We’ve been working hard on our landscape for quite a few years now and this was the year to finally start looking around at flowers. Neither of us really know too much about flowers and honestly have avoided them at all costs. We have been gardening vegetables for several years but never flowers.
We bought flowering bushes two years ago and not all have survived. Winters are the hardest for us as we still haven’t learned exactly what we’re doing when it comes to cutting them back and preparing them for snow. This spring Hubby & I started at our walkway and thought it was really bare and we needed some flowers.
For the most part all of our flowers were purchased from Shiel Farm & Greenhouses if you’re local. I looked around at a lot of places and they had the best selection of what I was looking for. It was a double bonus that we could grab all our vegetables there too. I think I’ve been at least 10 times this season alone. The staff is super helpful if you have questions too. A few years ago we bought our bushes from Hadley Garden Center. They had every bush you could think of and they helped us tremendously. They are a little out of the way for us so we haven’t been back but both these places I’d strongly recommend.
I recently heard that Home Depot and Lowe’s have been treating their flowers with products that are killing bees and that is the last thing I want to do right now so it’s another reason you should consider local over big box stores. I do know that Home Depot has commented that they are trying to find other ‘bee friendly’ alternative, Lowe’s has not responded.
Up until a month ago we thought we killed both our Bleeding Heart bushes. They were just 1 inch stubs on the ground and nothing was happening. Then out of no where they were these huge beautifully flowering bushes. Going forward we will always completely cut them down but now we’re left struggling on how we’re going to keep them groomed down to size. The flowers are so pretty I don’t want to stop them from coming!
I really wanted to stick to perennials because they idea of planting something once and not having to worry about that spot again. I even liked that some of them spread. I just love my new Bearded Lady Iris bulb plants. They shoot up really high from behind and give a bright splash of color as you come up the driveway. I love knowing that in years to come they will fill in more and more. Sadly though they only flower in the spring time.
Which lead me to have to look at annuals. The idea (when I started all this) of replanting every.single.year was absolutely daunting to me. However, they have the prettiest of flowers and are known to flower all summer long. Two by two (since I have mirroring beds) I realized I was buying more and more flowers. From Osteospermum, Daises, Cosmos, Geraniums & more!
My favorite flowers in the yard are lily’s. I just love these and I can’t wait til the wild orange ones start coming up because I want to start integrating them around the edges of our wooded back yard.
Here is one side of our mirrored flower beds so far. I see so many areas I could still add in more color and flowers but hubby says I’m going to make it look over crowded and have agreed to wait a little to see how everything starts growing in more. We’re still nursing our Hydrangeas back to life but we’re happy that they are at least starting to grow.
Now we just need to stain the deck and front door and we’re done!
Oh how I would lOVE to grow a beautiful flower garden like those you showed above! 🙂 Maybe someday… 😉
I would love to have a big beautiful garden (and then someone to take care of it…I kill EVERYTHING). I like your deck too!
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! You know we love gardening, too! Those flowers you showed here are SO SO PRETTY! Did you get them all? 🙂
These are all in my yard 🙂
You have such an array of beautiful flowers in your yard. All of the flower pics you posted are gorgeous but the Hydrangeas and Lily’s truly stand out. Wish I had a green thumb.
The flowers are looking good. German iris are my favorites!!
My son recently, learned about flowers and now he too is obsessed. He always wants to buy or pick them.
Your yard looks so lovely! I’ll be heading to the garden center myself in a few days.
The bleeding hearts are BEAUTIFUL!!
My favorite flowering plant is the Balloon Plant! They are SO neat!
i used to buy a lot of flowers for the house and garden, but then i started to do vegetables and they took over some of the space. I still like getting flowers but the heat is sometimes too much for them.
Bleeding hearts are so pretty. We had them in our yard when I was growing up.
These are simply so gorgeous. I wish I could garden….everything I plant dies though. I’m no good!
Soooo pretty! I have 3 planting areas I have been procrastinating to fill. I just want to do it right so I can’t commit LOL
Such beautiful flowers. So nice to add a splash of color to both inside and outside the home.
Your flower beds look great! I have a bit more of a brown thumb then green. My husband is the one with the green thumb. I just plant what he picks out because I trust his judgement on what will work. I am so sad to hear the Home Depot and Lowe’s both treat their plants with products that kill the bees. Have they not heard of Hive Collapse?
Those vibrant red lilies are beautiful! What a great assortment of colorful flowers you have. I bet your gardens are going to be amazing this summer! As far as veggies, what do you guys grow?
Thank you, because of the whole tree thing we’re doing which doesn’t finish up until Sunday my veggie garden is just sitting there waiting. One of the trees has to fall right in the middle of my garden so hubby has me waiting. We will have tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, green beans, peas, & eggplant. I also grow a bunch of herbs (multiple plants of each) rosemary, thyme, basil, and sage.
Your flowers look great. We just have the worst soil ever. Apparently, our subdivision planners thought it would be a great idea to pour rock over all the good soil then top it off with about six inches of mediocre soil. I have one spot in my yard that grows things nicely, and right now it has corn. LOL
My Dad lives on the side of a mountain and where there isn’t rock it’s just gravel so they just made a bunch of raised boxes.
Nice job! Everything looks great. My Mom always had bearded Irises and I now have several starting in my front flower bead.
I haven’t bought any flowers for my garden and believe me, they need it!
i wish the flowers lasted all year. i love the pretty colors and I need to learn how to garden better myself.
it looks great! i’m a terrible flower gardener. None of the flowers i plant last ever
Gorgeous flowers to choose from. I didn’t know that about the bees. I won’t forget that! Also, I’m a big perennial fan too; love them coming back!
You have a green thumb, girl! Gorgeous garden!!
Lovely choice in flowers. I love tulips myself and even learned in the desert (Yuma, AZ) I couldn’t kill them. Course now that I moved out to CA I’ve killed even a mini rose bush. 🙁 Growing up my mom had 57 rose bushes but I can’t even grow one. 🙁
Love those flowers. We recently had our deck rebuilt and now I want to create a flower bed around it. I LOVE lilies!
Can totally relate! We are addicted too. We find ourselves at the garden centers every weekend and some weeknights. So much fun!
I think you did a awesome job,it looks really pretty,,we are just now getting ready to put things out,,the ground in VT was still not ready,but hubby thinks it is now
I have very little gardening experience and what I do have is veggies and fruits. Flowers are a WHOLE different realm! I think you did a beautiful job, though. Beautiful and simple without being too overcrowded like you and hubby mentioned.
At our house now we just have a few bulbs that pop up yearly but in my NEW house I am so going to have a garden! I love how it makes you feel walking out to it. Your garden is gorgeous.
The bleeding hearts remind me of my home. My mom had a really big nice bleeding heart.
Your yard looks really pretty. I would love to have flowers like that in front of my house. I am dying to do it, but hubby knows I don’t have a green thumb at all. So, it has to wait.
The flowers you choose are really pretty there. I did not realize Lowe’s and Home Depot used products that kill bees. That’s terrible, people and companies need to wake up soon, without bees pollination would not be effective and we would lose out on a lot of crops.
lilys are my favorite flowers too! so pretty