6 posts tagged “nature”

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.
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.
Ferns are unfurling everywhere, now. This group looked so soft and feathery.
A baby fern hiding among the other plants and dead branches and leaves.
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....

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.

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..

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 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.

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....

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.
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.
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.
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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

I plan to try doing a little each day in the gardens. It is hard not to over-do for me. I get started and keep going until I can't stand the pain or nearly pass out.... not recommended.... Hopefully by the time my veggie plants regain health, this area will be ready for them.

My sewing studio is also calling.... My flower photos are still asking to be part of my quilts. It is hard to figure out how to get done all that needs to be done. 

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.
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.

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.
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.

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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....
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.
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!
  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.
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.

Here are Bonnie's dogs, a little tricky getting photos- dogs don't always cooperate with cameras. Both are sweethearts. She also has 3 cats, but you know cats, they cooperate worse than dogs.
This photo may challenge your eyes. These little gecko's were everywhere, and pretty hard to catch staying still for photos. This little guy sat for quite a while.

These flowers were on a huge, beautiful Bougainvillea at the corner of the house. I really wish these were hardy in PA, but they aren't. The only way to have one would be to keep it in a pot.


 

These little white flowers were super fragrant on a hedge of great glossy deep green leaves. I had to do a bit of research to find out what they were. Found they are Orange Jessamine- the fragrance is very similar to orange blossoms.

Bonnie also had a pot of these beautiful Plumerias. Another fragrant flower. Everything smelled so great around her house.



This is a flower that I saw at a truck stop while driving down. It looked a lot like a Magnolia to me, but up North, the ones we have only bloom very early Spring. I did more research, and found that these are a different variety of a Magnolia. Huge, fragrant and beautiful. some of the trees I saw along the roads were really huge.
While so close, we decided to check out the Okefenokee Swamp. It was a beautiful, sunny day yesterday when we went there. There were very few people there, being the summer now. It was so great! We took a pontoon boat tour and I got many great photos. Since there has been a lot of rain recently, the water level was quite high. There was only one family on the tour with us and no other boats on the water. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Definitely worth the drive made a bit longer by a couple wrong turns getting there.
This sign greeted us.... Nick thought we were nuts, wanting to go to a swamp filled with gators. The first gators he saw were when we visited the Orlando area when he was 4, and we had a few swim near us while taking a canoe ride on a river.
I think this is my favorite photo. A narrower passage with the trees and water lilies on both sides. The water is very black and it was quite still, with great reflections.

This was an interesting photo. The water was so still in this area that it is really hard to see where the reflection begins.
This is one of the gator photos I took just for Nick. None of the ones we saw were really huge. This was probably the biggest. They are hard to see in the black water.
After we returned from the boat tour, we wandered the nature trail. We found this big bug crawling on the sign with information about insect eating plants. I tried another photo with more of the sign showing, but he wandered under it too soon.
This root on the path of the nature trail looked so much like a snake that I had to take this photo just to show my best friend who really hates snakes. Is that cruel of me???

We are spending a day just lazing around the house and pool here today. At least one day to rest up before heading back home before the end of the weekend. It is great that our oldest son lives so close to our home and has been taking care of things for us like watering plants, feeding cats, etc. Thank You Aaron!!

By the time we get back home, I will have so many ideas for new art quilts.... I have even been scribbling down ideas and some very rough sketches. It will be interesting to see what turns up!

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.

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.

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.

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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.

This brings the garden tour to an end for this photo session. I am getting lots of flowers to play with in new quilts to come.... Lots of ideas are forming....

Linden tree buds just about to pop.... I love watching things progress in the spring, especially on sunny, blue sky days!

Wandering up to my upper garden, I found this clump of Muscari- Grape Hyacinths circling some double flowered daffs that are still in bud.

Here is another photo of one of my clumps of Rhubarb. This is a leaf with the sun showing through from the back. I think I will be harvesting stalks today!!

My final stop on this walk was the strawberry bed. We have started strawberry beds for years, but didn't have time in the spring to care for them so they never did well. This year I plan to have lots of strawberries to go with that rhubarb!!

As many of these photos show, there are many things that I have been around for years, but never "really seen". Taking a few extra moments to look closer and really see the beauty that is all around us. Watch for more photos as the days go by, and see where those photos may pop up in my art.

This is the finished 12"x12" piece shown in an earlier post. I finished the quilting in the flowers photos. You can see that I left the one flower quilted with smoke thread and the rest are done with clear. "Square Foot Flower Garden #1" is available at AndrusGardensArt at Etsy.

These two above quilts are also finally finished!! The clear thread adds to the details of the sunprints and heart-vine quilting is added to the stained glass like borders. "Stained Glass Ferns and Flowers #1" is just shy of 11"x18" in size and available at AndrusGardensArt at Etsy. "Stained Glass Maples #1" is 14"xalmost 15" in size, and available at my Artfire Studio.