted up for Nick and the guys to have around the pool. We visited a few garden centers while in Valdosta, GA.

Lolipop Trees

A photo of "Lollipop Trees" as Nick calls them. Trees in the South grow differently than those we have here in PA. He grew up with evergreens more in the shape of Christmas trees, not shaped like Lollipops.

Kenilworth Sign

We stopped at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on our last day of travel. We had visited these gardens 25 years ago, a month before we got married. Things have changed a bit, but the many ponds are still there. That first visit was in mid July, we were a bit early for many blooms this time.

Early Morning Lilies

The morning we arrived was a bit cloudy, so the Lilies were not fully open. There had  been very heavy rains the day before, so the water in the ponds was very muddy.

Lotus with Raindrop

The Water Lotus are a month or more away from blooming, but the leaves were interesting with the puddles of rain from the day before.

Pickerel Rush

The Pickerel Rush were in full bloom, but the muddy water made for a different background. We also had to watch where we walked due to a few over flowing ponds.

A Beautiful Boardwalk

We don't remember the boardwalks from our previous visit. I love the design of them, with the angles and interesting railings. There are two that take you out into the marsh.

The Sad Part

this was the saddest part of the visit- seeing the trash that was being caught in the plants and fallen logs. One of the important things the marsh does is to help filter out stuff that makes the waterways very unhealthy. It makes you really think about how our actions can affect more than our own little parts of the world.

Great Texture on Tree

From the ugly to very interesting.... This tree has great texture from the many vines that have climbed it. the vines had been cut off at the base, but the remaining vines that had rooted in were still intact.

Peachy Lily Bloom

We did find a little area that wasn't muddied by the rains.... There are a few display gardens with the plants in planter boxes. There were more flowers in bloom here. This one is a beautiful shade of peachy pink and huge.

Lilies in display pond 1

A few more flowers in the display pond. I had to go to the van to steal batteries from my laptop mouse to get these. I was sure to download the photos to have space on my card for photos,but forgot to recharge the batteries for the camera....

Blooms and weeds

Home Sweet Home! We were greeted by a lot of flowers blooming that were not even hinting buds when we left. There are many weeds to contend with too.

White Peony with Iris

My white Peony is full of big fat flowers. In this photo, the blue Siberian Iris are in the background. The smell is so great near this plant!

Blackberry Blooms

  Along the edge of the yard, the blackberry brambles are in full bloom- I love the details that aren't always seen just walking by them.

Whit Iris

Here is the final photo of this post.... One of the white Siberian Iris. I have a huge clump of these in full bloom.
Until I put these photos together here, I didn't realize that most of the flowers blloming right now are white.

Now the real work begins again.... I have weeds to pull, annual flowers to plant and the veggie garden to plant. I will need some more rainy days to keep me indoors to get back to quilting.

Stay tuned for the newest treasures from my gardens and travels. As a tease..... I found that the Mountain Laurel are beginning to bloom on Water Road..... A walk there with my camera is in order.

The rain finally stopped for a little while, and I wandered into the gardens with my camera again.

Anemonella thalictroides

Phlox Nettleson's 1

Peony Hawaii Coral Buds

Convallaria Variegated

Convallaria Pink

Phlox and Dandelions

Here is another flower that I was really happy to see return. I have planted this type of low growing Phlox in past years, but the deer ate them down each time I planted them. I tried a different garden and now have 3 fast growing clumps! The dandelions are everywhere, too.

Find the Hosta

Here is what I am battling in many gardens.... lots of weeds! Can you find the Hosta trying to show itself?? Thankfully Hosta are pretty sturdy, and battle with the weeds pretty well. This Hosta is "Krossa Regal" and will get to be really huge by summer.

Hosta with Lamium

This is how I wish all of my gardens looked. This Hosta with a clump of Lamium next to it only have a few weeds to compete against right now. I am trying to get low growing plants to take over the spaces under the Hostas and other taller plants to keep the weeds down.

Back Yard Shade Garden

After much time spent weeding, here is what one area of the back yard garden looks like right now. The Hostas in the previous photos are along the wall to the left of this photo. This garden is shaded by Black Walnut trees, and I have finally found a nice selection of plants that grow well with them. I keep dividing my Hostas and moving them around to fill in bare spots.

Viola Sylettas 1

Down in my garden in the woods, I found this little gem a few days ago. I didn't have my camera with me and didn't get this photo until after we had heavy rains, so the leaves are a bit dirty, but I am so glad this little new addition seems to be happy with it's new home. I planted a lot of new perennials last summer, many who had been living in pots for quite a few years like this one. It should be much happier in the ground!

101_0049

Up to the Lilac garden where they are all coming into bloom! We have many different varieties and colors of Lilacs collected over the years.

Strawberry Plant 2

The strawberies are blooming!!! I can't wait for berries this year... I just need to get mulch on these or they will be buried in weeds like everything else.

Cuddles

Here is the cat that got his tail in the earlier photo. He was checking out the surroundings from the trellis over one of the raised garden boxes that have been neglected for many years. I hope to put these back into use this year.

Pink Blossoms 2

The rain didn't take all the flowers off the almond tree... I got some really neat shots of some of the remaining flowers. I didn't know we had an almond tree until Ken told me what it was..... A nice surprise! Pink flowers instead of the white on the apples, pears and plums. We won't have almonds, though until we get another variety of almond or a peach tree to cross polinate with it, but the flowers are pretty in the spring.

A few more tiny treasures popped up in my gardens this week. I was kept away from the gardens most of the week by a nasty cold my son shared with me, but I did get a few photos while trying to pull some of the fast growing weeds during a couple short trips outdoors.

Lavender Anemone

Brunnera Looking Glass

Violets

Roxy in the Sun

Small Spring Flowers Bead Detail

My cold kept me indoors a lot, so I used some of that time to do some beading and embroidery on this little quilt. The first photo of it are here in this earlier post. After a few more beads, this will be ready to list at Etsy. These flowers were calling out for beads and French knots to dress them up. At least since I didn't feel well enough to work in my gardens outdoors, I could still do a little bit of "gardening" indoors.

Again I have found that there are many little treasures just waiting to be found if I just take a bit of time to really look for them. I just hope I can keep the weeds from covering them all up.