Spring Flowers

In addition to spring bouquets (see my last post), I also took several photos recently of the flowers naturally growing in my yard. My tulips were back this year, as well as the bush and tree blossoms in my back yard. I also found some lovely wild violets growing in the grass, so I snapped some pics of those, too!

All of these photos were taken in May. I planted my tulip bulbs in fall 2017, so last year (spring 2018) was the first time I saw them. They were mostly striped hybrids last year, red and yellow both on the same flowers. This year when they regrew there were solid red and solid yellow tulips instead! So interesting! :)

Spring Bouquets

I'm several months behind on posting flower photos on here, so today I wanted to take the opportunity to finally share some photos I took of spring bouquets I received in April.

One bouquet was from my husband, as a surprise pick-me-up when we were approaching the due date my miscarried pregnancy would have had (April 19) if it had gone to term. Two other bouquets were gifted to me by my parents and my uncle on Easter, when I hosted my family for Easter dinner at my house.

All were beautiful spring flowers, and lovely colorful bouquets, which I loved taking photos of! Here are some of my favorite photos:

Matthaei Botanical Gardens Conservatory - Succulents

As I mentioned in my last post, I visited the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor in early April. Nothing was yet growing outside, but the conservatory had plenty of interesting plants to look at, especially in the succulent room. There were so many bizarre cacti and other spiky plants, many of which were in flower at the time. Here are some of my favorite photos, below:

Matthaei Botanical Gardens Conservatory - Tropical Plants

I recently visited the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor. It was early April, so there was nothing yet growing outside - but there were some lovely tropical plants and some interesting cacti and succulents in the Conservatory (the green house), which I took several photos of. For today's post, I'll show some of my favorite tropical plant photos. (Check back soon for a second post of succulent photos.)

Spring & Summer Landscape Photos

These photos were all taken in May-July in my front and side yards.

I planted a few dozen hybrid tulips in the fall, imagining our front yard bursting with color in the spring. They bloomed late and then didn't stick around long (I didn't spray enough deer repellent, and the deer that frequent our subdivision ate most of them), but I did manage to grab a couple great photos:

I also took pictures of the pretty blossoms on the crabapple tree in our front yard, as well as the red lilies and roses:

My hydrangea bushes (I have one very large one, and two small ones now) are also doing well (the large one especially):

The biggest front yard story of the spring/summer, however, was this little mama duck, who made a nest in our bushes, incubated 8 or 9 eggs, and then one day vanished - leaving one sad, unhatched egg behind.

Last fall, we also did a lot of work to our side yard landscaping, planting several hosta, ferns, and astilbe - all of which, I'm happy to say, came back and looked great this spring/summer, with little watering or attention given on our parts. I love the pop of color on the astilbe, especially: