Serene Scenery ... Saturday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  This week, we're doing our "serene" post on Saturday.  Mom said tomorrow is reserved for something else, but I'm not sure what.  I asked Cam and she just giggled, so whatever it is, those two are in it together.

Anyway, how about a look around the gardens? That's always a good dose of serenity!

"Let's see ... what's blooming ..."

Actually, up behind me on one of the big side tiers, one of our coneflowers is looking good:

Tomato Soup Coneflowers

In case anyone is wondering, the petals do not taste like tomato soup.  Don't ask how I know!

Moving down the top tier in the back ... here is one of my favorite sedums:

"COOL!  It's the Lime Zinger Sedum!"

How can you not love something named "Zinger"!??!  Oh!  And we transplanted some of it into the Wildflower Garden this week.  We'll keep you posted on how it does.  Something already dug it up; Mom said an HBO word and stuck it back in.  We'll see.  Oh.  Right.  Keep it serene.  Moving right along ...

Right across from that is the Bee Garden.  Look who we saw on the Russian Sage!

BEE!

He's right smack in the middle of that shot.  I was impressed that he knew to hang out in the Bee Garden.  We don't have signs up or anything, he just knew.  Just for that, I didn't even try to eat him.

Looking over the wall, here is a shot of part of the Wildflower Garden:

Euonymous Bushes, Blanket Flowers, and PowWow Wild Berry Coneflowers

If you jump into the Wildflower Garden and turn around, this is what's right on the other side of the wall:

Black Eyed Susans and Blue Spruce Sedum -- and cool rocks!

For the record, I did not jump into the garden.

"Seriously.  How can you even think that?!?"

See?  Up on the retaining wall, like the good puppy that I am!

Here's a shot of me posing on the middle tier's wall:

Me, feeling quite serene!

That's Maiden Grass on the left, and the Lavenders on the right.  Mmm, they smell so good!

Big changes in the Friendship Garden this week!  Check it out:

Lots of pots of sedums!

A local place had a 1/2 off sale going on their pottery (Mom LOVES pottery!) and another place had 1/2 off their plants -- so Mom made the most of both!  The pot on the left, she already had, but added the three others.  She filled them with different sedum plants.

She also did a pot-o-sedum for the front bed by the driveway:

Another pot!

She added three other pots - one on the front porch with an existing pot, one by the garage, and one on the other side of the garage!  She may have gone a bit crazy.

Let me close with some exciting news!  First, we have TWO blooms on one of our Gerbera Daisies!

Gerbera Daisies!

Mom hadn't grown them until this year.  She likes how colorful they are, but wishes they bloomed more.

Speaking of blooms, check out the Hummingbird Mint in our Butterfly Garden:

Hummingbird Mint (Agastache)

And lastly, after planting seeds probably 2 years ago or so, Mom FINALLY has a flower on her Blackberry Lily!

Blackberry or Leopard Lily!

It just opened this morning, and Mom is all kinds of happy about it.

We hope our garden tour helped you feel nice and serene! If you'd like to see more photos, please visit our Garden 2016 album on FlickR!

Stay cool, everybody!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher