Summer Flowers

In spring, my front yard blooms with tulips. In summer, it blooms with lilies!

The north side of our house also has some beautiful landscaping now - ferns, astilbe, and hosta. Below is a shot of the pink astilbe shoots, as well as an early hosta bud, taken in July.

My front yard also has 3 hydrangea bushes - two small ones and one giant one, which is now too tall for me to trim! The tallest one doesn't bloom until the fall, but these two little ones started showing their flowers in July.

I love being able to take pictures of flowers without even having to leave my property! :)

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:

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:

NYC Photos - Botanical Gardens in Spring

When my husband and I took a vacation to New York City at the end of March/beginning of April, one of the highlights was visiting the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. My husband's cousin works there as a horticulturalist, and he gave us a VIP tour of the place (including a peak inside some of the staff-only greenhouses)! There was also an amazing orchid show in the conservatory greenhouse and some nice spring color starting to bloom in the Rock Garden.

Because the weather was colder-than-average for much of March and April, there wasn't a whole lot else to look at yet, flower-wise... but I did manage to take some nice pictures of flowers in the Botanical Gardens grounds! My favorites are below:

I have a lot more photos of the Botanical Gardens to share, including pictures of the aforementioned orchid show, the other plants in the conservatory greenhouse, spring flowers growing in the Rock Garden, and even some pictures from the staff-only greenhouses - so make sure to check back! I'll be making future posts with more pictures soon.