donderdag 21 mei 2015

Soft blues, purples and pinks in the garden



First of all I want to thank you all for the lovely comments on my previous post.
It felt like coming home after a long time and it felt so good to see that 
after all this time pictures from my simple backyard were appreciated so much.
Thank you!


I talked about it in my previous blogpost and here it is, 
a view of the waterfall of pink flowers from the Weigela.
It's dominating the garden at the moment


As are the Columbines, once again popping up wherever they have chosen to pop up
and I gladly let them do so.

I even let them choose their color.
The blurry pink in the background is from the pink Weigela blossoms.


Every year the Columbines manage to surprise me 
with their beautiful variety of colors.


There's pink 


and blue


and purple 






in all kinds of shades








The mix of all these colors is just amazing.










Whatever background you choose to use, whether it's the Weigela bush, 
the old wall, the shadow behind the flowers or the green hedge, 
Columbines combine with it all and come out great.





Sun, rain or cloudy weather, they're all great to get the camera out and photograph Columbines.


I'm always so glad to see a pure white Columbine pop up somewhere.


but these blueish white ones are just as welcome.
They look as if they've been watercolor painted.


Remember the Lunaria? The flowers have gone by now
and these green seedpods appeared. Hope they survive the summer
so by Fall there'll be a lovely typical Lunaria stem left.
Something to look out to already ;)


I really want to end this post with a view of the huge Weigela, covered in pink flowers. 
Even if this may not be the greatest picture, it sure is full of sun and who doesn't love that.
Have a sunfilled day everyone!



Marian


dinsdag 19 mei 2015

The garden during the first half of May

It's been a long time since I showed you what's going on in our garden/container garden
 but then again it was winter and there really isn't that much going on there then,
except maybe when there's snow but we didn't have any snow here last winter.
The month of May on the other hand is always a beautiful month in the garden
with different flowers of which I took some pictures I'd like to share here now.
I hope you enjoy this look into our May garden.
The first flowers that bloomed in May were the Forget-me-nots.
Like a cloud of blue in the green border. I love these pretty little flowers
and love how many there were this year.
May wouldn't be complete here without some tulips blooming in containers.
This year I made a mix of different tulips. It's a change from
having all the same flowers together and I have to say
I love how it turned out.
The red tulip in the above picture is Doll's Minuet. Not the classic tulip shape,
it has something frivolous about it which I love.
These brownish tulips are called 'Ronaldo'.
Their color is described as dark purple but somehow they turned out much more
of a dark brown to my opinion and I love the intensity of the colour.
I think the bright red and the white and purple of the other tulips I combined them with
makes the dark colour of these tulips come out even better.
More of the bright red Doll's Minuet.
These would also look good by themselves in a container.
The white and purple ones are called Flaming Flag.
These tulips weren't as tall as the other two kinds of tulips they were combined with
but that gave the whole combination a very natural appearance.
All in all, I love how my mixing-up-the-tulips experiment turned out.
For next year I hope to find some different pastel colored tulips to combine.
Any ideas from your part are welcome, just leave a comment about it under this post.
It's very much appreciated. Thank you!
 One of my very favourite tulips must be the 'Queen of night' of which I had only a few bulbs in a separate container
but even just a few tulip bulbs are enough to create a sophisticated effect with tulips in this amazing colour.
 I'm glad I caught them on photo in time because as they started to bloom, a storm hit us and
it wasn't kind to the tulips, especially these 'Queen of night' tulips only had a short life
due to the stormy weather.
  
The Lilac bloomed beautifully this year
and I got to cut a lot of flowers from it
to put in large and small vases in the house.
The smell was amazing.

This little egg shaped vase was still hanging around since Easter
and perfect to hold some smaller branches.

 A simple glass jar always makes a great vase.

Even this old terracotta vase got filled with Lilac blooms.

 Behind the Lilac bush I discovered this surprise Lunaria.
A lovely surprise!
 Also blooming again in the border is this Geum Rivale I especially love
since it came from my grandmother's garden.
I'm normally not that fond of orange in the garden but these
little flowers are like little lights brightening up a dark and shady border.   
 I also love the thin long purple stems.
 More small flowers and more purple in the border from this
Geranium Phaeum Samobor.

The flowers are such dark purple they almost seem black.
I love this Geranium and I'm so glad I still have some left in the border.

 Really love the Bluebells as well.

 You had to do a bit of an effort if you wanted to see the Bluebells in our garden this year
as they were completely hidden under the huge Weigela bush that desperately needs a cut.
But I gladly dove/dived under it to put these lovely flowers on photo.
Luckily they don't mind being in the shade.
 
 Catching some light that passes through the leaves of the Weigela bush.
That bush wasn't blooming when I took these pictures but it is now.
It looks amazing, the size it's become, it's like a waterfall of flowers.
I definitely have to take some pictures of it before it's too late
and even more now that the weather isn't that nice to it either.

These bluebells are so different from the wild ones in the nearby forest
on the French-Belgian border I saw a while ago. 
If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen those pictures. 
Just go here if you'd like to have a look at my Instagram.
All pictures I show there are taken with my smartphone though,
not with my camera.
I did manage to take quite a few pictures of these hidden beauties
while crouching down under the Weigela.
 
 The elegant white Anemones on the above picture are Anemone Sylvestris.
I have them since last year and they are in a container and sofar doing
great in there. Wind and rain haven't been gentle to them but they
really endured it well.

 I took these pictures on one of those cloudy, windy, rainy days
which gave me this terrific white background.
Imagine me sitting/just not lying down
next to a pot of flowers taking pictures.

Really love how the pictures turned out though.

Here's one taken standing up, looking down at the flowers.
 
 And this one is from another day, when the weather wasn't that grey.
Like smiling faces right?
I just love Anemones.
So delicate and fragile looking but so resilient.

The first half of May was a delight in the garden.
So glad I could share it with you through these pictures.
Maybe they even brightened up your day?
The weather has turned to stormy again over here,
so they certainly brightened up my day.




Marian