Of all the gardens surrounding the house, I can safely say that the "Cottage Garden" is my favorite. Not only is it chock full of interesting plants, none of which are very needy, but I can see the entire thing from one of the office windows. I took a few shots over the weekend to update you on how it's doing.
The tulips have come and gone, but the poppies are about to arrive:
I love them for so many reasons: they self-seed, they have the most amazing colors and papery petals, and the foliage is really neat. It's too bad they bloom for such a short time, but in my book they're completely worth it. They are also incredibly popular in art-especially paintings. Van Gogh, Monet, O'Keefe, you name the painter, they probably have a poppy painting lying around.
Another of my favorites is the lupine. Here's one of mine, almost in full bloom:
Others are lagging behind by a week or so. Again, these spread themselves, and have perhaps the most attractive foliage of any flowering plant. It almost doesn't matter whether they flower. It's great that they do, however, since they add a such a unique shape to the mixed flower garden.
A recent favorite of mine is the Columbine. Perhaps I came to love it while living in Colorado for a few years (I even worked at a Columbine Bakery!) but I have come to appreciate its very unusual flower shape and I hope to have more.
There are some fabulous hostas in the corner, which you already know I love for their infinite shades of green.
Coneflowers are still small at this point, but once they're in full swing they reach up to 3 1/2-4 feet in height. These little guys are awesome year-round. The green leaves are nice enough while nothing much is happening in early spring, the flowers are just perfection to me, they attract all kinds of birds and butterflies, and I like to leave them with seedheads intact for winter interest and bird snacks.
I've also got some day-lilies, courtesy of my Mom, and I can't wait for them to grow up so I can show them to you.
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