Gardens – Page 4 – Valerie's Voice

My Hibiscus

On my daily walk in the neighborhood I pass many manicured lawns and beautiful gardens. In one yard there is an amazing hibiscus in full bloom with flowers the size of dinner-plates. It’s stunning. Back home I check out my own hibiscus and it too, has many blosoms. And it’s beautiful in it’s own way…it’s blooms are not meant to be the size of big plates.

During the summer my hibiscus enjoys a wonderful home on our deck. It is a flowering plant that cannot survive the cold Minnesota winters so I need to bring it in the house during the winter. It is a plant I have cared for for many years and every year I threaten to throw it into the compost pile instead of bringing it indoors! Although I love my outdoor flower gardens in the summer I’m not too interested in indoor plants. I have two: a pothos that trails down my cupboard in the kitchen and a Christmas cactus that a friend gave me…which was started by her grandmother years ago in Norway. Those two plants are hardy and survive with little attention from me.

So every fall I have to decide if I’m going to bring the hibiscus indoors for the winter. I have a friend who is the hibiscus’ advocate. She encourages me to keep the plant alive. When I went out to water it the other day it had so many blooms…I think the hibiscus has a sense that it needs to perform to save its life. So I guess I’ll keep it over winter again but I won’t bring it in until the last possible moment.

Berry Picking

Two mornings last week I picked raspberries at a local farm. I love raspberries and am grateful to have places where I can go pick fresh fruit near-by when in-season: raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. The berries look so pretty on the bushes and being out in the crisp morning air makes the chore of picking berries more like a fun outing. When I bring the fruit home I fill a bowl for eating, freeze some for winter, and make strawberry and raspberry jam.

We have some friends who grow raspberries on their property. A few years ago, very early in the fall season, frost was predicted one night so I went over to help harvest the produce from their large garden. My friend put me in the raspberry bushes and I started picking the fruit. A while later she joined me. We were talking and she started to pick where I had just picked and I wondered…I’ve picked berries many times over the years and I know what I’m doing and I thought I was doing a pretty good job…but come to find out she was picking the yellow raspberries they had growing intermingled with their red raspberry bushes! I passed the yellow berries thinking they were not ripe.

We laugh about it still.

A Tour of My Garden

A few flower photos from my yard, and a quote:

“Make a morning ritual of strolling through your garden. No weeding allowed – do it for the pure and simple joy of observation.” Jane Austin Miller

I am always excited when my favorite Stargazer lilies bloom.

Petunias!

I like petunias.

Hanging baskets on main streets in Rosemount, MN

Petunias are colorful, hearty, and everywhere. This summer I started taking photos of different displays of petunias.

Our town has beautiful hanging baskets all along the main street.

Petunias cannot be picked for a bouquet but if watered daily they will bloom and bloom and bloom, and tolerate the hot sun.

We saw several of these apartment buildings in Columbus, OH, all with wonderful window boxes overflowing with petunias.

Some people would consider them “just an ordinary flower” but I think they are “old-fashioned and beautiful”.

They come in all colors, are easy to grow, and brighten up many spaces.

These are called night sky because of the color and white spots.

I will continue to notice petunias…once on the lookout you find them everywhere!

Roses, Butterflies and Colored Glass

I enjoyed my first adventure in “retirement” with my girlfriend, on our 28^th annual get away. We began our outings together when our boys were young, in 1989. This year I flew to Indiana where she lives and we started our road trip to Columbus, Ohio. The criteria we use to choose our trip locations are: it must have gardens, a body of water, and antiques/thrift stores.

In Columbus our first stop was the Park of Roses, one of the largest public rose gardens in the United States.

We were fortunate to be there when the 11,000+ roses were in bloom. It was so pretty. We strolled along and enjoyed smelling the roses and reading the creative names for all the different varieties and colors. We tried hard to capture the beauty on our iPhones. You can’t capture the fragrance.

We checked out many antique stores and thrift shops in-between our park visits – another activity we really enjoy doing together – and we each found a couple of treasures to bring home.

Another park we visited was the Franklin Park Conservatory which offered many fun surprises…from Chihuly glass displays interspersed in the plants, to animal- shaped topiaries, to the butterfly garden which releases many beautiful butterflies daily. They were flitting all around us.

We both are fans of colored glass and to see this display of Chihuly’s beautiful glass artwork was special. We didn’t know it was on exhibit at the conservatory when we planned our visit.

We also enjoyed time sitting near the Scioto River, walking down the cobbled streets of the German Village and dining at good eating establishments.

We had a delightful time.

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

As we started walking around the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum several days ago I looked up the word “teliodoscope” on my iPhone to find the definition and learn how to pronounce it. The word is not in the dictionary and must be the creation of the artist who had a wonderful exhibit “Gardens of Kaleidoscopes” on display at the arb (now through September 2017).

Brightly colored painted, steel structures hold big bowls of bright-colored, perky pansies with a few other spring flowers mixed in. According to the brochure, the annuals in the bowls will change monthly and vary by season. The bowls rotate and there are kaleidoscopes mounted on each stand (different heights for different folks) so as you look through the scope and spin the bowl (and/or the scope at the same time) it creates a wonderful “teliodoscope” of colors and patterns and fantastic designs. It’s very creative and such fun to locate them throughout the arboretum.

The brochure tells us the artist, Robert Anderson, spent his early life on a farm in south-central WI. This exposure to nature and mechanics would create the foundation for his life’s work of “living sculptures’ as he calls them.

I, for one, am a fan of his work! I love color, I love kaleidoscopes, I love flowers…what a combination.

We also discovered a new permanent addition to the arboretum called Bee and Pollinator Discovery Center. The center is beautifully built and opened last fall. We learned some fascinating facts about bees and want to go back to learn more.

And, of course, we enjoyed the wonderful landscape of the arboretum with some spring flowers in bloom… and there will be a whole new look in the coming days as more flowers bloom and grow.

There’s a New Fairy in Town

Last spring, about this time, my friend and I each bought a fairy and a fairy bench for our gardens. I hid my fairy under a lily in my front yard and as the lily grew larger it covered the fairy…until she was out of sight. But apparently not out of sight to a squirrel. I can only assume a squirrel was the culprit that took my fairy, leaving the bench behind.

So I have been on the lookout for a new fairy and recently found just the one.

I wasn’t planning on buying a Minnie Mouse but as soon as I saw this miniature icon with a butterfly on her nose I knew it was what I wanted. My oldest granddaughter likes Minnie Mouse and perhaps, if they come home for a visit later this year, she can go looking for Minnie Mouse in the yard.

This figurine is heavier so I don’t think a squirrel will be able to carry this one away.

Big Bugs

Daddy longlegs grasshopper The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is a beautiful outdoor space: 1,200 acres of gardens and tree collections, prairie and woods in Chaska, MN. I was there earlier this spring with my friend from IN, when the peonies and the iris’ were in bloom. Oh my, so many varieties and spectacular colors!

Last week my husband and I went again and there were different plants blooming and thriving for this time of year, including roses…and there were Big Bugs! We didn’t know the exhibit was scheduled but we did enjoy looking for the big wooden bugs which brought visitors to all different areas of the arb. The sculpture artist is David Rogers.

Click here to learn more about him and his exhibit.

ant bee

Blueberry Picking

I picked blueberries this morning at Little Hill Berry Farm. It’s great to have fresh, local, organic fruit available close to home. My motivation this morning, on the last day of picking for this season, was to have some available for my son who is home for a short visit from Mozambique. He made arrangements to come back to attend a college friend’s wedding in MI and stopped by MN for a few days before heading back to Africa. It’s so good to see him. It was a sweet moment when he Skyped home this morning and precious, little Zoey (21 months) said “Hi Daddy!” It’s the first time I’ve heard her say daddy.

Last July when his wife and daughter were visiting us in Minnesota and I took them Little Hill Berry Farm to pick blueberries. It was a first experience for them and now a fun memory.

My Lilies in Bloom

Stargazers are my favorite lily and I look forward to their blooms every July.

I’ve forgotten the names of these two types of lilies I purchased from the Day Lily Farm near Lonsdale a few years ago, but they are thriving.