Spring in Living Color

Hi Dreamer Friends! How colorful is your world?  I hope it is like mine and bursting with new color everyday.  I just adore color, don't you?  Understandably,  I've never really been able to do the grey or monochromatic look.  It's just not me.  I live and breath most happily in a colorful world!  

Today I am sharing a few colors that are bursting onto the scenery in my yard.  Some are new colors that I have added in a few pots and some of the color you will see are return visitors every year.  

Be fore warned, there is still so much more planting to do and you will see a few empty pots here and there.  We are just in the beginning stages of outdoor plantings here at our house.    I enjoy taking my time and mulling over what to add to here and there.    

Since I am at home now my potting table is sure to get quite a workout this year.

I've started adding some flowers to  a few of my pots as I see what I like when I'm out and about.  The red Ivy style Geraniums are from Walmart and the hot pink Verbena I found at Home Depot.  I have also added tons of Kimberly Queen ferns all around.  I found these smaller ones, but not too small, at Home Depot and was so excited. I like the smaller ones because I can buy loads of them.    I have such good luck with Kimberly Queens where I live.  They always grow so rapidly and abundantly.  I have even had several that have wintered over like the one below.

I like having ferns everywhere! Especially on the front porch area as well.

I also have several different types of Ivy scattered here and there throughout my yard.  This pretty variegated Ivy by the back steps used to be under a tree that we took down in this spot.  It has grown like crazy here spreading so wonderfully.  I feel like I'd like to have a fountain here as well eventually.

Over on the other side of the top deck you can see my knockout rose that is nothing short of full fledged tree in my opinion.  It is massive!  As you can see here its already so tall that it towers over the railing and this is a raised deck as you will see in the last picture of this post.

 This is the only rose I have had such great success with.  I basically just leave it alone and let it do it's thing.  LOL!

My Snowball tree, Virburnum Opulus, is again blooming green.  I am wondering if I may need to amend the soil as you do with Hydrangeas to get it's color back to white.  

The Tiger Lillys have popped up and filled in nicely along the walkway.  No blooms yet because it's still too early.  It's still too early for the Iris's too.  I do hope they will give me a good show this year.  They haven't given me many blooms over the last few years but I am hoping with all the rains we had last summer that this year will bring a beautiful display.  I will share them if it happens.

I am spotting little blooms here and there on some of the other bushes though like my Rosemary in the front yard and the Lavender in the back yard.

No blooms on this red wisteria vine or my Oakleaf Hydrangea below though I do see some bulbs.  It's so exciting!

I also see some small fruit beginning to grow on my fig tree as well.

The Dogwoods are blooming everywhere now too.  I thought you'd like to see both of the photos.  They are the same exact shot but each with a different focus.  Pretty cool huh?

I have only one azalea blooming right now.  Isn't it gorgeous?  This is the azalea given to me by my husbands family when my sister passed away 13 years ago.  It is so special to me and I am always so amazed at how well it has survived.  When I got this bush we did not live here yet and were in the process of selling our old house and moving into a rental.  I kept this bush in a container for about a year or more before we bought this house and I finally decided where to plant it.  It is such a beautiful reminder to me of all that was beautiful about my sister.

I am in the process of adding a few new things to the back this year.

I am trying out a few of these Lantana topiary style bushes along the fence.  They will stay in pots here as I have not previously had good luck in the past with Lantana in the back.  I am hoping it will thrive here by the fence where there is full sun.  

And finally, we have decided to go ahead and plant a palm tree here on the corner of the fence.  What you may not be able to see is that our yard slopes quite a bit from this corner going down towards the woods.  The whole pool area had to be built up because of the big slope we have.  We are going to have to do some more landscaping on the backside of this fence to build a retainer wall on the corner now that we have decided to level out the slope and add a tree here.  We have been going back and forth on what to do with this corner for several years now and finally decided to go with this palm.  I think it's going to be great!

Yeah, it's going to be a busy summer!

There is new color popping up all around outside and new colors are making their way around inside the house as well.  Living in color is so refreshing.  Thank you Lord!

And thank you so much for stopping in today.  I hope you enjoyed the outside tour.  

Until next time my sweet friends,

Hugs and Waves!