Spring Comes in all Colors

In my garden Spring is all about flowers...in all colors!

Predominantly my frontyard is composed of three main colors: purple, yellow and orangey-red.

But, an occasional pink flower and definitely some white flowers can be found.

These colors were chosen because of their boldness. You see I have a pretty large frontyard and if the colors weren't bold they'd be barely noticeable from the street.

Purple...orange...yellow - such an eye-pleasing combo to me!

The local garden club in our area surprised me with this. It was very sweet of them to bestow this honor on my hardworking garden. I do the planting and weeding...but the plants create all the beauty!

I've never seen a group of the green grasshoppers...Lubbers, yes. They look like little plastic soldiers all perched on these liriope leaves.

And, this butter yellow dragonfly adds a little more sunshine to the garden.

But what about this fella...brown is not my favorite color in the garden but he is part of the habitat. He is a brown water snake and not a water mocassin...don't you think?

The Island in Summer

A year ago, I wrote about our sunny island bed in the front yard of our new home. Well a lot has changed with that garden bed since then. As we all know, it doesn't take long for plants to mature in our Florida gardens.

One year later the garden bed has just about doubled in size, and all the original as well as the newly added plants have grown substantially.

Here's a view of the left front side of the bed.

And, a view to the right...

The majority of plants are cold-hardy perennials and foliage plants, but I do leave room in the front center of the bed for some colorful annuals...especially in winter. Below clumps of African iris and flax lily are surrounded by lots of red pentas, angelonia, black-eyed susan, coneflower, blanket flowers, and periwinkles.

Blanket flowers take front stage in the the center of this bed. They bloom and look great all 12 months of the year. Behind them is a mix of butterfly-loving perennials.

These coneflowers...planted last year were the first ones I've ever planted. I was delighed to see them return this spring in a slightly thicker clump. You know what that means don't you? Yep, I'm adding more coneflowers to the backside of this bed...the part I see the best from inside the house.

Bush daisies and dwarf heavenly bamboo frame red pentas, white angelonia & blue torenia for a little patriotic red, white & blue action going on for summer.

African bush daisies provide wonderful winter color and are joined by the daylilies which bloom from April through June.

Two roses were added to the bed for year round color. Here's a double knock-out...original color...next to its neighbors...Mexican petunia (sterile variety), Russian sage and purple fountain grass...

And a double pink knock-out sharing space with more African bush daisies on the opposite side.

And, now a couple of views from the backside...

flowering maple, purple fountain grass, Mexican petunia and daylilies.

along with some agastache, milkweed and sweet almond adding a bit of fragrance to the bed.

The sunny island bed is the heart of our front yard and its colorful mixture of flowers work hard in the blazing Florida sun to brighten our day...and hopefully others who pass by.