Six On Saturday: What Color!

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What do most people want from their summer plantings?  Color!

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Mophead Hydreangeas can produce differently colored flowers.  When the soil is more acidic, the flowers will be blue.  When the soil is sweeter, they will be pink.  Our Nikko Blue Hydrangeas are blooming prolifically in a rainbow of shades from deep blue to deep pink this week.  They look wonderfully confused.

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While many landscape designers focus on structure and texture, most of us living in the landscape crave color in our garden, however large or small that garden may grow.  But what colors?

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Every year designers choose a ‘color of the year’ as their theme. This year’s color  is a lovely peachy coral. This ‘Gallery Art Deco’ Dhalia is an intense shot of color, especially paired with a purple leafed sweet potato vine.

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We each have a very personal idea of what colors make us feel good, relax us, and excite us.  Color is all about emotion, and how those colors make us feel.

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Calla lilly

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One of the joys of gardening is that our colors change as the seasons evolve.  We don’t have to settle on just one color or color palette, as we do for our indoor spaces.

In our gardens we can experiment, we can celebrate, we can switch it up from month to month and year to year through our choices of plant materials.

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Rose of Sharon trees in our yard are opening their first flowers this week.

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Pastels?  Jewel tones?  Reach out and grab you reds?

We’ve got a plant for that….

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Canna ‘Red Futurity’ blooms for the first time in our garden this week, and should bloom all summer in its pot by the butterfly garden. I love its purple leaves as much as its scarlet flowers.  A favorite with butterflies and hummingbirds, we expect lots of activity around these blooms!

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Woodland Gnome 2019

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“The beauty and mystery of this world

only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . .

open your eyes wide

and actually see this world

by attending to its colors, details and irony.”
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Orhan Pamuk

Many thanks to the wonderful ‘Six on Saturday’ meme sponsored by The Propagator.

 

Blossom XIII

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“Life isn’t meant to be lived perfectly…

but merely to be LIVED.

Boldly, wildly, beautifully,

uncertainly, imperfectly,

magically LIVED.”

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Mandy Hale

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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“Love, like Fortune, favours the bold.”
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E.A. Bucchianeri

 

Blossom I

Blossom II

Blossom III

Blossom IV

Blossom V

Blossom VI

Blossom VII

Blossom VIII

Blossom IX

Blossom X

Blossom XI

Blossom XII

Blossom XIV

Blossom XV

BlossomXVI

Blossom XVII

Blossom XVIII

Sunday Dinner: Giving

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“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

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Kahlil Gibran

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“You often say ; I would give , but only to the deserving,

The trees in your orchard say not so,

nor the flocks in your pasture.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and nights

is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life

deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver ,

and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life-

while you , who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.”

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Kahlil Gibran

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“Give freely to the world these gifts of love and compassion.

Do not concern yourself with how much

you receive in return, just know in your heart

it will be returned.”

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Steve Maraboli

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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“Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity,

when I give I give myself.”

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Walt Whitman

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Sunday Dinner: Individuality

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“The most important kind of freedom

is to be what you really are.

You trade in your reality for a role.

You trade in your sense for an act.

You give up your ability to feel,

and in exchange, put on a mask.

There can’t be any large-scale revolution

until there’s a personal revolution,

on an individual level.

It’s got to happen inside first.”

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Jim Morrison

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“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”

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Coco Chanel

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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The Butterfly Ballet

Zebra Swallowtail on Lantana

The stage is set.  A symphony of birds and frogs fills the garden with song.

Now we watch for the flying ballet of butterflies and hummingbirds to begin their annual performance.

This lone Zebra Swallowtail visited the Lantana yesterday morning as I watered the garden.

We’ve spotted her a few times over the last few days, and I was happy to find her close enough to share photos with you.

Our butterflies frequently visit Lantana, Hibiscus,  and the Butterfly Tree ready to bloom near the ravine.

Tree Hibiscus, Rose of Sharon, a favorite of our swallowtails.

 

Our Joe Pye Weed opened its first blossom yesterday, and we have several patches of Salvia in bloom.

 

Hibiscus, “Kopper King” opening its first bloom this season.

July and August find our garden full of butterflies.

We hope these luscious Canna blossoms will entice the hummingbirds.

Let the show begin!  The audience is filled with anticipation. . .

 

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2014