Getting Back in the Groove

Saturday, March 29, 2008

I'm so glad that Spring is here! I told you that I was having computer problems....so that's where I've been. This whole blogging thing is really hindered when your computer isn't cooperating! So, anyway, today is the annual Spring Garden Festival at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville. Normally we love to go to this, sometimes as Vendors and sometimes as just one of the crowd. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to make it today (sorry Mic!) Hopefully we can make it there tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. We hate to miss it. Haven't done a whole lot in the garden this week but that will change this weekend. I did take alot of pictures this week though. I try to document how things change and bloom through the months from year to year. Here are a few pictures here.......

Okay, so I have to show you this Dogwood on the day that we planted it 2 years ago. Here is that same dogwood now. I have to say that's progress! I think she's doing really great. She's even blooming right now as you can see in the picture. This is what our little front Annual bed looks like right now. It's Antique colored Pansies, Snapdragon and Dusty Miller. In the background you can see some of our Azaleas that are blooming right now as well as that beautiful Sago Palm. We have quite a few of them!

This is a "Cameo" Quince that is blooming right now. We also have a

white one and a contorted blush colored one that are blooming as well.

This is a "Bridal Wreath" Spirea that is blooming right now. I love these.

We have 3 of them in the front yard and I want to get some more for other areas of the garden.

Our Blueberry bushes are getting berries on them. We have 5 bushes but they are all

still pretty small. I miss the 6-7 foot tall ones that we had at our old place across the road.

A few of the Amaryllis we have that are blooming right now are

"Melusine", "Scarlett Baby" and "Elvas", which are all pictured here.

This is one of my favorite Amaryllis called "Elvas"

It's a double Amaryllis and very beautiful.

I was very excited to see some the Four O'Clocks are starting to come up. I LOVE

Four O'Clocks and they are also very sentimental to me as they were my Daddy's favorite!

We bought some daylillies this week and also two more trees. We'll be planting them this weekend. We got Red Maple and another Drake Elm. The daylillies are for our babies memory garden. We still haven't found the fountain for the babies garden. We'll keep looking. Well, I hope you enjoy these pics and I'll update again in a few days. Happy Gardening!

Good Friday~The Crucifixion

Friday, March 21, 2008

Today is not about Gardening. Today is about my Lord & Savious Jesus Christ. This video is in honor of Him. Via Dolorosa~Tatiana, film from Passion of the Christ. Thank you Jesus. I honor you.

Catching Up.......

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

One of our Ornamental MaryJane Nectarine Trees This is our cat Timmy getting himself a beverage!

I've had some serious computer issues over the past week. I still don't have it completely worked out but at least I can get on here a little now. It will be another week or two until things are up and running smoothly again. I left off on Friday....a friend of mine from Pennsylvania was here for Gatornationals. Her husband is on the pit crew for one of the race car drivers who is his nephew ( I think, or cousin). Anyway, we went Geocaching on Friday. It rained most of the day, but we did it anyway. She has been doing it for about a year, but it was my first time Geocaching. I loved it! It's like a treasure hunt. If you don't know about it, you should really check it out. Go to geocaching.com.

As I said, it rained most of the day Friday and then Saturday it was extremely windy all day and somewhat overcast. Sunday on the other hand was absolutely beautiful Florida weather. Itr was actually a little too warm. Bruce & I worked in the Garden. Got a few more things planted, fertilized, pruned all the roses. It was around 80 and I got some sunburn. We saw alot of Robins in the yard and also a couple of Cardinals. There were 3 Giant Swallowtails on our MaryJane Nectarine this time! In addition to them there were a ton of Sulfurs. When I was done pruning the roses, I sat in a chair, hanging with the dogs and talked on the cell phone to my mom for an hour while Bruce kept working. What can I say, I just don't have as much energy as him, especially on a lazy Sunday! I did take a few more photographs as promised, of the MaryJane Nectarine in the backyard. I hope to get out there again tonight and get a few more things done.

What's Blooming...

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Blooming Loropetalum Tree

Hoshima Flowering Cherry Bush

Te`te (pronounced Tetatet)

"Higo" Camellia Japonica

" Elegance Splendor" Camellia Japonica

Above are photograhs of some of the plants that are blooming in our gardens right now. There are alot more. I just need to get out there with the camera again and get some pictures. I love seeing all the color and this is nothing compared to what it will be in another month or so. We have two Ornamental Flowering Mary Jane Nectarine Trees. They are blooming profusely right now and have such a vivid fushcia color. I have to get some good picture of them to put on here. If anyone knows where we can get Ornamental Flowering Apricot Trees please let me know. We checked at Tallahassee a few weeks ago and they didn't have any in at that time. We use to have one at our old place and it was just beautiful and had a lovely scent. We really want to get another one. Well, must run for now but I'll be back later!

African Amaryllis "Merenque"

This is an African Amaryllis from our collection that is blooming right now.

"Merenque" African Amaryllis

Some Dirt....

Bruce planting Will Flemmings

A couple of our favorite Gardening Buddies

Oliver, our Boxer

Dudley, our Welsh Pembroke Corgi

I still haven't found out a good way to post more than one or two pictures at a time. Maybe I won't be able to put as many pictures on here as I wanted too. The weather has been great for gardening. We had a good rain a couple days ago again and everything is starting to look good. We are surely getting spring fever! Tomorrow, well I guess it's actually today now, we are planning on browsing for fountains for the baby memorial garden and visit a couple garden centers in Lake City. There was a tornado in Lake City over the weekend. We drove through there the other night as it was getting dark and saw quite a bit of damage. It's scarey to think of the damage that wind can do and how fearful the people were that went through it. Two people in Lake City were killed and also 2 in Tallahassee from the same storm system. Luckily, we didn't get any damage although we did experience very high wind and downpours of rain. We had some branches come down but nothing major. Tomorrow I am going to take the camera with us and maybe take some pictures of some of the tornado damage. It's a reminder that we are all vulnerable to acts of nature. I don't know if we will find a fountain that's suitable or if we'll purchase one tomorrow but hopefully we won't come home with another load of plants. We have too many that need to be planted now! Will let you know soon! Haha!

Here "Kitty" Kitty...........

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Below are some photos of a Japonica Camellia named "Kitty" that is blooming at our place right now. This is one of the Camellia's that we just got from Richbourg Nursery in Monticello last month. My husband Bruce brought this bloom into me this morning. We have quite a few Camellia's that are blooming right now.

"Kitty" Japonica Camellia

Magnolia At Tallahassee Nurseries

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Bruce checking out a Magnolia tree at Tallahassee Nursery

Exploring!

Monday, March 10, 2008

One thing that my husband and I love to do together besides gardening, is to go exploring nurseries and garden centers and other gardens all over the place. In fact, the way we met was that we were both working at a garden center. He was the manager for 15 years and I was the new Office Manager. We shared a passion for plants. He "courted" me by bringing me flowers almost every day, from his own gardens. He had 8 acres with gardens on it that were featured in Southern Living magazine. It has been his passion since he was a young boy. We recently took a trip to one of our favorite nursery/garden centers; Tallahassee Nurseries. The magnolias were blooming and a lot of flowering trees and bushes. That's the great thing about Florida. You can ALMOST garden year round! They have a very large Cherry tree of some kind in the parking lot that has been planted there for years. It was blooming profusely and very beautiful. I took some pictures of it. Now I have to figure out how to put pictures on here. We also went to Richbourg Nursery in Monticello. This nursery sells only Camellias and Azaleas. It's a mom and pop operation with a fantastic selection. We came home that day with 25 more Camellias to add to our collection. We also went to a little nursery right here in the town where we live and bought some blueberry bushes. And so our gardening season for this year begins! Now we have at least 75 plants that we need to get planted. Last week we spent a few days working in our gardens. In the summer of 2005 we bought a brand new home. Our yard was nothing but a sand pit. It has been 2 1/2 years. We've gotten a lot accomplished but still have so much more to do as time, money and energy permit. Anyway, we just planted a wall of Will Flemmings across the side entrance to our back yard. They will look stunning when they take off. We also planted a new Japanese Maple and 3 Cherry trees. We have outlined some beds with Liriope. As I said, there is still so much to do. But we have finally gotten the palette ready to really get some big time planting done. We have been collecting plants for years and also have the ones that have travelled with us from our 8 acre home that we sold in order to move to Pennsylvania and help care for my mother. We moved back here in 2005 and many of our most loved plants have travelled back and forth with us. We are only on 1/2 acre now so what we can do is more limited. But as we get older, I think this just may be the perfect size to upkeep once all this planting is done. We have had to chop trees down, trim some, amend soil, lay sod, and so many things to get it ready. We spent the first two years working on the front yard and the side yard Perennial Garden. So now we are working on the back yard and we are very excited because it is finally starting to look like something. It will certainly be our sanctuary. The middle garden in the back yard, we have devoted to our two children who are in heaven; Olivia Therese & Drayton Quinn. (We named Drayton after The Drayton family from the Magnolia Gardens Plantation in South Carolina. Rev. John Drayton was the first to bring Camellia Japonicas & Azaleas to America)http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/grounds_camellia.html This memory garden for our babies will only have pinks, whites and of course the green foliage. It has a birdbath now and we are in search of the perfect fountain for it. Can't wait until all of this is done. We are hoping to get the whole yard fenced in soon. I love my privacy and hate being able to see the neighbors and vice versa when out in the yard. No offense, I am just not much of a people person anymore. I like to be alone with my loved ones and don't have much patience for small talk. I am just fine with my husband and my dogs & cats. Funny, I am becoming the weird old lady of the neighborhood. You know the one I mean. Every neighborhood has at least one. I prefer my pets & plants to people! It's not as bad as I am making it sound really. I can be nice when I have to be and I do care about people. BUT when I am at home, LEAVE ME ALONE!!! I only have so much social energy to give! So, back to the garden. I am going to try to figure out how to get some of those pictures on here. You'll see if I succeed or not!

My First Blog!

Okay, so I've never blogged before but thought about doing it for years now. I figured nobody cares what I have to say but I will do it anyway. If no one ever finds it and reads it~so what. I love to write and I want to write about our gardens and post pictures. So this is my first big attempt at blogging. I feel like I am writing in a journal, BUT, I won't divulge any big secrets here! That's for sure! So this is my test run. So let's see what it looks like.