{Our Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans'}

• Today I like to show you our heavenly fragrant Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans' that we do have in front of our home and on the side where the bay window of our kitchen is. 
• By mid May they were in full bloom and we took several pictures of our different varieties, which I will post later. 
• Shown is the 'Radicans' and also the dwarf 'Radicans' Gardenia ←(click it). Come join me on this fragrant Garden Tour 

• This photo is from 1993 when we still had the regular Gardenia jasminoides Radicans in front of our veranda windows. Beautiful Fleur de Lys edging and scroll work from Vintage Woodworks, Texas.
• We had to remove them, as they were blocking the view! 
• The dwarf variety we did keep however. 
• Those planter boxes are the little ones we had before buying the fiberglass window boxes.

• The azaleas in the front are all replaced by dwarf Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans'. The front porch shows also the same Fleur de Lys edging and ginger bread, balusters and posts from Vintage Woodworks, Texas.

• This photo I took on May 17 as they were in full bloom. The smell is heavenly! You can see now clearly {Our Fiberglass Window Boxes & Double Cascade Pink Petunias} ←(click it) that Pieter did get us, by growing cuttings from last year's crop.

• You see the blossoms fully opened and some buds for the coming days.

• Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans' in all its splendor!

Related link:
Flower Framers of Cincinnati | Source for Fiberglass Window Boxes

{My French DMC Rose Filet Lace Crocheted Curtains}

In one of my previous blogs from September 27, about {Our Home of almost 20 years} I've mentioned that I will show you the Rose Filet Lace Curtains that I hand crocheted from French DMC crochet thread. So now I will show them to you. If you read about the DMC History, than you know why I used this double mercerized finest crochet cotton.  After all, I worked 80 hours on this front door set and it was for a value of $ 100.00 on material in 1990!

If there are still readers that don't know that I do LOVE roses... well, here you see a Rubber Ducky skirt that I got as a gift from friend Lei. Also you see the oak bench worked with roses in the back.

The curtains can face either way, I do vary at times. I've made them in Indonesia while living and working there. But now let's go back to where it started...

In May of 1975 I got this Dutch magazine and fell literally in love with the Rose design.

So I got out my steel crochet hook and thread and made me the first hand crocheted rose curtain.

Hung on two rods, in my living room... back in The Netherlands.

A couple of years later we bought our own home, instead of renting, and I designed another Rose Filet Lace Curtain. Still in The Netherlands.

Five years later, I designed another set for our first home in Dublin, Georgia - USA...

You can see it behind my friend and me.

September 1987 seen from inside at our former home...

While living in Pennsylvania and later in Italy, I did not have a Rose Filet Lace Curtain but while living and working in Indonesia I did crochet 80 hours and came home with the completed set. So since November of 1990, they're hanging here. Our garden is not yet established in this photo; we just moved in.

For the side windows I designed them in a finer, size 20 DMC Cébélia and for the main windows it is a size 10 Cébélia.

French DMC Cébélia Crochet cotton is indeed the finest in the world!
It being double mercerized makes it smooth and silky to work with and it looks great too.

On the inside I did sew a heavy rayon-cotton damask curtain with roses... as it helps keep the energy bill low during winter, as well as our hot summers. When not closed, it hangs with some tassels and cords to the side. Here is Anita, our foster-daughter standing in front of the front door.

You also still can see our white ceramic chandelier from Italy...

If you type in ceramic chandelier from the search box, top right you find more posts about it in detail.

Curtain is closed here.

Pieter wearing his Ermenegildo Zegna suit and I my Escada suit with blouse.

The rayon-cotton damask I got from Britex Fabrics in San Francisco. My favorite store for fabrics and notions. When we were still doing consulting work, we got to go to San Francisco quite often. They do also have a swatch service. Check out their site and I do follow their blog as well (you find it on the side-bar).

You can see how I did sew and pleat them, after I'd put the ribbon on.

Hard to capture the damask rose pattern... in a cream color.

But the rayon-cotton blend is beautiful. I don't like synthetics and these are far better for the energy saving purpose. So in two ways we keep the planet green.

 This week I did clean the windows and wash meanwhile the crocheted curtains in my Miele washer.

Now the trick for having them hung just perfect.

Take them out of the washing machine after the spinning cycle has completed and work with them while they're still moist. First attach all four corners. Pieter, together with my Dad did painstakingly hammer tiny brass nails around the windows. They complained that it took them forever but I told them, that's only fair as I did crochet for 80 hours! The brass will never tarnish the curtains and besides, it is all painted over white. Below you get to see a detail with those nails.

The side panels are hanging already and this time I let the roses face towards the center.

Done and it took me less than an hour to pin them on.

When it is dark they show even better.

So now you've seen my hand crocheted French DMC Cébélia Rose Curtains in Filet-Lace...

Together with the heavy rayon-cotton over curtain it is our way of Going Green!

Related link:

My 3rd Home with my French DMC Rose Filet Lace Crocheted Curtains | post by me

{Our Catalpa Bignonioides - Indian Bean Tree}

One more exotic tree to show you. It is our Catalpa bignonioides; Common Names: southern catalpa, catawba, Indian bean tree. Catalpa has large tropical looking heart-shaped leaves. The white bell-shaped blossoms are 2 inch (5.1 cm) in diameter and patterned with small purple spots and two large orange markings at the throat. The flowers are followed by long slender cigar-shaped pods up to 16 inch (40 cm) in lengh. The green pods ripen to brown in fall and split to release flat fringed seeds. For more info and better views of the flowers, click on both hyperlinks above. It is very hard to capture its blossoms as they are way up high. But these are the photos taken by Pieter at our garden. This tree is close to the creek on our main garden, not in the wood garden. Let's start the Garden Tour.

Pictures are taken on May 6 in the morning.