Hydrangea ‘Limelight’ Fall of 2012

In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a
fine October, when the trees are bare to the mild heavens, and the red leaves
bestrew the road, and you can feel the breath of winter, morning and evening—no
days so calm, so tenderly solemn, and with such a reverent meekness in the air.
~Alexander Smith

I’ve been MIA for sometime now from the blogasphere.  In the meantime a whole season in the garden has come and gone.  Fall has arrived and there is lots to do to prepare for the winter.  I have  bulbs to plant, cleanup to do in the perennial beds, transplanting, weeding, making new beds and storing my garden decor in the shed.  Then it will be time for a nice break where I can hibernate indoors with a good book, a cup of cocoa and dreams of next Spring.  In the meantime I am always on Facebook. 

Yellow False Indigo, Shooting Star, Tennessee Coneflower, Dwarf Crested Iris, Copper Iris, Blue Vervain and Culver's Root

I went to the Spring Native Plant Sale at the Virginia Living Museum this morning.  It coincided with their Earth Day Activities so it was pretty busy.  I’ve never seen so many people shopping for plants in all the years I’ve been attending.  There was a line to checkout and everyone had their hands full of goodies.  Initially I just intended to just browse and see what they had but of course I couldn’t leave empty handed.    My favorite  has to be the Copper Iris or Iris fulva.  It needs a wet site, but I’m willing to make a small water garden to have this beauty in my garden.  Here’s a picture of it blooming below that I found at the US Forest Service:

Iris fulva or Copper Iris (photo courtesy of http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/iris/louisiana/iris_fulva.shtml)

(From upper L-R across & down: Noid yellow Bearded Iris, Allium neapolitanum, Allium 'Pink Jewel', Clematis 'Nelly Moser', Noid purple Dutch Iris, English Bluebells, Rosa 'Morning Magic', Narcissus 'Delnashaugh' and Noid Dwarf Bearded Irises)

This month has been all about the blooms so far.  There is something new to discover each day in my garden.  I just love Spring, it’s my favorite season.  Afterall everything is new and fresh again, what’s not to love? I’ve also been quite busy this season preparing new beds, mulching, completing overdue projects and weeding.  There is always something to do in the garden in the spring.  I’m trying really hard to sit back and enjoy it without finding something that needs to be tweaked, pulled or deadheaded.  That’s the hard part. I haven’t been the best blogger this year, but I’m always available on facebook as most of you know.  Hope everyone is having a great week so far in or out of the garden.