fall garden

FRIDAY FLOWERS: HELIANTHUS LOVE

By |2017-09-28T17:49:41-04:00September 28, 2017|Uncategorized|

These cheerful, bright, sunny flowers start to flower in September.
Helianthus angustifolius

There are many varieties of Helianthus, but these may be my favorite! Mine were gifted to me by a friend in the village about four years ago. It took almost two years until they spread and I knew they were happy. Now, by the end of August, the 6-8′ stems are filled with flowers. Yes, they are tall! Mine are set against the house and provide a perfect “screen” for the siding!

 

 

 

A morning’s gathering earlier this week:

 

Fun with a flat lay photo shoot:

 

And finally, an afternoon shot today with the sun coming in the kitchen window:

To find out more about this
“Narrow Leaf Sunflower”  Helianthus angustifolius
check out this site.

 

FRIDAY FLOWERS: THE FALL CLEANUP

By |2015-09-10T20:00:13-04:00September 10, 2015|Friday Flowers, Garden|

It’s time to begin “The Fall Cleanup” in the garden.
Parts of my garden were a TOTAL mess! Between hot weather, a good growing season, and, yes indeed, neglect…they were in need of some careful attention.
Here are my three projects I’ve been working on and perhaps they will help you get started in your own garden cleanup.

#l.  Give Your Perennials Some Love

I cut back some of the perennials. I don’t always like to do this as the birds just love those seed heads. Those tall Rudbeckia maximus seed heads are like manna to the gold finch: they were right outside our dining room and so charming to watch.

I call these “graduation portraits.” The final image, for the season, of various flowers…

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#2 Refresh Your Planters

I really love planters and have a growing collection. Our Japanese Maple, in the enclosed terrace area, is impossible to dig around and thus, I can’t plant anything of any size in the ground. Planters to the rescue!
We love the orange, especially mixed with the deep blues and teal.

 I’ve filled it with an

FRIDAY FLOWERS: ALL DRIED UP

By |2014-11-20T21:36:10-05:00November 20, 2014|Friday Flowers|

Not too many fresh flowers out and about these days! We had our first hard frost about four days ago, and what a scene it was in the morning. The Cannas… went from strong, vibrant green leaves and stems to these withered, limp, brown bunches of nothing. The Verbena, showing color one day, were struggling to remain upright the next. And the Zinnias: well, what can I say except that there WILL be lots of new ones next year!

But I have had fun cutting from my garden and in the neighborhood: so many interesting flower heads  and pods and seeds and twigs to choose from. I bring them into my kitchen, lay them out on a huge piece of construction paper and just play with layouts. Sometimes the individual pieces are the best. And sometimes a grouping works the best…it just depends.

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The Photojojo lens with the iPhone is perfect for this!

IMG_6715_wm Detail from the River Birch tree.

 

IMG_6761_wm Just a little bit of color left in the verbena bonariensis, one of the backbones of my garden.

 

IMG_6763_wm Can you just see the tiny web wrapped […]

FRIDAY FLOWERS IN DECEMBER

By |2014-05-13T22:37:01-04:00December 6, 2013|Friday Flowers|

Look what we have in the garden!
These beautiful paperwhite narcissus are actually blooming outside, in my garden.
Yes, today is December 6th.
We inherited these with the house and they make me very happy!
And our “Kwanzan” cherry tree in its fall attire:

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