Flowers and Fool's Gold

Hello my friends!  We have blue skies and sunshine and things are looking lovely around the farm! The roses are blooming, especially this "Double Delight" - my sister Denise's MIL tested roses for Jackson and Perkins and actually got to name this rose!  If you only have one rose, this should be the one.  It's not only beautiful but extremely fragrant!

It's a creamy white and then where the sun shines on the rose it turns a pretty pink.  Gorgeous!

This is a pretty pink and yellow rose.  My son planted them here for us when Kristi took them out of their last house.  We treasure them.

Kristi our DIL trimmed up our black bamboo and now you can see the huge new sprouts that are coming up.

The bamboo is green at first and then slowly turns a beautiful shiny black.  These are substantial canes and I can't wait to see them all black!

This is our Sweet William that comes back each and every year all on it's own.  How delightful is that?

I still love seeing the neon blooms of the Rose Campion.

This begonia is a treasure too.. we got it 2 years ago at Rasmussen Farms - we never expected it to live past that year, but Dayle wintered it over in the basement and now it's growing HUGE with big thick stems.. I just googled it and it's called a "Bolivian Begonia" - also "Bonfire".

This Dahlia continues to delight.

The Jasmine is opening!  I wish I could share the aroma with you!

The other pot.. LOTS of flowers!

The Koi and pond goldfish are enjoying the warmer weather.

We drove past a garden center yesterday and I wheeled in.. I wanted to get some Sweet Peas to plant.. I have admired other blogger's little bouquets of these adorable pastel flowers and wanted to grow my own.  Helen Phillips always has sweet little posies of these blooms and her crafty makes usually involve the same pastels and she's inspired me.  :-)

Dayle and I went to AAA yesterday to get a "TripTik" for our road trip in a month and they had these colorful zip bags and I had to have them.  I plan on taking some of my craft supplies in these on our trip and make one my sewing kit.

Kristi asked if she could trim this bamboo so I gave her the go-ahead -- it sure looks tidy now!  And it gave more light to the Hosta I planted.  She also dug all the weeds in that patch of dirt and laid down weed barrier.  We're going to get pea gravel to cover it and hopefully some big flat rocks to put on top.

The pretty Hosta.. I love all the different varieties of them together.

The Hydrangea is COVERED with flowers.. I'm so pleased!

Here is nature at it's best.. showing us how pretty lime green and purply-lavender look together.

We got a pot of Umbrella Papyrus not long ago and it looks pretty on our koi "house" we built so the koi could hide from predators.

Kristi has purchased a lot of educational and fun things for the boys to do this summer.  Today they got to use a hammer and break open rocks of Pyrite (Fool's Gold) - they were very excited at all the gold they had!  They pronounced that they were very rich, richer than us even.  :-)

Too bad this isn't real gold!

Our first attempt at growing Hollyhock is budding out.. I can't wait to see what color the flowers are.

Pink?  Red?  What color do you think?

Kristi loves unusual plants and is growing these white strawberries that taste like a cross between strawberries and pineapple.  She gave me the first ripe one and it was tasty!

Kristi also shared this great shot she got of this Oregon Swallowtail Butterfly!  It's enjoying the Mock Orange.

OK, I must dash.. I'm meeting Gracie for lunch and then we're swimming together.  I hope you're having a wonderful day!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)