Blooming Inspirations !!!!!

My garden is one of my greatest sources of artistic inspiration. We have had lots of wonderful and much needed rain and the plants are so very happy and blooming like crazy!! i am going to share a whole raft of photos with you for this post. I am busily working on decluttering my studio, (Yes it is STILL going on!!) as I will be participating in an Artist's Yard Sale, tomorrow morning at Liberty Town. This will be a fabulous opportunity to get rid of all sorts of stuff , from fabric to scrapbooking supplies and books that I no longer refer to!! I will be very busy tagging items and loading the car in readiness for a 6:30 am departure tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed that the rain holds off for us till the afternoon.!!!

And now for some inspiration and entertainment, I present my flowers!!

My Hosta's are spectacular this year- 4th year in the ground and the columbine remind me of fairies dancing above the enormous leaves! the columbine were started from seed given to me by my dear friend Rebecca in CT, and I let them come up where ever they choose!

I have never seen this variety of Columbine before and perhaps it came along with some daylillies that my Mother in Law shared with me. I love the crown shape and the delicate blue color.

This variety of Columbine turns it's beautiful heads upwards to see the sun. There seems to be some Bee assisted gene reassortment occurring in my garden!!! LOVE IT!!!

The iris are glorious this year! Many of these plants I carried with us when we moved from Oklahoma. To my surprise and delight, bearded iris flourish in the climate of Oklahoma but the hot winds and dry soil create a very shortend bloom time there. Here where we have more rain and a lack of hot dry wind, the blossoms last much longer!

I wish that you could smell the fragrance of these white ones. They simply sparkle in the sun!

the pink iris are a later blooming variety. I have several plants with many stalks with 5-6 buds per stalk. They are just starting to come on now.

This is one of my garden stepping stones. you can see how much I love Iris, as this was the image that I choose to use for creating my first stained glass stepping stone. I must cut back some of the Creeping Jenny as it is threatening to consume the stone! I do love th look of the hot green ground cover creeping in around the other plants!!

This African Cape Daisy is a new addition to my garden this year. I love the hot orange color with the intense purple eye zone. We will have to wait and see how she does in this climate thru the summer.

Now for my roses. Four years ago when we first moved here, I noticed this poor rose struggling to survive on the East side of our house. It was planted right next to the foundation and got no sun due to the large trees that were shading the entire area. It still managed to put out some beautiful foliage, but I could tell that even that was a struggle. I decided to try to move it and to give it a fighting chance. Either I would kill it, or it would be much happier and might even bloom. I prepared a spot for it on the west side of the house where there were no trees and lots of afternoon sun. I lived thru the transition and bloomed the following summer. i believe that it is a Chrysler Imperial Rose . It is absolutely stunning in form and there are no disease issues- I don't use any spray or insecticide in my garden everything is organic. The fragrance from one blossom will scent an entire room!! This is one of my best rescue victories to date!!!

This rose is named Belinda's Dream and it loves hot and humid climates, is a strong repeat bloomer and has a wonderful fragarance. If you love roses and live in this sort of climate this rose is a must have!!! you can get it from Antique Rose Emporium In Texas- that is where I get all of my roses- yes mail order!!! The roses are OWN ROOT and arrivein beautiful conditon - If they can thrive in Texas, they can grow ANYWHERE!!!

Belinda is simply loaded with buds and she loves chopped up banana peels added to her soil at the roots!

This is a more wild rose that blooms it's fool head off on the west side of the house. She is just getting started!!

Now I must share a beautiful piece of hand dyed vintage fabric that lept into my arms at Artistic Artifacts during my last visit. Judy collects and dyes all of these vintage pieces herself. I am planning on using this wonderful table cloth on many different projects. The first will bea denim shirt that I am going to cover with fabric collage and bead work, with this piece as the focal or inspiration piece. Even though the fabric is torn and some parts are falling off, I will use every bit of it in various projects. this piece will give me so many options for projects!!!! This is just one of hundreds of examles of lovely pieces available from Judy through her Artistic Artifacts web site. Don't leave them all for me to purchase!!!!!

I must be off to price yard sale items!!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Happy Birthday,Mom!!!