Showing posts with label cosmos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cosmos. Show all posts

Friday, September 30, 2016

Big Fat Raindrops on Beautiful Flowers and a Surprise

Bicolor marigold with raindrops: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016
Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" This might be my last installment of regular garden photos for 2016 but, God willing, they'll return in the spring. For this week's post I waited and waited... and waited for a break in the rain but it didn't come so I went out and got soaked for you all. Hope my raindrop on flower photos make you smile!
Bicolor lantana with raindrops: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016
 If you look closely you can see big fat raindrops filling some of the little lantana flower cups.
Raindrop heavy pink rose: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016
 The raindrops were so big and heavy on this rose that it was facing down toward the ground.
Pink dahlia with big raindrops: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016
 The dahlia was sturdy enough to support the heavy raindrops.
Little yellow cosmos and surprise: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016
The tiny little bug on this yellow cosmos was a pleasant surprise to me. I didn't even notice it until I downloaded the photos.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you and all you set your hands to do!

Related posts:
Yellow finch on black eyed susans: https://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/yellow-finch-feeding-on-black-eyed.html
Bright summer flowers: https://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/09/bright-summer-flowers-dahlia-tithonia.html
Butterflies on flowers: https://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/08/butterflies-on-mexican-sunflowers-at.html

Friday, February 12, 2016

Blue Ribbon Winning Flowers

Blue ribbon small red dahlia Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2014
Happy Floral Friday! I found this post in my draft folder (it was supposed to have automatically posted in 2014 but obviously something went wrong) and figured today was as good day to share it. I hope these blue ribbon winning flowers brighten your day!

"I'm blessed by my county fair awarding at least 12 of my flowers blue ribbons this year! The red dahlia above is one of my actual flowers entered in the fair, photographed two days after the judging occurred. In the interest of sharing good photos of pretty flowers the rest of the photos below are representative of what I entered but not the actual blooms entered.
Mixed dahlia bouquet: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2014
If you've been following my blog you know I love dahlias. The dahlias received the most blue ribbons (they have different categories for different size and color dahlias). I have only been growing them for a few years but I get a lot of joy from their vigorous flower output and variety of blooms.
Bee on tithonia: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2014
 The tithonia I grew from seed also won a blue ribbon. The bees, butterflies and moths love them.
Mr. Lincoln rose: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2014
This is actually a Mr. Lincoln rose, which I didn't enter as it wasn't opened yet at fair entry time but the pink hybrid tea rose I did enter won a blue ribbon. You can see a similar rose at the bottom of this post (it's the last photo).
White cosmos flower: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2014
The white cosmos I entered looked better than this one currently blooming in my garden but this is currently the only bloom on the plant.

What a fun blessing to have my Maryland garden recognized in such a way. If you're local the fair runs through Sunday and in addition to the flowers there are a lot of neat exhibits (bee keeping displays, chain saw carving, photography, 4H, animals, crafts, herbs, an 88 pound watermelon and more). May God bless all the fair volunteers and may He bless you too!

What is your favorite part of a county or state fair? Do you have a favorite fair memory to share? I'd love to hear it!"

Related posts:
Flowers, freeloaders and funkiness: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/09/flowers-freeloaders-and-funkiness-for.html
Raindrop flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/raindrop-drenched-rose-cosmos.html
Vibrant spring flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/dahlias-ranunculus-azaleas-lilacs-and.html
2013 County Fair results: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/09/county-fair-photos-haikus-and-results.html

Friday, June 6, 2014

Day Lily, Primrose, Echinacea, Petunia and Cosmos Photos

Stella d'Oro day lily: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
Happy floral Friday! This week in my Maryland garden the first of my day lilies, the Stella D'Oro golden yellow re-blooming variety, has started blooming and the one in the photo above is my first day lily bloom of the year.
Pink Primrose: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
I'm not sure if this is a wild or evening primrose but I like it and it spreads quickly.
First Echinacea of 2014: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
Our very first echinacea (purple coneflower) of the year started blooming this week. The petals haven't completely opened yet but it's nice to see even in the beginning stages.
White cosmos with bee: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
This white cosmos looks a lot sturdier than the one in last week's picture but it's from the same plant. It just had time to dry out between rainstorms before I took the photo.
Pink, white and green petunia:Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
I love this variegated petunia's colors. It's an exciting time to be out in the garden with new things blooming each week. Which was your favorite photo this week?

May the God who created every beautiful thing bless you beyond your wildest dreams!

Related posts:
Raindrops on roses: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/raindrops-on-roses-azalea-camellia.html
Dahlias, ranunculus and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/dahlias-ranunculus-azaleas-lilacs-and.html
Mandevilla, roses, petunias and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/mandevilla-roses-dianthus-and-petunias.html
Azalea walk photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/azalea-walk-landscape-photos.html

Friday, May 30, 2014

Raindrop Drenched Rose, Cosmos, Honeysuckle and Dianthus Flower Photos

Rose and raindrop macro: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
Happy floral Friday! This week brought a lot of rain to my Maryland garden. I took these photos yesterday, after a heavy rain.
Yellow Rose with Raindrops: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
I thought the roses looked even more beautiful than usual with their raindrop dressing.
White Cosmos: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
 The cosmos flower was so wet with rain that I had to tip it upwards to get a photo.
Honeysuckle raindrops: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
Honeysuckle may not bloom for long but I love its sweet scent.
Dianthus raindrops: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, May 2014
Some of the raindrops on this dianthus were perfectly round so I had to include this photo even though last week's post featured two dianthus photos.

I hope you enjoyed "this week in my Maryland Garden" and look forward to bringing you more photos next week. May God bless and keep you, dear friends!

Related posts:
Raindrops on roses, azaleas and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/raindrops-on-roses-azalea-camellia.html
Raindrops on pretty flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/raindrops-on-pretty-flowers-for-floral.html
Beautiful azalea flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/04/beautiful-azalea-close-up-photos.html
Spring floral Friday: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/dahlias-ranunculus-azaleas-lilacs-and.html
Leaf and raindrop photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/04/happy-earth-day-leaf-and-randrop-photos.html

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Bright Blooming Flowers and Tiny Peppers: This Week in My Maryland Garden

This is my favorite of our garden's day lilies. I think it's an "El Dorado" day lily and we got it from a catalog many years ago. We originally purchased six. One died in the first winter. The rest had survived until this spring's excavation but I won't know for sure how many we have know until all the day lilies have bloomed this year (in our hurry to save our plants we didn't have the time to tag them). Right now it looks like we have three survivors. If you like day lilies you can see a whole bunch of beautiful photos here.

I've been trying to get a decent photo of our red and yellow bicolor dahlia since we planted it but this is the best so far. It wasn't labeled as a dwarf plant but it's only about six inches high so I think that's what we got. The flowers are pretty enough that I don't mind though. You can see our yellow dahlia here.

I'm not sure why blogger isn't letting me put any words between the cosmos and pepper plants (could be the problem is with me and not blogger though for all I know) but this is an open bloom on the orange cosmos we grew from seed. You can see the first not quite opened bloom here and the whole plant in context here.

Next up is my husband's miniature pepper plants. He knows what kind of peppers they are but I don't. They're cute though. He has two of these plants.

Last week I posted a photo of our blue hydrangea and here's one that seems to be undecided as to whether it's going blue or pink. I thought the raindrops on the petals were pretty.

Although eventually I'll do a separate post about this (when I have more posts up) I'd love to introduce you to my newest blog, the benign neglect gardening journal. It's part garden journal, part tips and tricks on saving money, effort and the environment while enjoying your garden. Here's the link: http://bngardening.blogspot.com/.

May God bless you and may your gardening (physical and proverbial) be fruitful!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Hydrangeas, Cosmos, Primrose and Day Lilies: This Week in My Maryland Garden

Our hydrangeas are blooming in our shady back yard this week. Hopefully the flowers will turn even more blue as they mature.
This is our first cosmos flower of the year. It's just starting to open up. I love that we started this plant from seed. It makes it even more precious.
I believe this is an evening primrose. These flowering plants are climbing up our variegated rose bush, lilacs and fence.
Here's our first regular day lily bloom of the year. It's a sweet pale yellow and I love the frilly edges. In an earlier post we showed you our Stella d'Oro reblooming day lily, which was the first of any kind to bloom this year. The rebloomers are still flowering and should continue blooming through frost this fall.

This is our variegated rose bush (the one that has the evening primrose, above, climbing up it). Every flower is slightly different and I enjoy seeing the various patterns that emerge.

Hope you enjoyed this week's floral photo tour of our Maryland garden! May God bless you!

Which was your favorite photo of the post? What's blooming in your area? Do you have any flower gardening secrets to share? I'd love to hear from you!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Columbines, Widow's Tears, Irises & More: This Week in My Maryland Garden

Happy May dear readers! Here is our first columbine bloom of the year. I think it's a McKanna's Giant Columbine that reseeded from one of our original plants.

The Widow's Tears are in full bloom. We used to have both white and blue flowers but so far just white are blooming this year.

Last week I posted our first dark and light blue iris blooms of the year and now you can see we have a whole lot of irises blooming (and we still have a whole lot sitting in pots and buckets to be replanted from the excavation too).
This is our first rose off of our bicolor big rose. I don't remember the real name so I think of it as my strawberries and cream rose.

I think this is the same tulip I posted about last week and it's still quite lovely.

Some of the birds have been poking at our seedling pots but these cosmos seedlings that Ben started back in March are still looking good. I really should divide them or thin them soon. There's so much to do in the garden and only so much time to do it all. My plan for the cosmos was to put them in big pots so when they get tall they'll block an unsightly view from one of our windows but the county has a contractor who's had a bunch of equipment parked near our house for months now and we might just plant them on the street side to block the equipment view instead. Of course if enough of the seedlings survive we could do both.

What's growing in your neck of the woods? May God bless you!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Multicolored Blooms, Seedlings, Garden Decor & More: This Week in My Maryland Garden

We've had this geranium (potted) for about a month. I took this photo yesterday (all of the photos in today's post were taken by me either this morning or yesterday) and today I moved it to a bigger pot.

Our potted African daisy is also doing well. I loved the coloring on this particular flower (yellow, lavender and the pale white petal tips).

When I was writing last week's post our yard had been obviously (and significantly) excavated. My fantastic hubby took a day of leave and spent part of the weekend mixing in 6 cubic yards of top soil and laying 11 cubic yards of mulch so now the front yard looks a whole lot better (yay, Ben!).

Hopefully when it's time for next week's post we will have replanted the front yard plants that survived the excavation (we had multiple rose casualties but. God willing, it looks like most of the day lilies and irises will survive). Because so much grass was torn up we decided to expand the flower beds and the hosta you see in the photo above will likely be relocated to the front yard. The snow on the mountain is kind of crowding it out anyway so it will be better for the hosta once it adjusts. I'm hoping to divide the clump into 4-5 smaller plants.

These Chinese character stepping stones are one of our few bits of garden decor left after our giant white rock and other decor were victim to the excavation process.

This is a Japanese maple seedling I'm hoping will make it.
 Last week none of the seedlings Ben planted in March were physically distinguishable from one another but this week we can clearly see that these are cosmos seedlings.

And these are zinnia seedlings. Ben only planted cosmos and zinnia so it's easy to tell them apart. I planted a fresh batch of annual zinnia seedlings yesterday (to fill space in the front yard this summer while we work on a long term plan).

This little fern was stuck under a pile of leaves on our shady side garden. I pulled it upward so it could get some sun and crushed the leaves around it so they will break down faster and eventually provide  nutrients to the little fern. I suspect it's a Japanese Painted Fern (aka Ghost Fern) so once it recovers it should be beautiful.

In late March I posted a photo of our old fashioned bleeding heart and it's still blooming beautifully. This week our new fringe leafed bleeding heart started blooming. I just planted it last fall so it's a tiny plant but it should eventually grow to a decent size and bloom from about this time of year to frost (unlike the old fashioned kind which die back after their spring blooming period).

Hope you enjoyed my photographic tour of my Maryland garden! May your blooms be bountiful and may God bless you!