Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category

Fast Forwarding Through Spring (3)

May 4, 2012

Cantina Iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 15, 2012.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

I’ve already shared two posts of our irises this Spring — you can see them HERE and HERE.

We’ve been very pleased with our irises this year.  We have many more blossoms than we did last year, and we’re enjoying them every day.  They make some of the hard work in the yard worth while.

Cantina has one of the more unusual blossoms among our iris.  At first glance it looks purple, but closer inspection shows orange, blue and white in the petals as well.  Cantina is in our front flower bed.

Halloween Halo iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 15, 2012.

Another iris in our front flower bed is Halloween Halo.  I guess it gets its name from the yellow trim around the falls and the orange beard.  It may not be as showy as some of our other iris, but I like it.

Hemstitched Iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 8, 2012.

Hemstitched is a pretty blue-and-white iris (even the beard is blue)in our side flower bed.  We’ve had this iris for several years.

Waltz Across Texas iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 11, 2012.

This yellow-and-white iris, Waltz Across Texas, should be one of Betsy’s favorites since she spent several years in Texas.  This iris has waltzed across several of our flower beds.

Fast Forwarding Through Spring (2)

April 25, 2012

Blatant iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 9, 2012.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

Our iris have continued to put on quite a display this spring.  They’re scattered in several beds around the yard, so we can enjoy them out of just about every widow in the house.  I shared four of our irises in an earlier post (click HERE), and I will now show four more.

Blatant (above) is probably the most vibrant iris in our yard.  We’ve had it for several years.

Clarence iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 8, 2012.

Clarence is a newer iris in our yard.  It is also a re-blooming iris.  I really like the different shades of blue in the blossom.

Electric Shock iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 12, 2012.

Is the color of this iris electrifying?  This is Electric Shock.

English Charm iris, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 12, 2012.

English Charm has some beautiful pastel colors.  This, too, will bloom again later in the year.

More Daffodils

April 4, 2012

Breck's Colossal Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 6, 2012.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

All of our daffodils have now bloomed and it makes us feel that Spring is here to stay.  I’ve shared some of our daffodils on two earlier posts (HERE and HERE) and am sharing four more here.

Breck’s Colossal has a large yellow trumpet surrounded by yellow petals.  I had this daffodil in our yard when I lived in Ohio before moving down here, and it was one of the first we planted when we moved here to the Glade.

Dad Adams Daffodils, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 13, 2012.

My Dad gave us these narcissus when we first moved to the Glade.  They’ve spread very nicely in our big rock garden and in a couple of other locations in the yard.  We don’t know the name of these flowers, so we just refer to them as Dad Adams Daffodils.

Mount Hood Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 13, 2012.

Mount Hood is another daffodil with large blossoms, but these have white petals and a white trumpet.  This is another daffodil we’ve had for quite some time.

Pink Radiance Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 13, 2012.

Pink Radiance Daffodil is a new daffodil for us this year.  It’s a double daffodil and very pretty, although the trumpet looks more orange than pink.

Down Memory Lane: Day Lilies in Our Yard (2008)

September 8, 2011

I was going through some of my archives, and came across pictures from 2008 of the day lies we have in our yard.  Since we missed many of our day lilies this year because of our western trip, I was glad to come across these pictures.

To see larger versions of these pictures and others, click HERE.

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My Blogging Muse has become about as dry and unproductive as our yard and garden, so Betsy and I have decided to take a blogging break.  I’m not sure what (if anything) we’ll do other than trying to keep our roses and other plants alive.  If my Muse cooperates, I’ll be back the last week of September.

It’s Beginning to Look Like Spring

March 24, 2011

Fortissimo Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 20, 2011.

It’s beginning to look more and more like Spring on the Cumberland Plateau.  We’ve enjoyed some beautiful weather over the past few days, and flowers are beginning to bloom profusely.

We’ve had some yellow daffodils blooming for several days, but now some of our other daffodils are blooming as well.  The daffodil above is Fortissimo.  The petals are yellow, but the trumpet is orange.  It’s a fairly large blossom.

Chromacolor Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 21, 2011.

Chromacolor also has an orange trumpet, but it is much shorter than the one on Fortissimo.  Chromacolor’s petals are a showy white.  Both of these daffodils happily proclaim that Spring has sprung!

Our First Re-Bloomer: Janice Brown Daylily

September 2, 2010

Janice Brown Daylily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. August 31, 2010.

About the time Betsy and I were planning our new front yard flower bed, we learned that re-blooming daylilies were available.  Re-blooming daylilies bloom in the Spring like regular daylilies and then, with luck, re-bloom in the fall.

We already planned on planting re-blooming iris in the new flower bed (along with roses), so we thought re-blooming daylilies would fit right in.  We ordered some and enjoyed many beautiful blossoms this Spring.

Tuesday morning we spotted the beauty above — our first re-blooming daylily.  Janice Brown daylily has a subdued pastel color, but it adds some appreciated color to our yard in the autumn of the year.

New Roses in Our Yard

July 8, 2010

Alec's Red rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 23, 2010.

We’ve had some very hot and dry weather since the first of June.  Most of the lawns around here are starting to turn brown.  We may get some rain this coming weekend, and it would surely be welcome.

I have been busy watering our roses, and most of them are still looking pretty good, although the blossoms don’t last very long in this heat.  I water the roses by bucket, which takes a fair amount of time.

The roses in this post are new for us this year.  My Beautiful Bride likes red roses, and the rose above, Alec’s Red, has blossoms that hold their shape and color for a fairly long time.

John F. Kennedy rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 27, 2010.

But Betsy also likes white roses.  John F. Kennedy is a new white rose for her.

Ronald Reagan rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 31, 2010

I tend to like bicolor roses.  Ronald Reagan is a pretty red-and-white rose that blooms in the new flower bed in front of the house.

Southern Belle rose, May 13, 2010.

Since Betsy is a Virginia girl, I just knew I had to get this rose, Southern Belle, as soon as I learned about it last year.

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I’ll be going to Hendersonville to check on my parents and to take care of some chores for them.  As a result I won’t be able to do much visiting in blogland, but I’ll get to you as quickly as I can.

A New Rose

May 20, 2010

Southern Belle rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 13, 2010.

Since we built a new flower bed last autumn, we have some new roses in our yard this spring.  The first of the new roses to bloom is this sunny yellow grandiflora, Southern Belle.

Yellow roses are said to symbolize friendship and caring.  Since my Beautiful Bride and my Best Friend is also a Southern Belle, I thought it was entirely appropriate to add this rose to our garden.

Spring Color

April 12, 2010

Dad Adams Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon was absolutely gorgeous here on the Plateau and both Betsy and I spent as much time outside as we could.  Fortunately there is always something that needs to be done around the yard, so we have plenty of excuses for being out.

We have alot of color in our yard now and it is not only daffodils.  I think the flower up above is a narcissus, but since my Dad gave them to us when we moved up here, we usually call them Dad Adams Daffodils.

Red Rocket Hyacinth, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

We have not had a great deal of success with hyacinths.  They never seem to do as well after the first year.  However we did have a few pop up and bloom.  They may not look all that wonderful, but they still have a nice fragrance.

Life's a Cabernet Tulip, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

We’ve been very fortunate with our tulips so far this year.  The bright tulip above is Life’s a Cabernet, which is new.  It is multi-colored, but red predominates.

Halley's Comet Tulip, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 7, 2010.

I think my favorite new tulip is Halley’s Comet.  I got this picture early one morning before the sun caused them to open completely.

With all this beauty around us I guess you can understand why we enjoy spending so much time out in the yard.

More Daffodils

April 8, 2010

Las Vegas Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 5, 2010.

We’ve been blessed with bright sunshine and warm temperatures for several days now.  It’s been great to be able to work out in the yard and to see things blooming again.

Our tulips are starting to bloom, but I haven’t gotten any of those pictures organized.    But we’re still enjoying our daffodils as well.  When I posted some daffodil pictures a few days ago, someone mentioned that they thought daffodils were always yellow.  So I thought I would share a couple more ‘different’ daffodils today.

The daffodil above is Las Vegas.  We’ve had it in our yard for a couple of years now.  Although the trumpet is yellow the petals are a beautiful white.

Pink Charm Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 4, 2010.

This second daffodil is new for us this year.  It’s called Pink Charm.  It also has white petals, but the end of the trumpet is supposed to be pink.  I say ‘supposed to be’ because in our soil these daffodils look as orange as they does pink.  But we like them anyway.