What's in Bloom

We spent a leisurely morning on our freshly pressure-washed front porch, reading the paper and watching it rain. When it stopped, I grabbed my camera to observe my gardens. We moved into this house fifteen years ago when there was nothing but bare red clay for a yard until you got to the woods in the back. Now I have something in bloom at all seasons of the year. It is very satisfying to see our trees and shrubs providing shade, shelter for the birds, and beauty for the yard.

Don't the porch rails look nice and white? And the decking floor looks almost new. I planted a picking garden on that side of the front steps. Notice that the squirrels have picked almost all of the sunflower heads.

In front of the sunflowers are various other annuals such as marigolds, cosmos, bachelor's buttons, and a perennial Shasta daisy.

I have a couple of hanging baskets that I brought home from the mountains after the Fourth of July weekend. This basket sports one red flower among all the purple.

On the other side of the steps I have some abelia shrubs

then our garden pond which is surrounded by a white hibiscus, some coneflowers, some big shrubs like a euonymous or burning bush, and this plant which I named Audrey II in honor of the alien plant in the musical "Little Shop of Horror." I can't remember the name. The plant is very tall and spindly, with leaves resembling those of a popular recreational drug. (Not that I would know!)

I thought it had died over the winter, but it came back and now has several strange-looking buds. One is red and is about to open. They are all surrounded by scary-looking green things. I'll take another picture of Audrey II when it opens. Do any of you know this plant? I'm pretty sure marijuana doesn't have bright red flowers.

Anchoring this flower bed by the garage is a very large blue budleigh, or butterfly bush. It is perfectly placed to hide our garbage bin. We have several budleighs, both blue and white, in the front and back yards, and I noticed a volunteer growing at the edge of our woods. The blooms really do attract butterflies of all kinds

In fact, a variety of plants and wildflowers practically guarantee that you will have an abundance of butterflies. Here is a tiger swallowtail enjoying a sip from a honeysuckle vine.

Along the driveway we have white and violet-colored crepe myrtle trees. Crepe myrtle is a great choice for surviving the brutally hot Southern sun and our annual droughts.



I took lots more pictures--- haven't even started on the back yard flowers! I'll save those for another day.

Tomorrow morning I will be up and out fairly early to attend the first meeting of a new art quilt bee that is being formed by interested members of the Capital Quilters Guild. We are thinking of working our way through a book like The Art Quilt Workbook. We will meet at different members' homes and try lots of fun new techniques. More details tomorrow!