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Gold Flame Honeysuckle on wooden Lattice

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This weeks theme is Wooden

Honeysuckle Gold Flame

I’m hoping that my Honeysuckle Gold Flame managed to survive the winter! We grow it at the side of the house, at the back entrance to the garden.

It’s in a large planter pot that’s right against the brick wall of the house. Along the wall we’ve placed wooden lattice for the honeysuckle to grow on, and on the entrance side of the plant there’s the bamboo arbor where several of the honeysuckles branches tend to grow.

I used to have a harlequin honeysuckle in this area, but it wasn’t hardy enough to be in a planter over winter it seems. So I replaced it with the Golf Flame which is a hardier honeysuckle.

I sure hope it survived. It’s definitely had quite a bit of snow cover this year! It’s so very pretty when it blooms that I’d hate to lose it.

The photo above is of the Gold Flame honeysuckle when it was just about to bloom for me for the first time. It has beautiful colorful flowers.






Dreamy Hellebores

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Hellebore

In about a month or so my Hellebores will start to emerge from their long winter slumber. Along with the crocus’ and my chives the hellebores are often one of the first flowers to emerge each spring. This flower is sometimes called the Christmas rose because in some areas it will bloom in late December. In this area, or at least in my garden it emerges in March, but doesn’t usually bloom until April.

There are approximately 20 species of Helleborus. The flowers have five petals (sepals) surrounding a ring of small cup like nectaries. The sepals remain on the plant rather than fall off as petals would on most flowers. Sometimes the sepals remain on the plant for many months.

Unfortunately many helleborus are considered poisonous. Now that we have a puppy who will more than likely enjoy the backyard frequently we might have to get rid of our hellebores. Of course we always keep a careful eye on our pup and if by chance we can train her to stay out of the garden beds we might be able to keep some of our more risky plants, but I’m not sure I want to take that chance.

Do you grow Hellebores?

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Lovely blue

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Wordless Wednesday

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This is a photo of Johnson’s Blue Geraniums. It’s a hardy perennial geranium.

I posted about this flower recently and I said that my geraniums have been looking more purple than blue lately.

I took the photo above a in May last year. Perhaps these geraniums are bluer in the cool spring weather and darker or more purple in color later in the season? Either that or perhaps my soil composition changed last year. I guess I’ll have to do a soil test.

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