MARIETTE'S BACK TO BASICS

Friday, April 1, 2011

The rain was so bad that I only had little time in-between showers to catch this for you!
Such stunning blossoms from the Admiral Semmes Azalea make up for less sunny days.
Only too bad that from an all week rain period they are badly damaged and we have to wait another year for capturing their beauty.

Admiral Semmes Azaleas are from the Confederate series in Our Garden

This is from last year...

Such a lovely yellow...

Don't you agree that making a Garden Tour from Book an Event with us is worthwhile even when things look wet?
Instead of tea or coffee with cake in the gazebo we of course can move inside...

Another variety in a paler yellow...

They all look so beautiful!

We actually got 2 Admiral Semmes Azaleas...

Our FIRST blooming roses! Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' Rose 'Lady Banks'.
An old southern Garden favorite, this thornless climber has abundant but small lightly fragrant double yellow flowers.
This rose is very adaptable and vigorous and requires much less special care than most roses. Native to China and available at Woodlanders.

Two weeks ago our Forsythias were blooming at their best.
The weather was warm and sunny at that time. Things have changed since Friday, last week...

Forsythias make me always happy as they're telling that spring is advancing...
Below you will see some Narcissus Hawera, they're late blooming. We have them spread from early till late blooming varieties.

This year the Chinese Snowball Viburnum Viburnum Macrocephalum is blooming a lot earlier than last year. But since the photos from past Sunday turned out too dark due to the rainy weather I will post last year's for you to have a better view. Their huge and pure white balls are stunning, provided that the weather is cooperating...

On March 14, I took these photos from our Viburnum Tinus. This is an evergreen shrub with rather leather like leaves, that produces pinkish white fragrant blossoms in early spring. This one is from the Durio Nursery in Louisiana.
In German this is called: Lorbeerschneeball or Mittelmeerschneeball...

Okay, coffee and tea with cake is served in the gazebo after your Garden Tour from Book an Event with us and by now you know your way around!

March is yielding so many blossoms in our garden that it is hard to keep up with photos and postings. This week, since Saturday, it is rather wet and a lot colder too! But I got some shots from a week ago and some from Sunday.
Just between heavy showers, with wet blossoms and also some rain damage to our Cornus Kousa Flowering Dogwood and Cornus Florida.

This photo is taken a week ago in the late afternoon with the sunlight just right. Huge blossoms as we selected varieties with pure white and large blossoms. This is a Cornus Florida Cloud 9.

This is the tree, in our wood-garden. The beech tree in the back still wears its winter coat with the old leaves. They are the very last ones to produce new leaves, together with one late oak variety.

What a beautiful branch with flowers on! The sunlight is perfect for shooting such photos. These Cornus kousa trees do produce fruits in winter for squirrels and birds to feast on. You can find those Dogwood trees at Durio Nursery, just scroll down to Cornus kousa. Also at Woodlanders you will find different Cornus kousa varieties as you scroll down.

Below I will show you an exotic double variety Cornus Florida Plena Alba, that we lost last year; the photo is from spring 2009...

The creek runs right behind this double blooming dogwood and the azalea shrub behind it.
We have three bridges that do connect the garden around the house to our wood garden. We do live in a neighborhood that is called 'Holly Hills' and you can see that our property is on a slope, which makes the landscape more interesting.

Now we crossed the creek and walked uphill towards our gazebo where we got three dogwoods. Two white varieties and a pink one. Not the pink you see in the center however, that is the {Our Cercis canadensis 'Apalachian Red' & Cercis chinensis 'Avondale'} from my previous blog. So why don't you partake in a Garden Tour from Book an Event with us? Coffee or tea with cake will be served inside the gazebo!
The tall Cornus Florida is a native one and it came with the property. It is huge!

Lovely in front of our gazebo...

The above photo I snapped on Sunday after lunch in-between thunderstorms with heavy winds. You can see the flower petals partly on the ground and the rain did also damage the blossoms. No longer pure white...
Our pond is visible in the back as well. Pieter got so lucky for having mown the lawn on Saturday before the tornado and thunderstorms came.
Oh, I did have a question in my comments about having to 'rake' a lot of leaves. Our John Deer lawn mower has a mulcher so all the organic material from grass and leaves is being recycled.
We never have raked up leaves, as those are the best nutrients that mother nature is giving to us. And what do you think who is raking the leaves up in all the natural woods? The deer and the squirrels?
Nobody is removing them from nature so why should we. It provides a perfect blanket as well, for all the bulbs and perennials that are dormant throughout winter. Further it keeps the moisture in the soil far better and thus creates a welcome buffer for dry spells.
Let's try for Going Green instead of bagging those leaves up and trashing them.

Now we're inside the gazebo with its gingerbread, looking uphill to the house. The pink you see now, that is the other pink Cornus kousa 'Satomi' (pink Chinese dogwood) and available from the Durio Nursery, from the above link. That is the walkway for bringing the tray down to the gazebo with breakfast; lunch or your coffee/tea. Sure, we can barbecue there as well and serve you a drink...