Verbena Lanai Blush White

On May 13, our trailing Verbena Lanai Blush White were looking their best!

Our little silver rose vase filled with them. 

And on June 1, we had this in our Fiberglass Window Boxes alongside the driveway.

They are not quite as happy in the extreme heat.

As of today, they almost are getting drowned with severe thunderstorms and torrential rains.

That's the outlook for the coming days...

We got ours from whiteflowerfarm.com

Hope you have a lovely new week coming your way.

Thanks for your visit and comment!

Google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder

{Breakfast in the Sunshine}

The TRUTH is that we have bought our lot, while driving around and looking for a spot where we would have SUNSHINE at breakfast time!

Yes, that is a true story and let me show you how it worked out...
And yes, Deborah, we have breakfast while viewing our hummingbirds that come right to the window on the right, you see the red cap of the feeder.

Breakfast in our Kitchen Bay Window area with SUNSHINE!

Most of the time...

Add some fresh flowers and the use of the handmade silver container from Indonesia for our margarine and you feel instantly happy!

We use Vegan Cheese as I am not allowed to eat too much protein, due to my CKD stage 3.

Yep, that's my healthy breakfast with supplements...

One demitasse with coffee and cocoa added and coconut oil.

One cup of soy milk from Trader Joe's as it is with the least amount of sugar.

Dutch BOLLETJE RYE BREAD (ROGGEBROOD) from Vander Veen's in Wyoming, Michigan. 

Are you having breakfast in a sunny spot at your home?

Thanks for your visit!

google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder

{Dahlia with Hibiscus and Clerodendrum Ugandese}

We all LOVE to have some fresh cut flowers from our own garden...

Even if it means only a few of them!

On our kitchen table... on June 12.

To the left you see a beautiful Dahlia, to the right a Hibiscus syriacus 'Blushing Bride' that came straight from Our Life in Italy!
In the center, top and bottom is our special Clerodendrum Ugandese or Blue Butterfly Bush.

Husband Pieter also captured them with his camera...
Yes, that Hibiscus syriacus 'Blushing Bride' has a very special story which you can read from link below blog, about our life in Italy.
We are thrilled that we still have it after all those years!

And again and you can see the sunshine that twinkles in the tiny vase.
The Clerodendrum Ugandese came from +Logee's Greenhouses in Connecticut

The Clerodendrum Ugandese or Blue Butterfly Bush flower a bit more in detail...

Together they just made a beautiful and very sweet vase!

Do you love to bring in some home grown flowers?

Our climate is very harsh so we never yield a lot...

Thanks for your visit!

Related links:

{Clerodendrum Ugandense - Blue Butterfly Bush} | previous post by me
{Clerodendrum Ugandense - Blue Butterfly Bush, Blue Glorybower} | previous post by me
{Our Hibiscus syriacus 'Blushing Bride' from Quero, Belluno in Italy} | previous post by me

google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedder

{Blossoms in December with Sunshine}

So far our December month is bringing us lots of sunshine.

Let me show you some of our December Blossoms...

One of our climbing roses still was yielding us such beauties.

Shown in a French crystal Baccarat perfume bottle.

Of course, our Camellias are also blooming...

Shown inside a Baccarat perfume bottle.

These white Verbena's happily continue blooming alongside the driveway.

From our garden we yielded 7 stems with white Paperwhites, that perfectly filled this tablet with fixed vases (7).

It was a gift that I received for doing a program about Indonesia, for a Women's Study Club here in Dublin, GA.

They presented me with this precious gift box!

Love the snow crystals...

Are you also having high 60s, 70s and low 80s in your area?

We LOVE this type of weather!

That's our weather forecast, up till almost Christmas.

google.com/+MariettesBacktoBasics

{Crinum Americanum - Swamp Lily}

Also in August and September we do have our Crinum Americanum or Swamp Lily blooming at their best.
Sorry for not having visited many blogs; had surgery on my left hand Friday and tomorrow I will get discharged from the hospital.

During the rainy week of September, husband Pieter captured this photo on the 24th.

Earlier, on August 9, I have taken this photo when they bloomed for the first time.

Very healthy leaves and lots of flowers but when it rains it is hard to enjoy them...

Again on September 24th.

They also produce lots of thick seeds!

Did any of you know this flower?

Mariette on Google+

{Our White Pansies & Indian Hawthorn}

Alongside our driveway, we do have Fiberglass Window Boxes hanging on the retainer wall. Those are filled with White Pansies and the blooming Indian Hawthorn next to the wall is filling in with white blossoms as well.

The Indian Hawthorn to the left, we got as a gift from our German 'sons', in July of 1995.

Once a pot plant, it over the years has really grown up!

White Pansies in our Fiberglass Window Boxes alongside the driveway's retainer wall.

The blossoms of the Indian Hawthorn are an early spring pollen and nectar provider for the bees.

Photos are taken on April 10...
Do you have an Indian Hawthorn or White Pansies? 

Related link:

Flower Framers of Cincinnati | Source for Fiberglass Window Boxes

Mariette on Google+

{White Petunias & Pansies in Fiberglass Window Boxes}

For the Easter Season it looks really nice to have our Fiberglass Window Boxes from the Flower Framers of Cincinnati (see link way below) filled with all white blooming flowers. At our Bay Window area of the kitchen we got White Petunias and alongside our Veranda we still have our White Pansies...

The window boxes at the Bay Window (3) are filled with White Petunias

Below you can see the tiles from our Patio where we keep now our Pot Plants, visible to the left...

Alongside the Veranda we got White Pansies as those were still very healthy.

The storm door is also from Vintage Woodworks, Texas.

Beautiful White Petunias!

Do you have any white planter box flowers?

Related links:
{Orange Michael Kors Bangle from Last Call Neiman Marcus} | previous post by me showing pansies
{Our Home with Aluminum Interlock Roofing and Benjamin Moore Golden Mist Exterior} | previous post by me
{Our Pansies in December} | previous post by me

{OUR FIBERGLASS WINDOW BOXES} | previous post by me

{Smelling the Verbenas} | previous post by me with Window Boxes detail and info

{Our Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans'} | previous post by me showing window boxes

{Our Fiberglass Window Boxes & Double Cascade Pink Petunias} | previous post by me

{My Old-Time Spun Glass Halloween Ornaments} | previous post by me showing double cascade petunias

{Our Home of almost 20 years} | previous post by me

Flower Framers of Cincinnati | Source for Fiberglass Window Boxes

{Our Pansies in December}

Pansies are such a JOY to grow in the fall and winter season as they are so GIVING! 

Look here at Our Pansies in December:

Husband Pieter took these photos on December 3...

Fresh rain on their friendly 'FACES'

These white Pansies are in our Fiberglass Window Boxes alongside the retainer wall on our driveway.

These boxes are from Flower Framers of Cincinnati

Stepping back a bit further to show them better...

This is looking the other way, towards our fragrant double flowering Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno' tree.

Do you have any flowering plants outside?

Related links:

{OUR FIBERGLASS WINDOW BOXES} | previous post by me

{Our Fiberglass Window Boxes & Double Cascade Pink Petunias} | previous post by me

Mariette on Google+

{Our Adenium obesum Desert Rose Surprise}

On May 28, Pieter had a surprise for me in the greenhouse. The Adenium obesum Desert Rose was blooming! We used to have this on the window sill in the bay window area but since it is a poisonous plant for pets, it had to go to the greenhouse... As much as I love plants; I love our felines even more! In Africa its toxic sap from the roots and stems is used as arrow poison. It is native to the Sahel regions, south of the Sahara (from Mauritania and Senegal to Sudan), and tropical and subtropical eastern and southern Africa and Arabia. 

As a matter of fact, Travel - Fashion - Lifestyle blogger friend Tammy Lau from Edgymix did show them in their natural environment in one of her posts: The Most Alien Place on Earth-Socotra  isolated from mainland Yemen you can view them in the top photo, above the subject line.

It is happily blooming inside our greenhouse! Quite a Surprise...

They do have lovely flowers!

Related link:
Adenium obesum | Wikipedia

Mariette on Google+

{Our Liriope Muscari - Border Grass or Lily-turf}

Our evergreen tufts of arching grass-like plants around the driveway are called Liriope Muscari and common names are Border Grass (that's exactly what we use them for!) or Lily-turf. YES, they are a member of the LILY family and not actually a grass! Find more information below this post.

This photo is taken on August 1, and you can see how green our grass looks after all that rain!

Our Liriope Muscari Variegata or Lily-turf looked also quite happy.

We indeed use it as a Border Grass alongside our driveway!

In the top right corner you see the stem of our palm tree...

Do you have some Liriope Muscari Variegata either in purple or in white?

Related link:
Liriope muscari | Floridata link with info
Liriope muscari Variegata | link from White Flower Farm about the one we have in above pictures. It does thrive very well in northern regions too!

Mariette on Google+

{Crocosmia}

On July 10, we could rescue some beautiful Crocosmia flowers from the rain. They were almost flat on the ground... but still pretty enough for filling a vase. Let me show them to you.

Here they are on the new Durango Ambra, Cerdomus GREEN Tiles from Italy, on top of our balcony.

The weather is rather dark  with all our rain for the last weeks on end.

Our grass has never looked that green.

Behind our pond you cannot even walk, so soggy and also near the creek...

Ah, a bit of sunshine, it looks brighter now!

The name Crocosmia comes from the Greek words for saffron (krokos) and smell (osme).

They are from the Iris family, native to the Cape area in South Africa.

Looking lovely in this plain Baccarat crystal vase.

There are so many varieties of Crocosmia that it is very hard to tell what exactly these are.

This is a closeup that I took on my desk in the office... 

Don't you love this beauty?

This one is taken on the window sill of our office where there was more light.

They look beautiful with so much detail...

Again, shown inside the vase on my desk.

Surprise! One looked quite different...

Do you have any Crocosmia flowers?

Related links:

{Our Cerdomus Italian GREEN Tiles} | previous post by me about our new tiles on balcony
Crocosmia | Info

Mariette on Google+

{Purple Blue Campanula portenschlagiana a Yugoslavian Native}

Have to share this beauty with you, our Purple Blue Campanula portenschlagiana, a Yugoslavian Native. If you do love purple blue as much as I do, this is it. We got ours at Trader Joe's just before we left for our cruise to the Bahamas. I could NOT resist them. They were presented in such a cute little pail, in a soft lavender color, that they had to come home with us. Glad I took some photos. Do you like them? Is any of you having them in their garden? Our region is too hot for this kind of perennial for spreading freely but I certainly did enjoy this mini-garden in a pail. 

Purple blue is for me connected with spring. Certain colors we also love to wear for different seasons. Or is this only me...? Actually I did place my Laurèl wool, angora and cashmere skirt as a backdrop here. The light purple Villeroy & Boch egg matches perfectly. Below this post you find some related links about this perfect porcelain.

Photos are made outside in daylight and you see the changes in color...

If I love something, I love it passionately and let not go easily!

Still hard to capture the 'true' purple blue color with the ever changing sunlight...

Here are two of the Villeroy & Boch eggs.

This photo shows you more of the soft lavender pails that the plants were in.

That is such a neat idea! Love those people that come up with new ideas on and on.

Photos are taken on May 6...

Do you have any purple blue favorite flowers?

Related links:

{Our Organdy Beribboned, Porcelain and Brass Easter Eggs} | previous post by me

{HAPPY EASTER to all my readers in 163 countries!} | previous post by me

Purple Blue Campanula portenschlagiana images.

Mariette on Google+