Wierd Day

Intensive Outpatient Therapy is weird. You have to bear your deepest stuff to complete strangers who are having psychiatric issues as well. But what I will say is it makes you feel better because you know you aren't the only crazed person out there.

But I don't really want to talk about that. It was such a beautiful day here in Marysville. The sun made your skin feel warm like it does during those first days of summer, when you've been dying to wear short sleeves and sandals. And the hospital has an incredible rose garden in front of it and I HAD to take some pictures (which I wish I could have just done all afternoon since our next session illustrated just how jacked up my coping skills are). Wish we could have had class outside!

The Rose that Grew from Concrete

The Rose That Grew from Concrete

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

Tupac Shakur

All photos property of Erin Wallace

English mixed border inspiration

I'm on a flower kick! Today, I thought I'd talk about the mixed border. I've been trying to perfect the Ohio English garden for years; here are some photos to inspire you in your quest for a most beautiful border.

Spring color is important to any border

Flowering almond bush, jonquils, tulips and phlox

I love roses, so I tend to build my borders around them. I also believe that a mixed border isn't complete unless the roses are under planted with compatible plants.


Felicite Parmentier rose under planted with lily of the valley


Pink rose as a perfect complement to purple violets

Vertical interest gives the border added dimensions. I have two climbing roses on bamboo teepees in my garden


On one I have a New Dawn rose interplanted with a Nelly Moser clematis. They have a bloom overlap period of about 2 weeks and are gorgeous then!

Many other plants can add vertical interest


Echinops, hollyhocks, stock, and lupines

Soften the edges of your garden by letting plants spill over onto the sidewalk. Just make sure that the plants smell good so that when people brush up against them they smell something divine.


Catmint, pinks, and lavender are all great choices.

Fill in the garden with plants that fit into your border's color palate


Veronica, pink Asiatic lilies, salvia, Gertrude Jekyll rose, purple scabiosa, cosmos, perennial geranium, peonies, and Russian sage

And finally, add a few doses of unexpected color


Hyperion day lily, red geum, red scabiosa, and yellow geum.

So these pictures are based on the colors that I like to see in my garden. If you like yellow and purple, then by all means used yellow and purple flowers. I also use flowers that I can abuse a little, that tolerate pretty poor soil (you could mold a mug out of mine, even with all of the amending) and that can take slightly dry conditions. Easy care is my motto!

So get out there and plant! Create the border of your dreams! Live the gardener's life - it's good for you!

Pictures from Beauty In Everything and the David Austin Roses American website.

Yellow State of Mind

Spring has sprung! I know that we have said it and said it again; after our long, endless winter (which did end!) we are so amazed that spring exists we can't stop proclaiming it.

I don't know about you, but I have been in a yellow state of mind. The color of my favorite spring flower, the jonquil, yellow just keeps me in a spring sort of mind. And looking at it makes me feel warm and happy. Isn't it amazing the power that colors have over us?

Who wouldn't love to run through a field of sunny flowers?

Here's the jonquils!

And while you're feeling sunny, visit this totally sublime post.

Love

So normally I would write about something I love today, what with it being Wednesday. However, as it is Valentine's Day week, I though I would celebrate that by sharing some great vintage Valentines day cards (which, yes, I love).

If you will be my own true love,
I'll soar with you in clouds above.

Here's to the Happiest of Valentines Days!

Good Year for the Roses

At the risk of sounding like Elvis Costello, it's been a good year for the roses, at least so far. Most of the roses have started to bloom, and many of the ones that I though I had lost over the winter are actually thriving. I planted a teensy "volunteer" rose that I found in another part of my garden last year by an arbor, and this year it's a good 2-1/2 feet tall. I was hoping that it was the yellow wild rose that is growing in a neglected space in my neighbor's yard, but it turned out to be an 'Alba,' which is ok, because I love wild and old roses. It is a quick and short bloomer, but I suspect that it will be extremely showy in a few years. It joins an Apothecary Rose that I found in my backyard (another teensy slip that grew into a monster).


The first ever bloom if the Zephirine Drouhin slip that I planted three years ago

The Ferdinand Picard and Gertrude Jekyl, which were pruned to the ground last fall by some well meaning friends, are coming back and have lovely blooms.


This Ferdinand Picard used to go all the way up (and cover) my rusty iron work. It had been looking sickly over the last few years, so the good pruning should help it a great deal.


The Gertrude Jekyls with Salvia 'Midnight" and Johnson Blue Geraniums

My favorite, Mme Alfred Carriere, is blooming so profusely that it is falling over from the weight of its flowers. And because it has been so hot, the air is full of its wonderful, heady smell.


I planted the Mme Alfred Carriere to cover the front wall of my house. It's time to use some rope to train it to the wall and start training it up.

I still have a lot of pruning to do. And the aforementioned arbor has broken and is leaning over, so it has to be replaced. I have Gooseneck Loosestrife that is taking over in places that it shouldn't (I made the huge mistake of not planting it in a sunken pot), and, as ever, there is a huge amount of weeding to be done. But things are looking pretty good nonetheless.


Yikes! Always more work to be done!

Finally, my Tree Peony is looking great this year. It only flowers for about a week and a half, but this year it has grown much larger and the flowers are the size of coffee cups!