Round the Garden

Whenever I used to visit my parents at their country home during the growing seasons, I would be invited to "take a walk round the garden".  I'll admit there were many times I'd rather not (especially during blackfly season), but Mom loved to show me her plants and tell me how each of them were doing and how this one had revived etc etc.  Of course now I miss those walks, as Mom passed away two years ago.

 

Last spring my sisters and I had to sell the house in town that my parents lived in for such a brief time.  I really hated that house, but Mom had moved as many plants as she could into her new backyard and we decided to dig them all up and transplant them into our own gardens.  I'm so glad we did.  Now I'll ask you if you'd like to take a walk round the garden with me :) 

This little plant is a surprise.  It's some sort of bluebell flower that I was thrilled to see in Mom's garden, but when I transplanted it last spring it promptly died ... or so I thought!  Here it is back again, and I can see the little tiny blue buds tucked in the green folds at the bottom right.  I love blue flowers, so I was happy to have it back and looking good.

 

Mom's redbud bush is not looking so good, however, with only a few buds along bare branches.  I hope it comes back because she really loved it, and it looked so good all last summer.

 

 

This is a hardy red or black currant bush that Mom had shoved in the ground on a rather shady side of the house.  I found it by accident, and couldn't leave it there to die, so it came home with me too.  I really hope it's a currant bush and not a gooseberry bush.  Mom gave me a gooseberry bush a few years ago (but she thought it was black currant as she knew I loved black currant jam).  But when it finally produced some berries I was so disappointed that they were gooseberries (yuck).

 

 

Mom had beautiful huge iris gardens running alongside their very long driveway for many, many years.  She took into town what she could, and I took from her house what I could, and they all seem to have come back this spring.  Not one of them flowered last year, so I hope they do better this year.  I may not have them in the best location as they get too much shade here later in the summer, but I'll see what I can sort out for them as I really love them.

 

 

And this little plant is called a Lenten Rose (although I wonder if it's technically a heliotrope).  I gave it to Mom a long time ago and she had it planted in her woodland garden just at the edge of their woods.  She would always remark to me when it had flowered as it was one of the first flowers of spring.  Now I have it in my backyard and it seems to be happy where it is since it came back after such a long hard winter.

 

 

And of course there are the lilac bushes, which were a perennial favourite.  I'm not sure which colour this lilac is, but I brought two back from her place and I know they were originally from the country home, so they mean a lot to me.

 

 

Today we had such a warm day ... close to summertime weather!  I'm relieved that most of the plants I brought back from Mom's place have made it through the winter, and a few more days like today may just bring them right back into bloom which would make me so very, very happy!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy