Grace Cottage

Grace Cottage has been lovingly restored by two friends of ours. 

They have filled it with colonial antiques. 

It is brimming with charm, wit, and country inspiration.

Let's look at the exterior and cottage gardens.

The owners are incredibly talented. 

She is a brilliant decorator and gardener.

 He is incredibly skilled at restoration.

They are the nicest people too.

There is a fountain in front and out back.

A star.

The front flower bed details are quite well thought out. 

Y'all know I love the cloche.

Too see interior images of this home see Country Christmas House.

Come back here next week where you can see the back yard, herb garden, 

log cabin, and out buildings. 

Yes, they have all that on a small city lot.

joy and peace

Olive

Dripping Gardenias

Negligence on our part means we are literally dripping with dripping gardenias.

They are falling over from their own dizzy weight.

At the same time we have more blooms than we have ever had

 because they were not pruned in February.

 

If only y'all could catch their scent in the soft rain. 

Sigh.

Joe and Lesley Anne from Fairhope Supply Co.  think the green buds look like frogs. 

That cute discussion happened on Instagram.

Linking@WOW

joy and peace 

Olive

Consider Lilies

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these." Matthew 6:28

That is a verse I turn around and spin in my head all the time for I am a spinner.

peace and joy

Olive

Flower Garden: June

Welcome to the June garden.

Caladiums grown from bulbs and an asparagus fern liven up

 an old plastic planter I painted green.

Begonias were added to this planter of caladiums.

Petunias are my favorite annual. 

When they get "leggy" simply cut them back and they will bloom once again. 

They take our heat very well.

Bee Balm is blooming in the middle of the flower garden. 

It is invasive as are many of my perennials.

Bee Balm attracts hummingbirds and butterflies so I do not mind it's spreading.

I like my perennials cosy together.

 Wink.

The Nikko Blue Hydrangeas that I propagated desperately need to be moved to a shady spot. 

It is now too late to do that. 

I will move them in the fall.

The flower garden went from part shade to full afternoon sun 

with the loss of our 30 year dogwood tree in the ice storm. 

Gardens are about patience, change, life, and loss.

Linking@Wow Us Wednesday's

happy gardening

Olive

Sheldon

Sometimes one image is enough.

Olive

Rose Quest

I am not a grower of roses. 

Truth be known I am a little afraid of growing them. 

But then here on many of your blogs I was introduced to

 and then encouraged to grow David Austin roses.

 David Austin is a British hybridizer of roses with a USA location in Texas.

First I ordered a catalog from the Austin farm in Texas.

 Then I mulled over it for one year.

Finally I placed an order, by phone, in January of this year. 

Three bare root Princess Alexandra of Kent roses arrived at the end of February. 

I soaked them in water and placed them in a bed I had prepared with my own compost. 

The roses are shipped at the time that is appropriate for your zone.

This rose has 160 petals per bloom. 

Amazing.

Each rose bush is covered in buds and the scent is exquisite. 

My rose quest was more than worth it.

Thanks to all of you who said I could grow David Austin roses.

Now I am hatching plans for places to put more roses next year.

 It is perhaps a good and beautiful kind of madness.

linking@Wow Us Wednesday's

Olive

Amaryllis Plus

Amaryllis are now in full bloom in the flower garden. 

All the amaryllis have been forced in past Decembers. 

Then I plant them outside in the flower garden.

The bulb is planted with half of it above the topsoil.

Lynne, my friend, at Irish Garden House mailed me a bulb 

from Michigan which is now growing in the garden.

It will bloom next spring. 

I will definitely photograph the Michigan bulb when it blooms.

Oak Leaf Hydrangea and Coreopsis 

Nasturtiums, in the large planters, will be blooming soon.

 I grew them from seed. 

If you want to try growing a flower from seed nasturtiums are easy.

This part of the garden is pretty wild right now because the primroses are blooming all over the place. I like them and let them wander throughout the other plants.

I have red flowers in many planters this year. 

Red flowers reflect badly in my camera lens but I love them anyways.

What's blooming at your house?

I want to send a big thanks to Kim @ Savvy Southern Style for featuring my Porch House post yesterday on WOW. I am glad so many like the big porch in Madison.

Thanks to Pam @House of Hawthornes who emailed me about the feature whilst I was out of town antiquing in North Georgia.

happy gardening

Olive

Iris

Iris

Last year I had two blooms from this bed of irises. 

This year more blooms than I can count and more on the hill in the back yard.

These irises are out by the gravel road where no water source is located. 

Flowers and grass (or weeds) must survive on their own.

happy gardening

Olive

Foxglove

Foxglove (digitalis) 

My first foxglove is blooming beautifully. 

Why don't I have a dozen more?

Digitalis is poisonous.

 I have given scads of the medical form of it at the hospital.

 It is given for various heart conditions.

 It is in a planter to keep it away from our cat.

I see three or five foxgloves along a white picket fence (a friend has given me a piece of picket fence) or at the base of our stone front stoop. 

In Olive Out news Joe and I installed a new gas hot water heater over the weekend. It was a lot of work but think of the plumbers charges we saved. That installation snow balled into forcing me to clean the laundry room whether I wanted to or not. My laundry room is clean but will never be seen here. It is not photo material. Real life is not always pretty.

Linking@Wow Us Wednesdays

Tell me do you dream about flowers?

Olive