Awesome Autumn Asters

Asters are always worth the wait for me. They may not start blooming until the fear of first frost arrises, but when they do- the color is so welcome.

Here are some pictures of the asters blooming in my garden today.

 

Welcome Autumn!

Landscape Inspiration

My oldest son, who is 7, is into gardening, so when I wanted to tour the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum I decided to give my husband a break, and take Benjamin with me. We had a great time. We ate a sack lunch in the hosta glade, and he ran from water feature to water feature scheming all the waterfalls and fountains he'll have in his yard when we grows up. I took a ton of pictures. Shocking, right? I've narrowed them into categories, including landscape inspiration, container gardens, plants I want, and water features. Here's the first batch.

Whether you're looking for a traditional perennial bed, a flaming hot bed of hard working annuals, or ideas for great shaped shrubs, there are lots of ideas here.

Classic combination of russian sage, black eyed susan, and heuchera.

Fantastic hillside anyone could grow with sedum, coneflower, sage, phlox, and joe pye weed.

Reds and pinks...

So special!

I want to know how none of their tall annuals are tipping over? Like magic!

Still lots of contrast and scale to love here.

Like, whoa.

Favorite part of this combination is the grass, surprisingly.

So much to love about this combination... the height of the cannas, the red from the canna flowers matching the red flower so of the salvia.

Now all climbers have to be against a wall. Love this pillar of clematis in a rose garden.

White nicotiana peace pipe with siberian iris, and lavender petunias. Love how the height goes up and down here.

A wisteria arbor with a beautiful white mandevilla, and all white hanging baskets.

This makes me miss my limelight hydrangeas.

Hope you found some awesome inspiration.

My front border in full bloom!

I'm beaming with pride over the way my front border, planted last spring, has responded to my doting. I made sure to prune well, feed on schedule, and pull weed after weed, and the result has been traffic stopping, literally. One lady yelled out the car window! Beside all the positive feedback, my favorite part is seeing the bees and hummingbirds, smelling the roses I've been loving caring for for so long now. Just happy to the core. I don't wanna be weird and pull up a chair in the driveway, but I really don't want to leave the site of it. lol.  Enjoy!

Legoland Plants

Remember the Cecille Bruner roses (from my mom and grandma's garden) I brought in for the Easter table? Here they are. So perfect.

 So, while in California we brought my lego-loving boys to Legoland for the first time. None of us had ever been there, so it was a very fun trip for us. While in line for rides we enjoyed the succulent landscaping and lizards (unable to get a good picture). My son loves cacti and succulents and when he grows up he wants to live somewhere he can plant cacti in the ground. He loved this!

 I thought the way legoland incorporated legos into the landscape was super cool. There are trout made entirely of legos swimming through this water!

And a beaver:

 In the huge area dedicated to full reconstruction of towns I found the use of mini plants simply awesome. Look at these mini trees by the eiffel tower. Cool!

 Look at all these trees in "San Francisco!"

Las Vegas:

 Southern California:

 This farm land was awesome!

In the Star Wars area they used these conifers to create a woodland area. My kids loved this part!

What's more magical than a bunch of aeoniums?

 Or a tunnel of vines?

 Hansel and Gretel's story...

 Or my favorite? A castle topped with so many Cecille Bruner roses the scent just knocked my socks off.

Anyone would have to admit, without the plants, all the lego scenes wouldn't have been nearly as realistic, or cool. So very cool! I hope you enjoyed it!