Sunday, February 15, 2009

Spring & Summer Dreams....

What motivates and inspires you on a daily basis?? You know, the thing that gets your juices flowing and brings happiness to your days simply because it exists...... I know it is a different thing or concept for everyone but for me, it is my spring and summer garden. As spring seems to be inching closer each day now, I wanted to take a walk through my favorite garden photos, starting from spring and moving through summer. I look forward to each May because that is the month my beautiful Bearded Iris collection blooms....I have a lot of them and seeing them each day and cutting some for a vase in the house, always makes me happy.

Before my Bearded Irises bloom though, I have the pleasure of seeing my English Irises pop their cheerful heads up and surprise me with lovely blooms.


Each spring I look forward to the arrival of my Clematis. I have pink, deep purple and white!

Clematis buds bursting into life.....

A lovely example of some deep purple.....which just happens to be my favorite color in the world.

Around the front of my house, I'll start to plant my annuals as the fear of frost diminishes.

You might remember the wooden planters that my husband salvaged from a fence of ours that fell down a few years back. I had him keep the wood until I could think of what to do with it. I thought making planters from these wooden planks would be really cool, so that is what I had him do. The annuals have just been planted as well as the 3 flower carpet roses. The mosaic birdhouse is from the very talented artist Michelle Legler www.mosaicqueen.typepad.com .

In June I have my Lilies to look forward to. I enjoy them outside as well as cutting them to bring into house.

My backyard perennial garden.....you can see along the right hand side that my Hydrangeas are starting to form their buds, they will be thinking about blooming soon. The Flower Carpet Roses down in the front are full of color and the Lilies in the back row are just starting to bloom.

Some time has passed and now my Hydrangeas are in full bloom.

Pots hang from my back porch and go down each step of my back stairs leading to my garden and driveway area. If you think I might be laying on the ground to get this shot, you would be right. From this angle I can see the Coreopsis, Yarrow and Coneflowers in bloom.

From this photo I see my garden in the height of summer, in full bloom. The Carpet Roses up front are cascading over the curb...sometimes I have to trim them back as they can run pretty wild, but I love wild.....in the garden anyway. The Black Eyed Susans are in full bloom and the Lilies that looked so pretty a couple of months before have been ecliped by my tall perennial Hibiscus you can see all the way in the back. One of my favorites in the garden.....

A pink Hibiscus in full bloom.....


Last but not least, this sweet hummingbird that likes to visit my back porch. He and his friends love my Cascading Geraniums and no matter what I'm doing when they visit, I find myself dropping it and racing for the camera.
I hope you've enjoyed the walk through my spring and summer.....they will be here before we know it.

14 comments:

La Donna Welter said...

You know how I love flowers! : )
Thank you for sharing!

The Painted Garden said...

Hi Ruth,

Wow - your Spring garden is beautiful and I can see why you are dreaming of Spring flowers. Being surrounded by such beauty is certainly an inspiration for you to paint them. I love the dear photo of the Humming Bird and can see why you are inspired to paint them.

Thank you for sharing your Spring and Summer inspirations.
Have a lovely creative week and keeping thinking Spring.
Blessings,
Erin

Archie and Melissa said...

hi ruth!
oh my goodness!

your gardens inspire me too! you are so talented. you love and passion is so apparent in everything you create.

i love your new pendants below too!
xoxoxo
melissa

Anonymous said...

Just absolutely BEAUTIFUL Ruth!!!!

Hugs!

Michelle

Celestina Marie said...

Hi Ruth, Hope you had a nice Valentine weekend too. Your gardens front and back are the pretties I have seen. Really needs to be a feature in the garden magazines. I love your clematis. My mother used to grow them and hers were gorgeous in Michigan. I am going to try this year. Wish me luck here in Texas.

What an inspiration to come visit and see your beautiful flowers. I too am so ready for spring and summer. I know you just visited, but I have a new post of what I have been doing lately if you have time to visit again.
Have a great creating week.
Hugs, Celestina Marie

NeereAnDear said...

Oh goodness.... I too love a garden and plants and all outdoors for inspiration... anything cascading just makes me want to do the happy dance...

Totally appreciate you bringing spring to us through this post.. it had gotten into the 60's and 70's last week... just long enough to give us spring fever before it got cold again...

My all time favorite photo however is the one of the hummingbird... not only a fantastic shot... but of course they are my signature .... so darling!!

HUGS
JO

Unknown said...

What a wonderful photograph of your hummingbird. Your Spring garden truly makes me envious. It's quite cold here in New England and there is still ice and snow everywhere. Your garden looks spectacular.
Karen

Catherine Holman said...

Ruth,
You've brightened my day! Your flowers are beautiful!
Hugs,
Cathie

Suzanne said...

Oh! I'm so ready for spring, and these gorgeous photos are definitely inspirational!
Here's to dirty fingernails soon!

Donna said...

All the flowers are absolutely beautiful! I love the last photo.

Hugs,
Donna

Anonymous said...

I can tell you have spring fever Ruth! Lovely gardens and you did an awesome job with the photos. I love the hummingbird. Best. Kathryn

Linda O'Neill said...

Beautiful garden! I love Irises too...and our new house has a very long bed of them in the backyard. They're just starting to pop up...I can't wait to see them in full bloom.

Gail McCormack said...

Your photos are beautiful Ruth, I can see some of the extra special ones made into gift cards or framed - you've probably already done that - if so I bet they looked beautiful!

Catherine said...

OH yes Ruth~I am so dreaming of Spring!!~Even more so after this beautiful post!:) We had 60 degree days last wk..and then got almost a foot of snow last night!:( Its beautiful, but I AM READY FOR
S P R I N G !!
Cat