Garden Bloggers Bloom Day April 2010

Spring is finally springing! Warm days and sun, but lots of wind and dust also. This Aloe Vera, on the sunporch is blooming. It will go out onto the dooryard patio once the danger of frost is past. The first time this big Aloe bloomed I was amazed, didn't even know that they got blooms.

This Phalenopsis orchid in the dining room is still blooming beautifully. It is wonderful to have blossoms that last so long.

Out at the front corner of the house I have a few Scillas blooming. They are such a clear blue that they really show up inspite of being so small and so few.

The Violas in the dooryard patio garden are now blooming in bunches.

The Vinca under the Russian Olive next to the mini prairie is making quite a show. There is a lot of dead annual grass in that bed that needs to be grubbed out.

All the garden blooms tend to be in the blue/violet color range. For some reason my yellow daffodils haven't made a show this year. I hope something didn't eat all the bulbs. I see that I need to put in more daffodils and tulips this fall for early color. Ought to try some crocus as well. Even my ancient batch of Grape Hyacinths have been absent this spring, except for one self sown straggler in the Gramma Grass. The small Blue Grass lawn, in front, is beginning to turn green with attendent dandelions, but the Gramma Grass is a warm weather grass and won't get green until later in the spring.

I wish I could find flowers for my garden that were as prolific as the dandelions. While blooming, they put on a nice show, but look awful when they go to seed. My late, previous, husband, Lou, who was a plant ecologist and into natural plant medicines, wouldn't spray the dandelions because he believed that tea from the roots was very good for the kidneys. I've also tasted delicious homemade dandelion wine but don't know how to make it.


To see what is blooming around the world check May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2010

Welcome to Toad Haven Gardens on March 15. Some of yesterdays snow still covers the flower bed next to the front porch, on the north. Later there will be Daffodils, Creeping Phlox, and gorgeous Violets in this area.

Here are new green shoots from the Yarrow planted on the south side of the house last summer. Only dried flower heads are blossoming here.

This is in the same corner of the dooryard patio garden that I showed, looking so dead, in February, with the first Viola to bloom this spring. I love the Johnnie-Jump-Ups that seed themselves all over the garden. Some winters they manage to bloom through the season, but definitely not this year.

In between the March snows we are getting lovely, sunny days with up to low 60s temps so I will soon feel that it is safe to remove the dead stalks and dry leaves that I leave over the winter to protect the plants and for seed heads to feed the winter birds. My fingers are just itching to get out there and do the spring cleaning.

Indoors, the Orchid, that I recently posted photos of, is still in full bloom.

See what's blooming all over the world, today, at May Dreams Gardens.

All Orchid Buds Bloomed Out

Here is how the Orchid looks with all the blossoms open. It will be interesting to see how long they last this time.

New Winter Blooms

These Snow Blossoms were blooming all around the prairie border, at Toad Haven, this evening. I think they are really quite attractive. Brightened up the garden considerably.

The Orchid has a Bloom

Today I was happily surprised to find that one of the orchid buds had blossomed out. It is gorgeous and they usually last for quite a while. There are still more buds waiting to make an entrance.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day February 2010

This is why February is the worst month of the year for me. Everything is brown, dry and dead; if I hadn't seen the miracle of Spring for 71 years, I would find it difficult to hope or have faith in live, green, growing, blossoming plants.

Usually, I have a few pansies and violas that manage to bloom through the winter, but this year even the pansies haven't been able to survive.

But indoors I manage to have a few blossoms. This is the lovely, tiny blossom on a hanging succulent that my mother started for me several years ago. If anyone knows what it is, I'd love to know the name. This hangs in the window over my kitchen sink. Since mother is in assisted living, I have her huge mother plant hanging in the sunporch.

A couple of blossoms are on the mini Hoya in the dining room south window. I think Hoyas have some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen; they look like they are made of glass. These are petite compared to the regular size Hoya on the sunporch. This plant started from three tiny sprigs from a sweet lady in senior housing in Lyons, when I was working for the Boulder County Housing Authority in the 70s. My oldest daughter also has a house full of these now in Wheatridge.

This is the final gasp of the Christmas Poinsettia in the dining room.

This is from the final stalk of Amaryllis blooms from the dish of three huge bulbs my daughter-in-law Robyn gave me at Thanksgiving. It's bloomed for three months and cheered us up during the sleeping garden season.

Finally, one of the Orchids (P. Mount Beauty x Stope New Candy) is getting ready to bloom again soon, in the south dining room window. I've been amazed at how faithfully these Orchids bloom year after year, and how long the blooms last. I have finally learned to only try to grow plants that don't take a lot of coddling, both indoors and out.

To see what is blooming around the world, today, check out the list at May Dreams Gardens.

Happy New Year with Family in Byers

This is our granddaughter, Crystal's, senior photo. Isn't she pretty? She hopes to go on to college and medical school to become a doctor after her high school graduation this coming spring.

This is Heather's dad, Tom, with his grandson, Brendan. If daddy, Brian, was in the picture you could see that all three guys look alike with their red hair and blue eyes.

Joe's daughter, Lori, mother of Heather, and spouse of Tom, with Adam, who is Breanne's little one. It is great to see how Lori and Tom are so good at caring for and playing with our little great grandsons. They seem to enjoy being grandparents.

Here is a photo of the little cousins that Lori gave to us.

We are home from a great weekend at Byers where we had good company, food, and even Champagne on New Year's Eve at the home of our son Doug and his wife Jennie. Here are Mandy, Brendan and Kat enjoying Evan playing the keyboard. 17 week old black pug, Boo, has joined two toned Cooper as our Granddogs.

On Saturday Kat and I took Mandy to Aurora Mall to shop for a prom dress for her to take to Utah when she flew back to her Job Corp School on Sunday. It was fun to watch her look thru the shops and try on dresses. She wanted a long dress that wasn't very frou frou, and the style seemed to be for veeeerrrry short frou frou dresses, but she found a simple long black and white paneled dress that looked good on her. She says she and her friends don't go to dance, they just sit around and talk. Do you suppose they do it face to face or on their ever present fashion statement cell phones?

It was cold in Byers, with lots more snow banks than we have here, and I was wearing my sandals, not expecting having to walk thru snow. I forget that we live in Colorado's Banana Belt, and that they get much more snow than we do. That's why I-70 is often shut down due to blizzards and drifts.

I was washing, ironing and wrapping the kids' pillowcases at the last minute, before we left, and forgot to take photos of the finished pieces. Take my word for it, they were colorful and looked great, even though they are so fast and easy to make. That is the kind of project patterns I like to find.