Spring is Finally Here!

Spring is finally here, and it reminds me every year that it's worth waiting for! This was an extremely long Winter, especially for California. With most of the Big rains behind us now, the Sun is shining. Yippee! I took my walkabout this morning and here's what I found! It may not look like much to you, but I know with a cold winter and lots of rain good things are happening in the Garden! This is when I went in and grabbed my camera!


A Beautiful volunteer of Sweetpeas up amongst the Grape vines really surprised me this morning. While the late planting of Sweet Peas are just barely above the soil.

Big Bearded Iris are beginning to burst!

Up in the Terraced Garden the Shrub Roses are beginning to really leaf out. Sweet pink blossoms are not far away!

Forget me Nots?

I haven't seen them in a few years! Now I know where the name come from!

Another round of Daffodils. Chubby blooms of Cheerfulness, a highly fragrant variety!

All the bees are happy. Buzzing around the Lavender in Full bloom!

The soft dewey leaves of Lambs Ears! This soft gray green leaf is just lovely combined with delicate English Roses.

Feverfew. I could never have enough. Be careful what you wish for.... It's coming up everywhere!

Here she goes! Just waitng for a stalk of Artichokes to rise up! Do we eat them or just watch them bloom?

A row of teeny tiny Alpine Strawberries never cease to amaze me. There is more sweetness and flavor in this little gem than a basket full of huge Berries from the market. A little treat for me in the garden.

This snowy white Camellia opening after the Rains. So worried I had lost them all.

A hardy shade Perennial, Hellebore, and such a great cutting flower.

Dainty Coral bells in a shady garden.

I love this Perennial Ranunculu. A yummy yellow, with more volunteers popping up all over my garden every year.


Hundreds of tiny Snowballs forming on the Viburnum bushes. This is going to be quite the show this year!
Big mound of Alstromeria. I love this particular one for it's variegated leaf. One of my favorite flowers to cut. Actually you just pull them right up out of the earth by the stem!


This is the first Iceberg Rose to bloom. I can hardly wait, there's so much more to come! Lilacs and Columbine and... Hundreds of roses! Oh My, I better get to gardening! Bye!

It's been A while...

It's been a while since my last post! The holidays at the shop were hectic and then it was off to Atlanta in January for the gift show. I returned home with a severe case of Bronchitis, which took me several weeks before I began to feel like myself again. That was then and this is now. What I have been hearing from so many people is that they are all feeling so overwhelmed! Well you're not alone... So am I!



One week ago this was the view outside my kitchen window... Don't I live in Southern California? It is just a few days until March 1st. and it was snowing madly!




Looking out, I realized I had so much to do in the garden and now this! With over 100 roses to prune and plenty of perennials that needed my attention I was feeling extremely overwhelmed. I'll never get it all done and surely Spring is on the way, Right?




Looking at the Big picture , whether it's your home, garden or business will drive you crazy! Thinking about this I decided to just look at one tiny snippet of my garden and what could I actually accomplish today! This is my favorite view to wake up to every morning so this is where I began.



Just pruning a few roses, cultivating the soil, adding a little compost and fertilizer, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. Because it's what's below the soil that you can't see that will be so rewarding in just a short time. Spring is coming! The Daffodils are beginning to emerge, along with so many perennials. The English roses will be blooming before I know it.




Tomorrow I will begin again in another area of my garden. With time and persistence, a trowel in one hand and clippers in the other, I will eventually be able to look at the Big Picture and say I did It!