Butterfly House, Atlas Moth

They always have the most beautiful floral arrangements on display and this time was not a disappointment! Hydrangeas are a favorite of mine, I need to count my favorites some time, I bet it is a long long list. There were several beautiful succulent balls.

Reiman Gardens

We needed a little break from digging and dividing so we decided to take a trip to Reiman Gardens yesterday to see what was in bloom there and of course to see the Butterfly House and their conservatory. The gardens there are starting to come alive, lots of tulips (red and yellow of course) in bloom, the daffodils were beyond their peak. The conservatory was a tribute to the honeybee, with their gardens shaped like a honeycomb and the have bees in a glass case. The butterfly house was the usual thrill for me, I would go there every day if I could. There was an Atlas Moth this time, last time I had saw a Luna Moth.

I will share a few pictures I took yesterday.

Today I was back outside, I planted a Viburnum Snowball Bush (viburnum opulus) and a few herbs in my new herb bed, I planted rosemary, lavender, Italian parsley and creeping thyme. That is all I am going to plant for the time being just in case the weather gets crazy and I have to cover the plants :).

Saturday Sunny Saturday

What a great two days it has been, I am very glad I took yesterday off and I have one more day...............!

Bring on the Tylenol! Yesterday we dug some daylilys, a backhoe would have been helpful! They were in a spot that was increasingly in the shade and they did not bloom well last year so up they came, but not willingly. We also dug and divided several hostas, with all the rain we received last week it made the digging a bit easier and I didn't have to water anything that I replanted.

The plum trees are in full bloom right now. I took a few pictures today that I wanted to share with you.

More Zoo Pics

The zoo is really worth stopping by if you are in the Omaha area.

Garden for the Senses

Last fall we went to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, they had a "Garden for the Senses", it was full of herbs, fragrant plants, plants with foliage that begged to touched, I absolutely fell in love with it and the name as well. My husband built me a small raised bed, I am going to fill it with herbs, scented geraniums, it will be my own "garden for the senses". I will put a few seeds in but mostly will buy plants. Plus I have a few plants I will transplant from my own yard.

I want to make some garden stones that say Garden for the Senses, plus I have some copper plant markers, it is a project I am looking forward to. We bought a sundial to put in it as well.

I have a three day weekend, yeah! With all the rain we have had I plan on spending the day tomorrow digging and transplanting, cleaning up flower beds.

April Days, Dog Shows and Other things

I finally had a whole day to spend outside this past Saturday................ahhhh......I feel so much better :). My soul is restored. Nothing like burying your problems while digging in the dirt, right?

I have seen better springs for taking pictures that is for sure. The wild plums are in full bloom along the paths where we take the dogs walking, the scent of those is a bit of heaven on earth. The wrens are back, singing their little lungs out, what a wonderful cheerful sound and the chickadees are doing their phee-bee call so spring has arrived in Iowa. My hubby put up some new bird houses he made today, we usually have a couple of nestings of wrens in our yard each year. I asked him to make an extra one, I want to try decorating one with mosaic tiles.......in my spare time that is. :)

The spring bulbs are not a total loss this spring, just a 95% loss, they would have been fine if we had not had that warm weather in March. I only have a few that have bloomed so far.

There was a dog show in Waterloo yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet a woman (a fellow boxer lover) that I have been talking with online for over 5 years. That was fun! Not to mention seeing all the different dog breeds. The show boxer is getting much smaller, in fact they were the smallest boxers I have ever seen in my life. I am not interested in breeding or showing dogs but it was fun to attend the dog show. She is not a breeder either, she is in boxer rescue, cleaning up the mess backyard breeders leave for others to take care of. My Quasi Boy came from rescue, he has a scar around his neck from someone letting a collar grow into his neck, he had spent who knows how long locked in a shed. He still will spend a long time playing with and trying to catch rays of sunlight or rainbows from my crystals, I wonder if that wasn't his only toy in that shed, rays of light coming in. He is the sweetest dog in the world and puts up with so much from my little cavalier Erin, they are best friends.

Could it Be? Spring???

As I am sitting here with a window open I am hopeful that spring has finally arrived! I was out looking around this weekend, and I am more hopeful than I was a couple of weeks ago. I think we will have lilac blooms here, I don't think the buds were out far enough to freeze, the new leaves were frozen of course but they all seem to be putting out new green leaves. All the spring bulbs are done for the year , except possibly for some late tulips. It looks as if some of the bluebells will bloom as well.

Friday the 13th

Since there is not much to take pictures of in my garden right now except depressing frozen foliage I thought I would share a couple of bug pictures, I like to take bug and butterfly pictures. These were taken last fall the grasshopper and the bee were both on my Autumn Joy Sedum or Live Forever as some people call it.

Our grandsons are going to be with us this weekend so I hope it is nice enough for some adventure walks or at least to get outside.

Is this really April?

We did not get the predicated 8 inches of heavy wet snow but we did get enough. This morning when I went to work I noticed the snow stuck to the north side of the trees, there is an old time saying about the last snow of the spring always sticks to the north side of the tree, maybe someone else remembers it? On my drive to work today it was beautiful and I wish I could have spent the morning walking in the woods and taking pictures but my boss actually expects me to show up...............the nerve. :) I doubt the robins thought it was beautiful.

This picture was taken last week on a small lake close to our house, I can't remember what kind of ducks my husband said they were, he is the one that knows all the various kinds of ducks that migrate through our area each spring and fall. I enjoy seeing all the different kinds that stop on their trip back north, there was also a large flock of some kind of gulls, you wouldn't think you would see gulls in Iowa, would you? Two years we have seen swans, that was a thrill for me.

April Snowstorms, Mother Nature and the Easter Bunny

Mother Nature likes to throw us a curve every now and then, doesn't she? We are currently under a winter storm warning with up to 8 inches of heavy wet snow expected. What a kick in the pants. I would take some pictures of my garden, but I don't think anyone wants to see piles of green mush, I wonder if all the perennials that were up and are now frozen will come back this year, will they bloom? I guess we will all find out.

The Easter Bunny visited us this past weekend, she brought Quasi and Erin each a yellow squeaky toy, Callie Cat and Jon Pickles were left cat nip mice, that is Easter Bunny is quite alright :).

Pretty Purple Lilacs

Nothing like old fashioned lilacs for fragrance, have I mentioned I love to garden for fragrance??

Violas and Easter

I love these little violas, every Easter I take several half egg shells, the dark brown ones and plant violas in the half shell and make a center piece with a little fake green moss or grass for Easter, I did not get out to buy any violas this weekend, I need to hurry to get this project done for Easter this year. After they have been in the house for a week or so, I stick the plant in the ground egg shell and all.

Deep Purple

Purple Haze

So far I have done green, blue and pink, time for purple!

Monday Monday

Well, the weekend flew by as usual. I did not get the raspberry bed cleaned or anything else done outside for that matter, it was cold and raining. We had unexpected company which was nice, my son, daughter-in-law and grandsons, they were on the their way home to Dubuque after spending the night at the Adventureland Inn in Des Moines. I did get my computer torn apart and killed all the dust bunnies inside so the weekend was not a total waste.

We took the dogs walking both days, we seen American Coots (ducks) that were migrating through on the lake and a couple Magansers as well.

I started gardening when I was in my early 20s, my Mother did not garden, my Grandmother and several aunts did, I guess that is where my interest came from. They always had lots of houseplants as well, they were always sharing starts of houseplants as well as garden plants.

I remember quite clearly the first 6 pack I bought, of plants of course, I hope no one thought I meant beer :). They were dark dark purple petunias, the fragrance emitting from them is what caught my attention as I walked by. I have bought dark purple petunias each year since. At the time, I did know they were petunias from exposure to my aunts and grandmother's gardens. But I didn't know much else. But I read, bought books, subscribed to magazines. Ten or fifteen years ago I took the Master Gardener's class through Iowa State, I no longer am certified because I have not done my volunteer 40 hours every year, someday I would like to take the class again and keep up my certification. I had four years of Latin (Catholic school survivor) in high school and was actually able to put it to use reading botanical names.

I wanted to share a couple of pictures of last year's purple petunias.