“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.” ~ Jacques Benigne Bossuel

Happy Pink Saturday!
Thank you Beverly at "How Sweet the Sound" for hosting.

Welcome to my flower blog. This week I'm taking you on a garden tour. First stop; my rose garden! The more I garden, the more I realize roses are my favorite flowers.

“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.” ~ Jacques Benigne Bossuel, originally uploaded by Abby Lanes.

Earlier this year, I added new bareroot roses, and this is the first "pink" bloom on the new bushes.

Next stop... the area women's club hosts a yearly garden tour... and this home had a beautiful waterlily coy pond that ran right underneath the driveway.


The tour had five gardens, and the perfect mix of garden styles for the tour.


The cottage garden had this mullein verbascum album. It was quite frankly, the first time I had ever seen this flower. Thank you to my gardening friend Kate for the flower id. If you get a chance, visit her blog, it's packed full of gardening knowledge and beautiful flowers. http://www.katesmudges.com/


Finally, the last stop on our garden tour today, was taken at the flower fields in Carlsbad. There were so many ranunculas there, to focus on one seemed odd, but I thought it was fitting for our tour.


I hope you enjoyed your pink garden tour. Stop back soon, and you'll get the rest of the garden tour, and I'll surprise you with giant honeysuckles climbing the walls of a Spanish Villa. Until then, have a lovely Memorial Day weekend.

Cottage Garden Curb Appeal

"Cats never strike a pose that isn't photogenic." ~ Lilian Jackson Braun, originally uploaded by Abby Lanes.

Nothing is more relaxing to me than walking my dog through my neighborhood, and studying my neighbors "cottage gardens."


My home is a small 1950's ranch house, and as my rose and front yard wildflower garden grows and flourishes, it finally occured to me that I want a picket fence, and a coastal cottage curb appeal. Luckily, my neighborhood is filled with this cottage gardening style.


As my ideas for the the landscape design become solidified, I'll post before, during and after photos of my garden updates. I'm currently studying fencing, arches, and cottage garden accessories.


Meanwhile, enjoy the stroll through my neighborhood!

Wildflower Garden Experiment Update

all i need is a moment, originally uploaded by Abby Lanes (has Spring Fever).

My wildflowers are in full bloom. This is a macro photo of one of the pretty blooms.


This is the box of seed, and the flower's baby photos. :-) The box was $6 and yielded an entire wildfower bed beside my driveway, and around my rose garden.

A Good Day

Need to be uplifted today? Then click the title above... you'll be taken to an inspiring video that I just love.

"Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more." Brother David Steindl-Rast.

A Calendar for Growing Flowers in Coastal Southern California

April

Is your patio spilling over with color? It could be!

Mine is brilliant with pots of blue and yellow violas, pansies, blue ageratum, geraniums,a nd white alyssum. But they were all planted in November and December. So reach for your calendar and make a note to plant these things next year in those months. Even a huge redwood tub of yellow marguerites was planted last fall. The petunias blooming now are left over from last year. All in the sun.

Last month, and this month, is the time to be planting containers and tubs, and moss-lined hanging baskets of plants that will bloom clearn thru till next November. To plant now use for Pink: petunias, White: allysum, Blue: ageratum, potato vine, light blue or dark blue lobelia, Yellow: or Orange: dwarf french marigold, Red: fiberous begonia. These are all for sun. Vinca also.

For shade, now, use fuchsia, white allysum and impatients, but this would be light shade.

Small cyclamen can be purchased now for next winter's bloom.

PLANT - Dahlias from now till mid-June. A handful of bonemeal worked into soil below tubers at planting time is good. Take mum blooming bulbs, braid it and bend it over till completely brown. Try cherry tomatoes in a hanging basket, one basket will supply two people all summer. Put cascade mums into 12" pots now.

SPRAY - Watch roses for signs of mildew and spray it as it appears. Usually next month is bad for this. Spray ground too. Systemic granuales with fertilizer will protect from insects and fungicide to get the mildew. Systemic granules completely protect cinerarias, calendula, carnations, and any other plan you knoww that will get insect damage. Most of the garden will not need spray.

PRUNE - Camellias and azaleas after bloom, but only if needed for shaping and only after reading a book on pruning them. Important too is to remove the dead flowers from plants. Know what you are doing here. Sunseet prints a good book on pruning. Prune cape honeysuckle. Many other spring blooming shrubs need pruning after bloom.

PINCH - fuchsias till May Day.

FERTILIZE - lawns - shrubs and trees and bulbs when blooming.

Epiphyllums get top dreing of well-rotted manure. Hydrangeas get camellia food or cottonseed now. KEEP AFTER THOSE SNAILS.

WEED - Don't let it get ahead of you!

Hint: Even if you have poor reusults with petunias in the garden, do try them in container, epecially in moss lined baket where snails can't get them. Only trouble wa leaf minor and you can control that for six weeks at a time with systemic granules. These granule can be bought with or without added fertilizer.

REMEMBER: A garden is a thing of joy and a job forever! - unknown

Florence Sullivan

"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death." ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death." ~ Leonardo Da Vinci
Originally uploaded by Abby Lanes

The dogwood tree brings back the Spring in my childhood memories. I found this tree in my parent's front yard in NC, while we were visiting family for Spring Break. I have long associated dogwoods with Easter. The four petals represent the cross, the marks on the petals, represent the nails into Christ's body. It's a wonderful reminder of the true meaning of Easter, and a gorgeous floral Spring tree.

This is a gorgeous old Southern home in my parents town. I thought the pink dogwood trees framed the home so beautifully!

The Flower Fields ~ Carlsbad, California

If you're anywhere near Southern California this time of year, and you're wild about flowers, the Flower Fields, in Carlsbad, are a must see! I must mention, if you like to shop, they're located right behind the Carlsbad Premium Outlet Mall, so you might want to stay a day or two.

As for the flower fields, I'll let the flower photos speak for themselves. Here's the website, address, and phone number. If you do visit, let me if you enjoyed yourself. I'm sure you will.

www.theflowerfields.com

5704 Paseo Del Norte
Carlsbad, CA 92008
(760) 431-0352