New flowers

Every year we succumb to buying these gorgeous hydrangeas and every year they are unsuccessful!  Any tips?  Are these just doomed in the hot Texas weather?

Around the garden this May

Our hydrangeas are doing well!

 Snap peas in the garden

The cucumbers have some catching up to do

Cherry tomatoes almost ripe enough to pick!

Flowers of the month: July

Fresh white hydrangeas from J look so lovely this month.  In contrast I am wilting from this heat!

We added another little picture to the nook.  This time it's a print by Leah Duncan that I got from the Dallas Flea last month.

Flowers of the month: June

For this month's flowers I decided to head down to Austin Flower Co. to see what they had in store.  I had previously ordered my wedding flowers from them and really love the different varieties and quality of flowers that they offer.

They have a little cold room in back with all the flowers and I was in absolute heaven! (1.  b/c it was hotter than hot outside and 2. flowers!  lots of flowers!)


It was difficult to choose from among all these gorgeous varieties!

Hydrangeas of every color:

My favorite ranunculus:

Huge peonies:

Icelandic poppies:

And I didn't get the name of these but they're so lovely in a wildflower sort of way

So what did I come home with?

PEONIES of course! 

They're a different variety than the kind I usually get--I think they might be Coral Charms.  The petals are heavy and succulent and after I cut and arranged them in a vaseful of water, they started opening almost immediately to reveal their bright yellow centers.

April showers bring May flowers

Remember when we planted these hydrangea bushes about a month ago?  One of them has started to flower and these gorgeous white hydrangeas are now blooming!

March showers bring April flowers

We've had a rainy and cool spring so far and B and I have been hard at work gardening various portions of our front and back yard.  It's exciting to plan and plant flowers and know that we'll (hopefully) see them year after year.

Since this is our first spring in our new house, we were pleasantly surprised to inherit some really lovely flowers.  We spotted several sword shaped leaves arranged in a fan shape sprouting in a garden bed in the back yard and soon found these gorgeous irises--in yellow, purple and white.  We've seen several around the neighborhood too and wonder how long everyone's had them in their gardens.

We also have this great rose bush that is flowering like crazy near the back gate.

Last weekend was spent clearing out and replanting one of the front flowerbeds with some Geraniums and Knockout Roses.  Hopefully they'll grow well and flower even more throughout the year.

And we also found a nice shady spot with just enough morning sun to try our hand at some hydrangea bushes.  If we have a good year or two we might just try our hand at my favorite peonies next!

Flowers of the month: February

I was in charge of this month's flowers and chose hydrangeas, this time in a lovely antique purple. I love them b/c the blossoms make a big impact and there's not really much arranging to be done!

A tip on prolonging the life of your hydrangeas (so they do not wilt as quickly or this method can also be used to revive wilted blossoms):

1. Fill a vase with room temperature water
2. Heat up some water close to boiling in the microwave in a separate glass or bowl
   
3. When cutting the hydrangeas, figure out how tall you want them to be in your vase, then snip them with kitchen shears, always right before a nub on its stem
4. Place the newly cut stem in the hot water for 20-30 seconds
5. Then put them in the vase with room temp water
6. Enjoy! Mine have lasted close to two weeks with this method.