I love the "baby and the birdbath"!! What a sweet pic.

The iris and roses are so beautiful. I wish I could have come to see them while I was in NYC !! You have beautiful gardens and I do think you need to post MORE :) c

Thanks Caroline!
he has learned to stick his finger into the fountain's spout and make it squirt all over the place. haha. He loves it.

I would post more but my place is a train wreck ! GRRRR
i'm getting kinda depressed cuz i think i may have to rearrange things- again..

AND i had to dig out this invasive spiderwort i had and now the area it was in looks so empty. i hate it. haha. it leat it looked ncie and full with the spiderwort. now i have somethere thing in its place but not filled in yet.. GRRR

Very pretty, Friend, the ornamental grass really sets off that garden. Yellow, peach and pink go well together.

Lorna

Thanks Lorna.. you think? what about the wiegelia? too red?? too hot pink- the flowers?

Very pretty roses and flowers. Your Micanthus looks so healthy! I transplanted a clump last fall and it looks very sad :( I am a zone colder then you. I am wondering if that has anything to do with it...

Msscarlet,

I'm not an expert on the grass ( or anything really!) but I dont think it woudl be your zone..?
Did you happen to take just some of a larger original plant? I ask because I divided up some of my own huge clump here and gave to a neighbor.. and it's been there two years.
i didnt help her dig hers in.. but I walked by yesterday and looked for it and I was in shock at how poorly it was doing..?!!!

but oddly all of my grasses are a transplant ! My dad had dug up and given me his. he always decides he hates something after a year or two and digs it up. haha
so I have 3 grasses now. all are doing just GREAT! But I wonder if its because he dug up the whole thing for me rather than just a small peice? maybe it just doesnt DIVIDE well??
or maybe I have NO IDEA whart i am talking about. just a recent observation on my part. haha

this one grass above is my favorite for sure. and i'm not sure of the actual scientific name for it.. :(
I love the silvery whiteness to it!

Friend, I think your garden looks beautiful! I have gotten so I don't stress as much about color combinations. If it looks good to you then leave it. And as you said, their bloom seasons don't all overlap and there's some space between them with other colors to referee. I see your point though about realizing you have a lot of one color. I realized that this year with my peonies. Good grief, I have forbidden myself from ordering any more light pink peonies! I made a vow to only buy brighter colored ones this year to liven things up a bit.

I love your Iris' and the roses are stunning. I think your color combinations look great. Like others have said, I no longer stress over color combinations. I have everything but the kitchen sink in my daylily bed, i.e. orange, pink, red, purple, lavender, white. I think more color looks happy and IMHO more cottage like.

Your yellow rose 'care free sunshine' is beautiful. What is a sub-zero rose?

Keep the pictures coming, your garden is lovely.
Vikki

No critique from me. It looks like my kind of flower bed!
I love the peachy color. The roses look great to be so young and so healthy.

That combination of the silver grass and the rose with the alliums in between just looks perfect to me! Love your resident bird too.

I have that same iris and just planted a Buff Beauty rose
(peachy. I put apricot colored foxgloves and a tall spiky salvia with it.

How many times a day do you have to dry out the little one from getting drenched in the bird bath?

Your iris are beautiful. Do you know the name of that iris in the second picture? What type of iris is it? Your roses look amazingly good to me. I don't see anything that needs to be changed either. I love all colors mixed together.

Mary

Friend, your color combination looks great to me. The wiegelia is fine.
Lorna

Well, if yellow and pink can't be used together then the color police are coming to arrest me! LOL

You have such gorgeous roses! I really love the combinations that you've shown here, so I don't know why you think you should think more about combos!

Is that grass miscanthus 'Cosmopolitan'? I have a similar looking grass that I love -- in the 2nd year.

I covet your alliums!

Cameron

Hi all- You are all too sweet- thank you so much for the little confidence booster cuz i'm feelign dissapointed this year! you all go through that?

Cameron- you covet something? I thoguht you could do or grow anythign for god's sake..! haha Alliums are deer resistant.. why woulndt you have them? ( it doenst work in your zone? you're only a zone away..?)

Vikki- i'm no rose expert but the sub-zero roses are jsut really hardy ( hard to kill) and easy blooming roses. My yellow roses were for my deceased dog Friend. Yellow roses mean friendship.. so i wanted to plant roses. these were my first roses so i got this 'easy kind' becuz i couldnt bare the thought of my special memorial roses to him also fying! LOL can you imagine? they are my babies now for sure!

Mary- you are sweet. Thank you. i dont knwo the name of this second iris but it shoudl be something like "take the world over". LOL. I'm sure someone knows the name of it. It is quite pretty isnt it? and it's FREE if you want some..I'm in NJ- where are you?

Gladno1-

well between the dog's bowl of water and the fountain- we go thru a few outfits a day! good thing I love those cute baby summer clothes and have a ton for him to wear anyway. LOL. jsut wait till we buy the baby pool right? LOL

OK- one more question for you all- how often do you feed the roses? i am jsut using miracle grow for them.. is this ok??
Where is Roses 4 ever??! shuold I switch to osmocote like she uses?

I don't have alliums because we had a prolonged drought last fall during planting time. You could dig several feet down and there was no moisture in the soil. We were conserving water from July until March. So, I didn't plant anything last fall since I couldn't water it in.

We've just had a run of triple digit temps and no rain for 10 days. I sure hope we aren't going into another drought. If our weather is okay in the fall, I'm going to plant more Dutch iris, more daffodils and some alliums.

Meanwhile, those poor folks are getting flooded in the middle of our country.

Ohh- I see.. then you'll have alliums soon enough!!! plant them late in fall- nearly winter if you have to!!

In NJ- we always seem to skimp on by everyone's trouble.. we had the heat wave but i got night time storms each night of it.. no drought. and I'm not flooded either..

I like to think i live in a little tiny microcosm that is much like things are supposed to be and were a long time ago. I live in the middle of a wildlife management area.. about 4,000 acres of woods all around us! just this one street juts into it.. so i really feel like our ONE street gets weather like no one else.. we seem to be protected frm drought and such.. knock on wood. Been here 6 years and nothing horrible yet. can living in a heavily wooded area do that- change the weather? I'm no scientist.
Just bears and mountain lions to worry about..and BUGS.. ugh the bugs.( come on- you cant get off scott free right?) haha

It all looks fabulous!

Absolutely fabulous! I love the roses and the irises!

I did send you an e-mail, but it sounds like it didn't get delivered. Write to me at rbickel @ pershing.com

That's my work address so it should get to me. I'd love to see your gardens in person, they're making me drool!

Lovely Iris, gorgeous roses, love your color combinations, what's wrong with yellow and pink I have pink poker like flowers of persicaria flowering throughout one bed with yellow welsh poppies. I love the picture of the little cutie pie at the birdbath, it deserves a frame.
Annette

Very lovely Friend. Love it all. Wonderful color combos.

FlowerLady

Hi again. Got your e-mail and it made me smile. And then, because my brain is apparently non-functional, I forgot to forward it home. So, I will either respond on Monday (answer is yes, your rises are beautiful and I would love some) or rewrite me at a2zmom1 @ yahoo.com and I will answer back this weekend!

(It's not completely my fault - I switched positions at work this week and I am swamped. I left an hour and a half late today and I still have a starting list of 20 things to do on Monday. I am spending the day gardening tomorrow. Housework be damned.)

Friend, I think we should swap out the photo of the painting of the old-fashioned woman in the cottage garden at the top of the start page for the photo of your son at the birdbath! I have no idea how to do that, or who might be able to make such a change.

Lorna

OH LORNA!! I am sooo complimented by that suggestion. and ofcourse open to it! I have no idea how to do that- however- you have my absolute permission to pursue it and let me know if you need anything from me for it..!!

I guess this means it looks cottagey?? Yaaayy!!
what a nice suggestion- thank you.

Very cottagey. You're off to a great start! Love the pic of your sweet munchkin, too. : )

Diana