Vintage Bottles

On our limited budget, collectables and antiques have to be purchased for a song. Old bottles, which can be had for as little as a quarter meet that criteria.  In little groupings, old bottles make pretty vases for spring flowers.

For these photographs, I started with Kim Klassen's Warm Sun texture. I color-adjusted  Warm Sun into both a blue and grey version of the original. I layered them on the image (soft light) and removed the texture from some of the areas of the picture. 

Click the link here to see the other entries in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesdays.

Color Essay Number 12: Singing the Blues

A shop in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia painted a warm shade of blue 

and yes, it was in the middle of nowhere.

You may not favor blue, but is there anyone out there who actually dislikes the color blue? If anything, I think most gardeners wish there were more blue flower options. 

This is a good time of year to be talking about the color blue, because in my spring garden, blue makes its strongest statement. 

Without further delay, here are some of great blues, both in my garden, and elsewhere as noted.

Virginia Blue Bells in early spring

Robin's eggs in a nest

Lungwort, Pulmonaria is amongst the first blue flowers to bloom in my garden. After the flowers are finished, the plant has great spotted leaves.

Speedwell, Veronica filformis is an excellent ground cover that doesn't mind the part shade of my back garden. The plant has a tight, low mass of bright green leaves and blue flowers in May and June.

Bugleweed, Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow' at Lost Horizons Nursery, Acton Ontario

 A close-up of the flower: Bugleweed, Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow'. There are lots of varieties of bugleweed (Chocolate Chip is a favourite). The plant can get a bit invasive, so choose its location carefully (preferably a spot where it can only go so far).

Another ground cover that I noticed recently at Humber Nursery is Veronica whitleyi. It has grey green foliage and baby-blue flowers in May and June.

A close-up of one of my bearded irises.

If you want more blue in your garden, definitely consider irises!

A favorite bearded iris that straddles the dividing line between blue and purple.

I now have a few varieties of Siberian Iris. The variety shown above was here on the property when we moved in. I find the flowers a bit small to be honest. I actually prefer some of the newer varieties that I have recently added.

This is 'Maynight' Sage. It likes sun, blooms June to August, and tolerates dry soil. I actually prefer Meadow Sage Salvia Nemerosa 'Caradonna', because it has purplish stems and a deeper, more purple flower. (Unfortunately, I didn't have a picture of this second variety.) I find if you deadhead this plant, you will get a second show of flowers.

Fireworks onion, 'Allium pulchellum' at the Lucy Maud Montgomery Garden, Norval, Ontario

Before we go to much further into the summer season, lets pause to consider some blue-colored annuals.

'Heavenly blue' Morning glory. I find that you need to have just the right spot for morning glories. They like morning sun only. They wilt and look very pathetic, if they are left to cook in the afternoon sun.

Though common, I think Salvia, 'Victoria Blue' (Salvia farinacea) deserves a quick mention

 in this blue post. Massed, it made a nice, late-season statement in this public park in Brampton, ON.

'Summer Skies' a pretty blue variety of 'Pacific Giant' delphinium.

Russian Sage, Perovskia, 'P. Atriplicifoia' is a plant that I have been struggling with. It likes a hot, dry, sunny spot- which I don't have, and hates good garden soil and lots of water--which I do have. Unless you provide it with good drainage, it will disappear over winter. I am not willing to give up just yet, because the plant is a beauty in the mid-summer garden. Larger varieties are huge at 24-36" tall, but there is also a more compact variety as well. This is the Garnet Garden in Oakville, Ontario. They have a spectacular view of the lake.

Sea Holly, Eryngium like lots of sun and light, sandy loam. They tolerate drought and hate to be moved      (case in point- I lost mine and now have to shop for a new plant). The one pictured here is from the Garnet garden in Oakville, Ontario.

Globe Thistle is a bee magnet. They grow about 2-5 feet in height and have grey-green, spiny-edged leaves. Mine puts up with half shade, but would much prefer full sun. Another good feature of this plant is that they are drought resistant.

Just a quick reminder that not everything blue in a garden is always floral.

A blue Rose of Sharon in the late summer. Private garden, Georgetown, Ontario.

I couldn't leave out Asters. 

I apologize- I am not sure of the name of this shrub--I believe it is called Caryopteris of Bluebeard or Blue Spirea. Here in Ontario it is only winter hardy with lots of protection. I only have managed to keep them for a few years and then they perish in a harsh winter. They are pretty little shrubs though and bring blue into the garden late in the summer. This one was shot at Edwards Garden in Toronto.

Here it is in a flower border at Edwards Gardens, Toronto.

Juniper berries carry the color blue into the winter season.

I think many gardeners wish there were more types of blue flowers. Nurseries sometimes answer this demand by dying white flowers blue. Here is a blue poinsettia, by way of example. What do you think? Is this poinsettia carrying our love of the color blue a bit too far?

Here's hoping for a few days of warm spring weather, so we can all get out there and garden. Have a wonderful weekend!

Garden Gnomes: Cute or Tacky?

A recent trip to the garden center has got me thinking about garden ornaments in 

general, and garden gnomes in particular.

Classical statues.....

Christian Saints, Buddha's...

wood sprites, leprechauns, and fairies...

animals...

birdhouses... what isn't available to decorate your garden? But it begs the question: Are garden ornaments tasteful additions to the garden or something to be avoided? 

Should garden ornaments be divided into categories: good, the bad and the ugly?  And what defines the line between tacky verses a tasteful?

My mother, who taught me about gardening, was a purist. In her mind, the only thing that belonged in a garden was nature. Maybe because, as an artist, I appreciate creativity and personal expression, I tend to have a far more open attitude toward garden ornamentation.

I sometimes find that public gardens, which make limited use of decoration, to be as impersonal as a hotel room. On the other hand, I absolutely recognize that opening the floor to a full range of self-expression does not always generate results that are going to be pleasing to everyone. Beauty is, after all in, the eye of the beholder. To drive this point home, just think of the defiant homeowner who paints a typically neutral garage door a bright shade of orange or puts a family of plastic deer on the front lawn. It is self-expression that can leave the rest of us wincing!

Let's go back to my question about the line between tasteful and tacky. I don't know about you, but I tend to think that the most aesthetically pleasing garden ornaments are made with natural looking materials like wood, plaster, concrete or stone. They do not seem to be out of step with their natural surroundings and compliment the landscape best.

The garden center, with its shelves lined with row upon row of brightly colored, plastic-looking garden gnomes, is obviously counting on the fact that not everyone would agree with me.

The recent release of the animated movie, Gnomeo and Juliet has given the humble garden gnome the shiny new luster of fashionability. ( If you haven't seen the movie, and I must confess I haven't, the movie mixes a cornucopia of musical numbers and 3-D animation into a play on the tragic Shakespearean love story of Romeo and Juliet.)

Are garden gnomes now so "out" that they are now "in"? 

Do these cute, plastic figures deserve more of a place in the garden this coming summer, as the well-stocked shelves of gnomes at the garden center suggest?

In the end, I think it comes down to a matter of what you are trying to accomplish. 

To illustrate this point, I can think of a front yard we occasionally pass on the road north of our home here in Huttonville. This particular homeowner has a sizable collection of realistic, but plastic Canadian geese. Depending on the time of year, he sets his flock up to tell a whimsical story. For instance, at the beginning of the school year, the geese can be seen seated in such a way as to mimic a school classroom. Humorous? Yes. Tasteful? Not really, but then, I don't think that "good taste" was ever the intention.

It's your turn to weigh-in on garden gnomes. Are they cute or just plain tacky?

Tea Cup Challenge

Today, I am also participating in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesdays. Her teacup challenge seemed to be not only another great excuse to play around with textures in Photoshop, but also an opportunity to try my hand at shooting some food. It didn't go perfectly--the whipped cream got a bit globby and the sun wasn't co-operating at all--but, it was a good learning experience.

When it came to playing with the textural overlays, I found they were fighting the light, bright picture. I ended up creating a black and white version of Kim's Warm Sun texture. (The warm beige cast of original texture was clashing with the cool pinks in the photograph. The texture seemed to work better when I made it color neutral). In some foreground areas, I removed the texture altogether (with a soft brush). 

 Click the link here to see the other entries in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesdays.