Dynasty Drive flowers and bonus hosta garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling

Dynasty Drive flowers and bonus hosta garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling

July 27, 2016 A garden tour within a garden tour was offered on day two of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling, held in mid-July. Bused to a half-dozen lovely private gardens on a local Master Gardeners tour (see my upcoming post about the Walden Road garden), at one point I ...
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling

July 25, 2016 Our Minneapolis Fling banquet dinner — an opportunity to dine with blogging friends, win amazing giveaway prizes from sponsors, and listen to entertaining anecdotes and announcements from organizers — was held at the end of the second day, at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Time was short before ...
Springwood Gardens daylily farm: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling

Springwood Gardens daylily farm: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling

July 25, 2016 I enjoy daylilies and grow a few in my own garden. But I couldn’t quite imagine a whole farm of daylilies until we visited Springwood Gardens, the daylily breeding operation of Karol Emmerich, one of our stops on the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling. Karol’s goal is to ...
Visiting Layanee's ledge and garden in Rhode Island

Visiting Layanee’s ledge and garden in Rhode Island

July 21, 2016 Wherever I travel these days, I seem to know a garden blogger who lives there. That’s partly because I’ve been blogging and reading blogs for a decade and partly because I’ve gotten to know lots of bloggers in person through years of attending the annual Garden Bloggers ...
May flowers from A (agave) to V (vitex)

May flowers from A (agave) to V (vitex)

May 27, 2016 As the days fly toward summer, the daylilies are showing off their lovely throats… …and blushing, ruffled petals. Here’s ‘Best of Friends’. The first ‘Apple Tart’ smolders among the white-striped flax lilies. Stretching on long stems like giraffe necks, ‘Wilson’s Yellow’ daylily stands tall amid grasses and ...
Daylilies arrive with the summer heat

Daylilies arrive with the summer heat

May 14, 2016 Hot and muggy sauna days have arrived, and with them, the daylilies. Is it a worthy trade-off? I am not sure, but since we can’t turn back the clock to balmy spring, I resolve to enjoy their sugar-glittery petals and day-in-the-sun beauty. Here’s sunny ‘Wilson’s Yellow’. And ...
What to grow in a flood

What to grow in a flood

May 26, 2015 ‘Colorado’ water lily Well, it’s flooding down in Texas, as you might have noticed if you live here, or seen on the news if you don’t. After an epic, 5-year drought — which isn’t completely broken but is significantly eased — central Texas has been inundated with ...
A fanciful journey through art-filled Bedrock Gardens, part 1

A fanciful journey through art-filled Bedrock Gardens, part 1

September 19, 2014 Acres of poison ivy and scrub brush had overrun the old dairy farm in Lee, New Hampshire, when Jill Nooney and her husband, Bob Munger, purchased it in 1980. Undaunted, the couple began a decades-long process of clearing weeds and making planting beds, eventually creating a 20-acre ...
Garden magic and whimsy at Floramagoria: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling

Garden magic and whimsy at Floramagoria: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling

August 13, 2014 As we entered the intriguingly named Floramagoria garden on the recent Portland Garden Bloggers Fling, thunder rumbled and raindrops pelted our group of 40 or so bloggers. The reasonable — and hungry — among us ran for the two covered pavilions with box lunches in hand. The ...
Westwind Farm Studio: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling

Westwind Farm Studio: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling

July 23, 2014 Both buses filled with 80 hot, tired bloggers bumped into a lavender field at the end of the first touring day of the Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland, Oregon, in mid-July. I tiredly thought, “How nice, a lovely field of lavender.” But what I didn’t realize was ...
Old Germantown Gardens: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling

Old Germantown Gardens: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling

July 20, 2014 The first private garden on the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling tour last weekend was, at 2 acres, large enough to accommodate our entire group of approximately 80 bloggers. Old Germantown Gardens, created over 23 years by Bruce Wakefield and Jerry Grossnickle, is a masterpiece of a garden ...
Coneflower cornucopia and other garden delights

Coneflower cornucopia and other garden delights

June 12, 2014 The garden photobomber strikes again, this time peeking out of a bower of purple coneflower and ‘Color Guard’ yucca. A wider view shows that I was being watched as I photographed the pond garden. Early summer is a pretty time here, as the coneflowers color-coordinate with the ...
Hot summer color and Chocolate Chips manfreda in bloom

Hot summer color and Chocolate Chips manfreda in bloom

May 20, 2013 Austin’s lovely, unexpectedly extended spring appears to have faded into summer’s mid-90sF heat and humidity. While I may be complaining about the sauna-like conditions, my garden doesn’t mind. Take this cute little cactus for example. Last year it resided on a sunny windowsill in the kitchen, but ...
Shelagh Tucker garden at Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling

Shelagh Tucker garden at Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling

August 07, 2011 Six Austin garden bloggers journeyed to Seattle for the Garden Bloggers Fling. That’s me on the left, Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden, Becky of Wolf’s Garden, Vicki of Playin’ Outside, Jenny of Rock Rose, and Diana of Sharing Nature’s Garden. Look! Scarves & cardigans in July! The ...
Flowerlicious June morning

Flowerlicious June morning

June 02, 2011 Here’s a virtual bouquet for my mother, who was named for this June day. Happy birthday, Mom! ‘Colorado’ water lily, up close and personal (also pictured at top) Nymphaea ‘Colorado’ is a total knockout from any angle. ‘Lavender Lady’ passionflower looks like an alien life form. Each ...
Cottage-garden fave purple coneflower thrives in new home

Cottage-garden fave purple coneflower thrives in new home

May 18, 2011 My current garden is much less cottagey than my former garden. But some cottage-garden favorites will always have a place in any garden I make, including purple coneflower. I grew this stand from seed collected from the coneflowers in my old garden. They are easy to grow ...