Thursday Thirteen - 223 - 13 Views of the Garden 2011

1 - Biggest garden thrill this year: I planted two lilac bushes several years ago, and this year one of them bloomed. When I first saw the buds early in the spring, it was like spotting-my-teenage-heartthrob time.

(That would be Les McKeown, from the Bay City Rollers, in case you didn't already know that.)













2 - The next big thing for us was the emergence of our daffodils. I'd planted these a few autumns ago, but they'd never turned up the following spring. Mom and I chalked it up to raiding squirrels and left it at that.

Suddenly, this spring - voila. Daffodil.













3 - Forsythia and tulips in the front rock garden.






















4 - Kolkwitzia, a flowering shrub we planted in the backyard beside the deck






















5 - Pink clematis in the backyard, a gift from my sister, and dark blue clematis in the front yard, which came with the house













6 - Lady's mantle, which just appeared all on its own













7 - Angelica, which I planted outside the backdoor































8 - The Monster Rose Bush, otherwise known as an American Pillar rambler rose along the side of the house (which I grew from cuttings,) a delicate Rugosa rose which my sister and got from the side of the road by Grand Pré in the Annapolis Valley (in the front rock garden,) and the Aunt Sheila Rose, also known as a Subzero Brownell rose.






















9 - My mom's container gardens, featuring some gorgeous purple lobelia and her favorite, pansies






















10 - Orange lilies, originally from my husband's great-grandmother's Ontario garden, daylilies in the front garden and heritage lilies at the backdoor which I got at a farm museum plant sale.

















11 - Hostas in the back woodland garden













12 - Wild asters near the rugosa rose bush













13 - Balsam near the back door, at the edge of the woodland garden