Trains In The Garden

 

This is what every child would love to have to play
with out in the garden and maybe a few of the big
boys too.
I remember my Dad getting me a train set
one year for Christmas when I was small. I was a
tomboy but maybe Dad wanted to play with trains too.

 

 

This was a train display at the Franklin Park Conservatory.
The buildings and log tunnels were made so beautifully.

 

 

Lit up under some palm trees with ferns planted around
It was a fun display to watch.
Dad would have really liked this one.

 

Bark slabs and tree trunks made up the wall behind.
One little caboose  was running around all by its self.
We could not decide whether it was running away from the
bigger engine behind it or trying to catch up

 

 

On top of it all set a castle.
Do little boys and girls know anything about knights
and lady’s anymore I wonder?
Or do they think they were only in cartoons and movies?

I   hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.
It looks like we are headed into a great week
here with highs into the 70’s and even an 80 degrees
for Easter Sunday. So I know what many gardeners
will be doing here in the hills of Ohio this week.
Time to get out and make that flower bed bigger and
start a new one for all of those flowers growing from
seeds indoors. Time to put out a few of the
started perennials to get them acclimated to being outside.
Then I will have more room to start some more
annuals. LOL!

Everyone Have A Good Week of Gardening !

 

Sunday Blooms Remembered

Some Sunday blooms for a rainy day.
There is a promise of a beautiful week ahead
for gardening and time outdoors soaking up
some sunlight and warmer temperatures.




How far you go in life depends on your being tender with
the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with
the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong.
Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
~ George Washington Carver ~












































Happy Gardening Everyone!

A Good Day to Escape to the Palm Room

Since winter has decided to visit for the day.
One day you hear! We do not want it to stay any
longer than that.The snow flurries have passed
on through and though cold the sun is trying to
get through the clouds.Thank heavens it will not
last long this time of the year.
It will delay the blooms of the hyacinths and the
tulips a little but they will come.
So I will go back and visit the trip to the Franklin
Park Conservatory and show some more pictures.
Maybe we will visit the Palm room and soak up some
more Tropical plants for Fertilizer Friday.
It is Friday and time to " Flaunt Those Flowers"
wherever you may find them today.
So everyone go over to our dear friend Tootsie
over at " Tootsie Time " and join us today.



I would love to be at the Franklin Park Conservatory
today. The Butterflies are being born and it must be
beautiful there. They have almost 150 species of these
flowers with wings and since I have seen only about 5
different kinds in my yard I cannot imagine what a
beautiful sight so many would make.

Since I live in a cold climate and have not saw
real Palm trees I was fascinated by the bark
on some of them.





Don't you just love their hairy textures.

The paper globes looked so pretty in the Palm room
and help brighten up all of the green colors.
They look as though they are floating on air.





There were also more glass sculptures made by
Dale Chihuly to add colors also.





There were some brilliant colored foliage that stood
out in the greens of the palms in the Topical room.

Bright oranges, pinks and yellows.


Update they are Croton codiaeum vareigatum.
Thank you Florida Girl!

You of course have to have waterfalls in the garden
and one would expect it in a tropical paradise setting.
You can just make believe you are actually on a tropical
island here with the plants and the sounds of the
waterfalls rushing water.






Why does one always have to reach out and catch
some water in your palm when looking at a water
feature. LOL! I know it is only me that has to touch
everything. It is a habit of mine and I always scold
myself like I would a child saying " do not touch Lona".





Meet my trusting chauffeur and daughter.
Don't you love it when someone catches you
unawares with a camera. LOL!





As for the Flaunting of flowers this was a
another lovely plant I do not know the name of.
Yes there was name plates (like I would have remembered
them anyway without a picture of it), yes there was
two school tours going on (get my point) and have you
not read my 'Duh sign' on the left column. LOL!





It was lavender though.


Update: Yesterday Today & Tomorrow Brunfelsia
Thank you Florida Girl. I just need a tropical gal to
help me identify them.LOL!




and this one was a red-orange...





I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend
full of sunshine, warm temps and flowers.





Happy Gardening Everyone !

Anthuriums the Flamingo Flower

At an outing to the Franklin Park Conservatory
in Columbus, Ohio I noticed that Anthuriums were
stuck in around in the tropical and palm rooms there.
They had several colors represented there but I do|
not think they had the 600 species that this plant
comes in.

I only have one in my houseplant collection and
I was sad to learn that I had gotten the one with green
blooms and not the lovely red I was thinking I had picked
up. I have had it for a little over a year now and
it is doing poorly now and dying on me.
I have looked for insects and tried different treatments
with it even giving it new soil to see if this would help
but it has refused all of my efforts to try to keep it going.
The leaves develop a black spot and it slowly spreads
over the whole leaf. I cut the leaf off to keep whatever
is ailing it from spreading to the rest of the plant.
So if any of you wonderful gardeners know what is wrong
with this lady I would appreciate some ideas it saving it.

I loved the peach blooms on this particular Anthurium.

White blooms

Pink blooms

This beauty was also among the tropical plants.
Does anyone know what it might be?
You tropical gardeners may help with this one.

Thank you Noel for the plant identification
This is what I love about Blotanical so many
wonderful and helpful gardeners.

Meet:

Blue Ginger or Dichorisandra thyrsiflora

These two cuties were tossing coins in the fountain.
I do not know whether they were making a wish or
not but they were having a blast throwing the money
into the water. LOL!

Until Next Time,
Lona

In The Times of Daffodils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills.
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a boy:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company;
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

~ Williams Wordsworth ~

 

Until Next Time
Lona

 

First Day of Spring Finds

 

We have been blessed with some really beautiful
weather the last two weeks so quite a bit of yard
work has gotten done. The clean up all of the litter,
broken limbs and sticks that have fallen into the
yard and flower beds.
The old Oak leaves that seem to never waste away
and end up blown into the beds all around the house
from the woods by winter winds were cleaned up.
With the warm temperatures green tips and plants
are starting to grow all around in the beds.
So this morning it being the first day of Spring I
grabbed the camera and went out to see what  may
have survived and what may not have made it over
this terrible winter we had.
This posting is going to be a dull one. I know most of
you will not want to see little bits of sprouting sticks
and pieces of green leaves just forming in patches of
mud and mulch. So if you do not read this that is fine
because I am writing this mainly for my own record
keeping. Looking back at last years posting everything
may be about a week ahead of  what was growing then.
So really not that much of a difference.

Out in the yard and the nearby woods the Maple
trees are starting to bud.

 

 

The lavender which was helped by the covering of snow 
is looking good this first day of Spring.

 

Hyacinths are getting about ready to bloom…

 

and so are some of the Daffodils.

The Foxgloves are showing new growth….

and the Hollyhocks are growing up through the muddy
clay. I will remember to save some seeds for you Kylee.

 

The yellow Foxtail Lilies I planted last fall are
starting to grow…..

and so is Stella de Oro lilies.

In the new bed along the woods the lilies, tulips and
irises are starting to grow. Now if I can keep the deer
away from them. Liquid fence, garlic clips and a nylon
twine is all put out to try to deter them from their
endless munching on my flowers and shrubs.

 

The two new Rhododendrons that were planted last
Spring  along the woods bed will not get to bloom
this year because of those pesky deer who ate every
leaf and bud last winter.

 

But the two large Rhododendrons against the house
will have blooms for me later.

 

The Stachy Lambs Ear’s  look a little worse for the wear
after winter but are getting new growth and the Hardy
Cyclamen is looking really sparse.Maybe it needs some
good compost put in around its roots this spring.

 

Tulip leaves are coming up everywhere but will they have
flowers again this spring? If not they will all have to be
pulled up and replaced. I would get the species tulips but
I am just not a fan of how they look.

 

I am not sure this poor little Hellebore is going to
survive this hard clay ground. It has really been beaten
up by the layers of snow crushing it.

 

The Campanula blue ‘ Waterfalls ‘ that was planted last
fall looks really good…..

 

and so does the Columbine ‘Rose Barlow’ Pink.

 

The Jacob’s Ladder is starting to grow now

 

and so too the only two Primroses that I have.

 

 

The new baby Dianthus ‘ Antique Rose’ that was grown
from seed and also the Penstemon ‘Iron Maiden’ are
looking good.

 

 

I can see a little sprouting on some of the rose bushes
and the hydrangeas.

 

 

What really surprised me was these buds starting

 

on  this Pulmonaria  ‘Diana Clare’. It’s poor little leaves
look terrible but there is some new leaf growth.

 

But even without the blooms her leaves will be beautiful
this summer.

I also saw evidence of Shasta Daisy, Brunnera Jack Frost,
Dames Rockets, Campanula White Bellflower, Yarrow
and sedums starting to grow.
So the hills are starting to see growth.
Whether or not the warm Spring weather is here to stay,
well that is probably going to be touch and go for another
month or longer. We have had snows in April here.
So like everyone else I am so glad to see signs of new
growth once more in the gardens.

Happy Spring Everyone and Happy Gardening !

Until Next Time,
Lona