Author: Pam

New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting. Work for Zazzle as a designer since 2008.

Shop For Hydrangea Plants Now

Buy your potted hydrangea plants soon. The nursery will have a large selection of hydrangeas, along with other plants, as Mother’s Day is on the horizon. Many people forego the gift of expensive cut flowers for something that will last much longer. Moms who garden may appreciate a new perennial for the yard. (Offer to plant it for her too!)

hydangeas in pots
Newly purchased hydrangeas in pots

Flower shops will have blooming plants or cut flowers, but nurseries will have shrubs to be planted with flowers appearing later on this summer.  Planting them now will get them ready to bloom soon.  Even small plants usually will have blooms the year they are planted.

We’ve had such a cold April that it’s been a little difficult to believe it really is Spring. Of course it’s still too cold to plant most things outdoors, but I’m almost ready to buy seedlings and set up my little deck green house. I won’t be purchasing anything big to add to the yard this year. The deer have eaten all my rhododendrons, and any new hydrangeas I put it will be propagated from the old ones. I will be concentrating on growing as many vegetables as I can.  I bought a new raised bed made of black fabric and can’t wait to get some dirt to put into it.  Then the soil can warm up and be ready for planting by the end of the month.

The hydrangeas in the picture above were some I bought in Spring of 2012.  Last year they looked wonderful – the flowers in the bouquet below all came from my yard last year (2013).   And I hope that this year they will be even bigger and better.

white, pink, blue hydrangeas vase
Hydrangea cuttings in a vase

Endless Summer Goes From Blue to Lavender, Pink or Green

Color changes in the hydrangea flower as the season progresses brings green, pink and blue blooms.

This page is about growing hydrangeas in my New England yard. The soil is naturally acidic and it is not difficult to grown blue flowering hydrangeas. However, as the season progresses, those blue flowers turn into pinks and greens and even unique blue colors.

lavender hydrangea flower
This flower went from blue to lavender

My beautiful blue Endless Summer hydrangea flower turned to light lavender as last season progressed. Sometimes the blues turn pink, or even green. It’s what makes growing hydrangeas so exciting, the fact that flowers will start out one color and turn to something completely different.

I love this gorgeous light purple flower. The newly planted shrub is not very large and last year it had only about 5 or 6 blooms. The heavy weight of the flowers on the smaller stems weighed them down, but each year the plant will do better.

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Endless Summer that has turned light green in Fall

Right now it’s too early to see much happening with my hydrangea bushes. I keep coming across pictures I took last summer and fall, so I’ll have to share those for the time being.

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A blue flower drying on the stem in Autumn turns all kinds of gorgeous colors

I won’t be buying any more new plants, as I am currently on a very tight budget, but I plan to propagate hydrangeas from the plants I already have.

Propagating from the endless summer and mop-head varieties is easy, but it takes time and some planning.  Some people start plants from cuttings, but I have not had luck with that.

Another flowering hydrangea in my yard is fun to watch. The Pink Winky has elongated flowers that turn from white to pink. It is a gorgeous bush.

Keep Reading

My newer blog posts are about gardening in my Florida backyard.

Good Bye Winter – Pictures of Snow

snow winter
Late Winter Snow

In this post I am saying good-bye to winter. Here in the northeast we had a cold winter with plenty of snow, and as usually happens we got a coating of snow in April. The light-post picture here was taken February 14th, 2014 and the image below was taken April 16th.

Whenever Spring arrives I hear everyone say how awful the past winter was. It doesn’t seem to matter what the winter was really like, it was always “the worst”. I don’t think we got as much snow this year as last year. And it was cold, that’s true, but it’s winter in New England! Shouldn’t it be cold? There were no power outages where I live due to nor easter’s, which I would consider to be bad. I think the middle of the country got it a lot worse in places, so I am thankful for the winter we had.

Oh well, next we’ll have a horribly hot summer according to “them”. Even if it’s just normal with some hot days, many people will be dramatic and think it was just awful too. Why complain? We choose to live here and part of the reason is the beautiful area and nice, yes nice, weather.

After living in central Florida for 27 years, I think the changes in seasons are nice. I expect snow and cold in winter – imagine! I have to shovel and lug wood myself all winter and I have to cut my own grass, stack wood, and tend my own gardens in summer. I don’t have it exceptionally easy, but I enjoy the different seasons which bring different needs. And I’m always thankful for a body that lets me do it! You want to see bad weather? Live in Florida!

I plan to write about hydrangeas and other flowers very soon!

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April Snowfall

Pictures of the Lenton Rose

The unique lenton rose flower will poke out of the snow in early spring.

This is a photo blog post showing some images of the two Lenton rose (hellebore) plants growing in my yard. This is a new plant for me to grow, but I love the fact that the buds form and flowers bloom in mid-April. Sometimes there is still snow on the ground!

It’s a pleasant thing to find flowers blooming after a long, cold winter.

Hellebore Flowers are Unique

Besides blooming early in Spring before most other perennials, the flowers of the Lentos Rose are unique.

Flower colors can be pink, beige, white, light green or spotted. The flowers will stay on the plant and turn color too.

lenton rose spring buds
blooming lenton rose
lenton rose

Early blooming hellebores can bloom before daffodils and tulips!

single lenton rose flower
lenton rose green flowers

The flower is unique and comes in a variety of colors.  The light green flower is coveted by brides for their wedding bouquets.  Finding green flowers in nature is always a treat, but the light pink and spotted varieties are stunning as well.

This is one plant that I would like to have more of in my garden. This perennial is easy to grow and blooms profusely. As you can see, the leaves are nice and green even after being covered in snow all winter!   After the flowering stops, the green leaves continue to grow all summer and add interest to the landscape.

I’ll keep my eyes open for other varieties when I visit the local nursery this year.

Tulips in Spring Snow

tulips in snow
Spring Snow

April has been a pretty cold month for us in the northeast. It seems like it’s unseasonably cold, with just a few really nice days so far. Plants are pushing up through the ground even though we had a few inches of snow about a week ago.
I got this photo of my tulips that were growing nicely when they suddenly had to endure a coating of the white stuff. The heavy snow in this late snowfall clung to the trees and made for some opportunities for good pictures. I went outside early that morning to get some local photos before the wind and warm sun removed the snow from the tree branches. I really didn’t need to hurry as the day never warmed up all that much and there were snow patches left the next day as well.
The lenton roses are blooming as they do in the early Spring, but so far not much else is providing color other than green.
It’s a good time of year to clean up the beds, before the black flies show up. So I cleared the back garden of stray blackberry briers that constantly try to invade my tiny garden space. And I removed the leaves that have been covering the dirt.
Next I will order some garden loam to fill my fabric beds and get them ready for planting in about a month. I just hope the weather will eventually get nice and warm, and I suppose it will.

Raised Garden Bed – Getting Ready to Plant

raised garden bed
Simple Raised Bed of Cinder-Blocks

At last our snow is gone. It could snow again, but it won’t last if it does. We can seriously begin thinking about our gardens now in New Hampshire.

Last year I dragged these cement blocks up from the side of the house and created a raised bed. I ordered dirt from Agway and wheel-barrowed it over to fill the area. I had tomatoes and a zucchini plant in it and they did great.

I will have to begin thinking about what I want to grow and where I’ll plant it. Except for cold weather crops, like lettuce, parsley and peas, I won’t be able to plant until the end of May.

I added Bone Meal to the dirt in this raised bed, but I still need to order a new batch of good dirt too. Finances are a bit tight, and I won’t be buying hanging planters and such to beautify my yard, but certain things I must have to grow some (hopefully) good crops. I garden to eat healthy and save money. And I also enjoy it.

I got outside the other day, when the weather was nice, and took some photos of what is coming up in the yard. I’ll share once I get them off the camera and into an organized group for my blogs.