Visiting Mary and Elna, and their flowers, too
Here’s a ‘phone call that I receive quite often during the growing season:
“Amy. If you have a chance today, you really need to come in and look my flowers . . . and bring your camera!”
Okay, Mom. My mom is an extraordinary flower grower, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people in town regularly plan their evening walks to take in the beauties of her flower beds.
Oh, and this might not surprise you: her main flower bed is massive.
Mom and Dad bought a little piece of land adjoining their back yard, to use as a garden, years ago. The land had belonged to the city, and it was a dump site, so the dirt was full of big chunks of blacktop and gravel and rocks. It’s pretty awful, garden-dirt-wise, but Mom and Dad have dumped manure and compost and straw and leaves on it for a couple of decades now and it shows their attention. They keep a nice-sized vegetable garden, several fruit trees, an asparagus bed, and Mom’s massive flower bed on it. They’ve packed a lot of beauty and goodness on a wasted little piece of land.
Here are a few pictures from Mom’s flower bed. See, Mom, I did remember my camera this time!
This is my favorite color of Mom’s irises: Brownish-pinkish-roseish-with just a touch of lavender(ish).
This tree, hanging with flowers, is across the street, but Amalia took such nice pictures of it, I had to include one.
Amalia taking time to smell the irises. I took these pictures at my favorite time of day for taking pictures: just as the sun was going down.
See, Mom, I really did stop to admire your flowers. 🙂
Mom mixes in the practical with the beautiful: her gorgeous rhubarb looks natural with those irises, don’t you think?
I think it might be about time to start pulling the rhubarb, Mom . . . rhubarbpierhubarbpierhubarbpierhubarbpie . . .
Did you know that horseradish plants put on such beautiful sprays of little flowers?
Look how full of blossoms these strawberry plants are.
Can you say strawberry shortcake? I can. 🙂
Here one of Dad’s honeybees loads up on pollen, on Mom’s sedum flowers.
The trees hanging over Mom’s flower bed are full of baby apples.
Dad had something to show us, too. He had discovered a nest with baby wrens, tucked in a neat little nest that the mama wren had built on a shelf in the garage.
We had another stop to make on our flower tour. My sister’s mother-in-law, Mary, had called and encouraged us to stop by to see her orchid. It was well worth the stop, to see Mary and her orchid. Take a look at this beauty!
We counted the blossoms: 17! Stunning!
Amazing, eh?
Oh, Mack. (shaking head)
What a goof. *sigh*
After waiting for so long–through a long and very cold winter–for springtime and the color green, and blooming flowers, it’s only fitting to pause for a moment at least and enjoy them, don’t you agree?
Just don’t forget your camera!
Hey, thanks for reading, Gentle Readers. You’re all very sweet. And thanks for sharing this blog with your friends. This means so much to me! Speaking of SWEET, 😉 have you entered my honey giveaway yet? We are (already!) in our final week of this very sweet giveaway: 5 jars of raw honey from Nebraska, 3 of them infused by my friend, Jamie, of Harvest Home Farm. You can enter every day! Here’s where you need to click to do this. And thank you. *smooch* I love you all, I really do. 🙂
By the way–I’m sharing this post with those great folks over at The Prairie Homestead. C’mon over!
- Eat your greens: 5 ways to prepare radish leaves!
- Raise the bar on your watering system with drip tape, and an amazing GIVEAWAY!
15 thoughts on “Visiting Mary and Elna, and their flowers, too”
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Ahhhh, beautiful! I can smell those iris from here!
The irises are so beautiful this year, aren’t they?
I love those irises! And the wrens are adorable. This really is the most beautiful, hopeful time of year!
I agree, Rachel!
If your images had like buttons, I would have liked them all! Beautiful post!
Thank you Sonja!
The pictures of your son with the orchid were priceless. I can’t figure out what the white flowered tree is; do you know? It was a rough winter for both of us and I’m happy spring has arrived for both of us. Our irises are starting to come out, too but most of mine are more the common purple variety. Baby wrens, too. What a gorgeous spring post.
I feel a comradeship between us, Alana, as we both endured a pretty rough winter! I think the tree is a Robinia tree: http://www.thelovelyplants.com/ornamental-flowering-tree-robinia/. Gorgeous spring!
It is so good to see all those flowers break through the winter. I am afraid that we lost some here in Wisconsin while we were away. We actually started planting the replacements today until the thunder storms arrived. Now we will wait two days for them to pass and then get back to the flower garden.
What types of flowers are you planting, Chef?
I know all that about not coveting your neighbour’s wife. But I really covet your mother’s irises. I adore irises. I’ve just come back from the Chelsea Flower Show and have a list as long as my arm of all the new ones I would like to plant. Tell your mother to look for Iris Domino Noir. It was second in the RHS Plant of the Year and is delicious. Produced by Cayeux Iris.
Thank you Gillie, I’ll pass along the compliments to my mom. And I’ll tell her about the Domino Noir. Is it black? Or nearly so? I have some pretty irises blooming right now,too, and I’d share rhizomes. I have a gorgeous white and yellow one and an unusual blue one, too.
Very beautiful, Amy – the flowers and pictures and your children!
Thank you Lily!
Beautiful!! Horseradish flowers are my favorite smelling flowers in the whole world!! Followed closely by Valerian!!