Good evening Folks ~ I hope you all had lovely Easter celebrations. My lamb turned out delicious, I just had left-overs tonight, and still tasty.
I was somewhat depressed Easter weekend, missing Mark a lot. I woke up Monday morning feeling much better though and I was thankful for that. Then I had our FNF widow’s meeting/luncheon and was gone from around 8:30 ‘til 1. That was a nice meeting and you can read about it here if you wish. Here I am with the Easter Bunny, and my antique bonnet with roses on it.
The roses have rhinestones (dew drops) on them.
Yesterday morning I worked outside for almost 4 hours. The weather was on the cool side and I wanted to take advantage of that while we have it. This morning it was the same. I planted some flower seeds, ate breakfast, then decided to visit a garden center I had heard about. It was fantastic! As soon as you pull into the shaded parking lot, you hear soothing music. Then you walk inside and you hear water from the many fountains through out the spaces. I started ooohing and aaahing right off. Then you walk out into the next area where they have the bigger shrubs, trees, vines, etc. and there are birds, butterflies and bees and the music. Just wonderful, just what I needed. A peaceful, lovely break from routine.
I wanted scented things and scented things I brought home. Oh my gosh, I wish you could smell these three different white flowering plants. This evening I went out into the screened room off the back of the cottage and I wanted to cry for the sheer joy of two of those scents. My heart was lifted and I am so thankful for God’s beautiful creation and that I get to enjoy some it right here in my own humble gardens. I don’t show you all of the weeds, or all of the ‘stuff’, I selectively take photos.
My first gardenia bloom opened this morning, and there are flowers on my Confederate jasmine too.
Click on photos for a larger view.
The dancing ladies orchids are wonderful! I bought this last spring at a yard sale and these are my first blooms.
Ok, here’s my haul in the back of my van. When I opened the doors when I got home the scents just rolled out. Aaaahhhh!
Here they are grouped together, 9 plants.
This is Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’
Brunsfelsia manaca ~ I wish you could smell this!
They are like long tubes with the flower out on the end.
I picked a plant with lots of blooms on it.
This is Aloysia or Sweet Almond Bush. I have heard about this for years and now have one. The scent on this is heavenly too.
This beauty is Gardenia taitensis or Tahitian Gardenia. The scent is amazing.
Not really a gardenia though. They only had a large size of this and it is very popular and small plants might not be in for a month or more. I had already bought the other things and loaded them into the van, and decided to go back in for this size. (Now I need to put some items I’ve created, for sale in my Etsy shop to pay for these goodies! 
I got two Dragon wing begonias, one red and one pink.
This is in the spiderwort family. This is a ‘purple queen’, that I’ve not seen before. I have the deep purple one with long leaves, and the wandering Jew, this was new to me.
This was the only plant I didn’t get a name for. Isn’t it beautiful? I repotted it and divided it into three plants. Two are now in another pot with a peach colored salvia coccinea.
And last but certainly not least, a new rose. They called it ‘Picnic’ but I have not been able to find it under that name on Google. It is sweet with a delicate scent, bright flowers and lots of little prickles.
That’s it! What a lovely experience and a wonderful group of bloomers. Most, if not of all, of these bought today I can propagate from cuttings and I’m sure going to give it a try. I am so happy with the scents, more than words can express. If I could put their scents into the post, you would understand.
My Queen Crepe is loaded with buds so I’ll be taking pics when she blooms.
I hope you all are able to get out into your gardens that you’ve waited all winter long to be able to do.
Happy Gardening ~ FlowerLady
