Today's Flowers

There is a new Monday meme called Today's Flowers. It is overseen by Luiz Santilli Jr., from São Paulo, whose main blog is Good Reading. I'm posting early because of Fun Monday, tomorrow, and also because I usually post about my garden on Sunday.

This photo is a collage of red hollyhocks, taken this week, in my backyard.

As The Garden Grows

Makin' honey, this week.

As The Garden Grows

Two weeks ago I posted a series of sunflower photos, Bud to Seed the last shot showed this sunflower at about 3 feet tall.

In two weeks, it's grown to about 8 feet. Here are a couple of shots of it.

The first shot is from my backyard, yesterday.

The weather was humid and the sky was overcast all day.

This shot was taken today. I walked around the corner and down the green belt to get this. What a difference a day makes; today is bright and sunny.

My backyard tangle, taken from the greenbelt.

As The Garden Grows

This is a single bee flitting from pod to pod.

It was interesting to see how much pollen he got on himself.

As the garden grows - Sunflower, bud to seed

This sunflower is outside my back fence.
Each time I took a photo, was a challenge.
I had to extend my arm thru the wrought iron fence,
turn the camera toward me
and hope the image would be centered.



The final shot, just before the birds start feasting.

The good news is I have more 'volunteers' sprouting up.

As the Garden Grows - Hydrengea Series

This is a low growing hydrengea, in my back yard.

It tops out at 27 inches.

As The Garden Grows, Rose

I think this was the prettiest grouping.

All on one stem.

As The Garden Grows, Roses this week

As The Garden Grows, Hollyhock

Would you like some hollyhock seeds? I harvest them each year and pass them around. If you want some, I'll be happy to mail the seeds to you, after I've harvested them. Just email me with your shipping info., at {rjprytz at hotmail dot com}. My hollyhock are volunteers, I never planted them, and I'm more than happy to share them.

As The Garden Grows, Honeysuckle

I have two types of Honeysuckle growing in my garden:

Trumpet Honeysuckle - Alabama Crimson

This one is feathery, I don't know the name of it.

As The Garden Grows, Back yard

I'm lucky, I only take care of my back yard, and it's small. The HOA maintains the front yard. When we picked our lot, 10 years ago, we purposely chose a small one. We were in our mid-50's then, and we're planning on this being our last home, so we may be here 30 or 40 years, so we were thinking ahead.

This is the back wall, outside our bedroom. The Sally Hanson Roses cover the bedroom windows on each side of our bed, with lavender in between.

Along the back fence, we have more roses, chrysanthums and geraniums.

The raised bed, is a wild tangle, on purpose, of honeysuckle, roses, geraniums and rosemary.

There's a birdbath and bird feeders thrown into the mix.

This is the side yard on the south side.

Now the Hollyhocks are showing off, later it'll be daylilies.

This is outside our living room windows.

This is the north side yard, roses, all kinds of roses.

One view from the east, one from the west.

This is what I see from my kitchen, dining room and office windows.

As The Garden Grows, Friends

As The Garden Grows, Close-ups

Sunflower series

From bud to full bloom

This sunflower is outside my back fence.
Each time I took a photo, was a challenge.
I had to extend my arm thru the wrought iron fence,
and hope the image would be centered.

Rose - series

This is my favorite rose.

It has multiple flowers on each stem,
and is very fragrant.
It's a grandiflora or floribunda,

and is right outside my kitchen window.
I planted it over nine years ago,

and have forgotten it's name.

If you think you recognize it, send me your guess.
A clue is the bush is 7-9 feet tall and about 6 feet wide.

As The Garden Grows, Close-ups

These are from this week, in my back yard.

Fun Monday

The Nekked Lizards are the co-host today. Hmmm, will they post 2 Fun Mondays? This is what they want - "We're calling it THE DOUBLE NICKEL 5&5 FUN MONDAY Challenge. The rules are simple: FIVE PICTURES - FIVE WORDS PER PICTURE.Any 5 (FIVE) pictures, any subject, and any 5 (FIVE) words to describe and/or explain each picture. CAN YOU DO IT???"

Double Nickel, indeed, of course we can do it.

As The Garden Grows, Betty Boop

Nine and ½ years ago I planted four Betty Boop roses, right outside my back gate. I think they were the perfect roses hedge for that small spot between two neighboring garages and walkways. I was sold when I read this description in a Wayside Gardens catalog: "Redolent of sweet fruit, the 4-inch flowers are semi-double, with 6 to 12 broadly margined petals of creamy yellow with a broad, eye-catching red margin. They rebloom eagerly -- no need to deadhead -- on 3- to 5-foot, naturally rounded bushes.
The new spring foliage is a dapper dark red, maturing to glossy green. This floribunda needs almost no maintenance, yet sets blooms as large and beautiful as the most elegant Hybrid Tea -- even the buds are lovely, with a long, pointed shape!"


I repeat, no need to deadhead, almost no maintenance!!


This winter was rough on my roses, and one of the Betty Boops didn't make it. When I did my pruning, I saw the situation wasn't looking good, but ever the optimist, I left it in place, hoping Spring would offer hope.


This time hope didn't work out, but the other 3 bushes are doing great. New buds and roses showing off daily.

As The Garden Grows, This Week

The first iris, this year.

Icelandic Poppys.

Lizzie, just being Lizzie.

Hunting, hunting, hunting.

As The Garden Grows, Mystery

Can you guess what this plant is?

Here's a close-up.

OK, I won't keep you in suspense, since I'm not going to have a contest, although I like having contest and give-aways. These are seed pods from wild lupines. I love lupines, and these were not growing in the wild, but on golf course property, right on our main street. So, I harvested them, and after I took these pics, I cut them up into smaller stems, and flung them behind my back fence. With any luck, next March, I'll have lupines to view, out my back door. Yeah!