Here are some images I took this morning around the house - Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013

While at the garden center today, I picked up a second rose bush.  This is a Floribunda called Passionate Kisses.  It will be pink.  I love pink and yellow roses.  They remind me of birthday cake.  I can't wait until this blooms.

These are my new Foxgloves.  I saw some Friday evening but didn't get them.  Of course I actually spent the entire night dreaming about them.  Then, on my way home from the Huntington, I somehow found my car heading in the direction of the garden center.  Well, before I knew it, these Foxgloves ended up going home with me.  Now they are in my yard.  I don't think they are leaving anytime soon, so I guess they will have to stay.

  

I'm lucky to live so close to the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino.  I'm a member so I usually go before it opens to the public when it's not busy.  It's so peaceful and quiet in the early mornings.  But today, since I was off, I decided to stop by knowing I probably wouldn't stay very long.  The holiday weekends are always very crowded and I like to go to the gardens to walk or to photograph when it's quiet.  The best time for that is to go is during the week, especially during winter.  I have been there many times, even in the rain, when I could walk and be alone.  As suspected, today it was very busy.  I  did take a few shots of some of some flowers in the short time I was there.

One of my favorite parts of the Huntington is their herb garden.  This is how it looked today.  It's so inspiring and if I had the space I would want to have a huge herb garden of my own.

I had the day off today so I took a walk around the garden with my coffee like I usually do to see what was up.  The Angel Trumpet that I potted is looking good and growing.

The Azalea is a lovely shade of fluffy pink and making tons of flowers.

This is one of my miniature roses.  They are so adorable.  I have them right outside the window of my desk so I can enjoy them.

On the other side of the window is my flower box which is filled with Petunias and Pansies.  They are blooming like crazy right now.  I've always been a little awkward with planting in the window box, but I just read an article in Small Gardens about how to create a nice design, so when it's time to refresh the box again I have some new ideas. 

Since tonight is a Full Moon, I thought it would be a good time to post photos of my Moon Garden.  I created it last month for February's Snow Moon.  It looked stunning in the moonlight and the weekend I first planted it, I kept waking up and going to the window waiting for the moon to shine directly down on it (The moon doesn't hit the front of the house until after 2 am.)  When it did, it made the flowers glow in white and blue hues.  I got a lot of enjoyment out of this garden.  It consists of:  Calla Lily, Candytuft, Dusty Miller, Alyssum, Hydrangea, Geranium, Impatiens and Azalea.  

I bought my first Rose today!  It's called Sugar Moon.  I had to get it.  It was the last one and it has "Moon" in the name.  I'm very excited.  Now I need to learn all about roses.  The garden center I went to was called Armstrong.  What a great place!  The plants are so healthy and there is a huge selection.  I think I will be visiting there quite often.  (Maybe for more roses!)

The orchids are opening up.

He really knows how to enjoy an afternoon

This is the Indian Hawthorn photographed on March 15th.  This weekend it was in full bloom and attracting lots of bees.  I love bees.  I wish I could be a backyard bee keeper.  The raw honey is so delicious. 

So the entire week I obsessed about the side garden.  It was driving me crazy.  I was happy with what I did last weekend to the flower garden in the center and the two raised beds, but the sides were making me insane.  I have such limited space and there is an ugly gas meter on one side.  What you see here is pretty much all the space I have on the side of the house to work with.  Maybe it's for the best, otherwise I'd be broke every week spending all my money on plants and flowers.  Anyway... I woke up at 5:30 am and of course, my mind started racing about what to do.  At this point I could have laid there for 2 more hours until I fell asleep again or get up.  I decided to get up and pay a visit to the Garden Center at 6 am.  Mornings are so beautiful in Pasadena anyway.  So here's what I did today...

Lilies, Geranium, Marigold, Zinnia, Wallflower and Alyssum

Azalea, Philodendron, Coleus, Lily, Gardenia

The center flower garden

The left side of the bed

Calla Lily

My Hydrangea and an Autumn Fern

Coleus

Miniature Roses and a Martha Washington Geranium along with my beautiful cat chimes

My gorgeous Azalea

When I started researching Moon Gardens, I became obsessed with Moonflower.  I planted a few seeds this past weekend (March 17th) in the hopes they will germinate and I can plant them in the soil around the house.  I had a pack of seeds in February that I planted in a pot but they didn’t seem to do very well so I decided to try again since the weather is warmer.  I’m hoping these do better.  I also put a few seeds in the soil just off to the left of the steps of our porch.  I guess I will wait and see what happens.

I was so happy when I got home Monday evening to find my shipment from Burgess Seed and Plant!  In February, when I was planning my Moon Garden, I ordered two white Angel Trumpet plants and a White Hydrangea.  This is the first time I’ve ever mail ordered live plants.  They came neatly packaged with cardboard and plastic wrapped around their roots.  It was about 7:30 by this time, and the sun had already gone down, but I had to plant them right away.  It was kind of funny because I was starting dinner and stopped for a moment to see what the package was.  I thought it was something else I’d ordered, but the minute I discovered it was my plants I basically dropped everything, turned over the kitchen responsibilities to my boyfriend, and ran outside with my new plants.  Luckily, he understands me so he was happy to take over.  All day at work I was so tired.  Ever since the time change I’ve been exhausted in the evenings.  But the second those plants arrived I was wide awake and out there with my soil and shovel.  I hope these guys will grow and make beautiful flowers.

This past weekend I planted my Tomatoes (Early Girl, Celebrity, Cherry) and two Green Bell Pepper plants.  In the small bed I added more herbs.  I already had two Rosemary herbs growing there. (Over the winter I was using them to make homemade Rosemary bread.)  I’ve now added Basil and Cilantro to the bed, but it’s still very shady on the North side of the house so I hope they do okay.  As we move into Summer, the sun will eventually shift.

This is my orchid.  I received it as a gift last year in April.  I don’t know anything about orchids, but I kept it around and put it outside and continued to water it all year even after the blooms were gone.  This is what it looks like today.  It’s starting to bloom again.

Ranunculus and Osteospermum in my front porch container garden.