Another Orchid Blooming!

Will has done it again! And there is another spike with pods on them about to burst open. I really wish I knew his secret. A spray bottle and neglect seem to be some of the secret...

Sweet William

No, I am not referring to *my* sweet William, but the plants in our garden! The flowers bloom every other year and so this year is it!

What struck us was that in the same plant, we had two different color of flowers.

Maybe an evolutionary jump? Doubtful, but we are thrilled to have them growing in back. They keep spreading and should appeal to the hummingbirds, especially since we have them where we have other hummingbird attracting plants: the butterfly bush, lilacs, lavenders, and foxgloves. In case you are still wondering, it is the path down to the garage...

Leftover Chard

In the upper garden, Will and I discovered this little white Swiss chard plant-- we didn't plant it this year, but last year. We weren't able to enjoy any of the delicious vegetable last year, so we are hopeful for this year. It was a nice surprise to find!

Lightly Progressing

Remember when Will ran out and got a grow light to help along our limping seedlings? Well, in those 3 weeks, the grow light has made a difference, especially for the lettuce type things.

We will be planting this weekend, organizing the upper, herb, and Victory garden to maximize the space. All of a sudden, we have a lot of seedlings that look like they are actually going to make it!

Need a Name for Our Wine

This is our white grape vine. It survived the replacement of the fence--our red grape vine did not. It is very happy in the upper garden. How can we tell? We have loads of baby, teeny-tiny grapes:

We are hopefully going to have bunches of white grapes this summer. So, the question is: what should the name of our house wine be? Any label design suggestion?

We might have to move Kelly out of the basement and turn that space into our wine cellar if we are really successful. All signs are pointing that direction! Now, I just need a large barrel so I can smash the grapes barefoot style a la Lucy!

Smelling the Roses

We have the first rose buds on our bushes and several open roses, with glorious smells.

Mr. Lincoln

orange rose tree, but I don't recall the name

Golden Celebration

Gertrude Jekyll

Evelyn

The majority of our roses come from David Austin, but Mr. Lincoln and the orange rose tree came from Home Depot. Will spent a lot of time cutting them back late with winter, and now they are back, stronger and prettier than ever.

We do have some avids on the Golden Celebration bush, but we sprayed the soap stuff and killed them all off. Fingers crossed that we don't have to do that too much.

The four other rose bushes we have are growing well, but no buds yet. I'll keep you posted!

First Saturday In May

It is a Kentucky National Holiday and displaced Kentuckian that I am, I threw a party with others not able to get home for the 136th Running of the Roses.

Don't worry, we refugees were well stocked and had plenty of fun to focus on: