An Irish Tea.

St. Patrick's Day is March 17th.

I am setting a green table for guests.

Using some green dishes.

The napkin holders are vintage brass with a shamrock sticker.

 A Window display with a Blarney Stone,

My sister Annie painted.

Mr. Nutcracker

loaned from sister Carol.

My sister Annie made an Shamrock Banner
All hand stitched.

I am serving "Irish Porter Cake"
For more on this delicious cake,
adapted from Victoria Magazine,
click here.

Thanks for your visit.

Happy St. Pat's Day

Longing For Flowers ~Flowers In February.

I'm looking at perennial flower
 photos from last year,  
and sharing some of them on this blog.
The gardens are buried in snow at this time, 
(like 5ft. of snow)
resting, before they'll emerge again
 giving a splendid show of colour and beauty.
I am looking forward to
 their progress next season.

One of my favourite flowers.

Helenium

Orange Helenium

Yellow Daisies or Golden Marguerite.

Tiger Lilies 
A Heirloom plant from my Grandmother.

Sedum

Hollyhocks

 Lilies 

Daisies

(Crazy Daisies)

Red Lilies

descending the stairs.

A perennial Sunflower.

Delphinium amongst a beachwood fence. 

Red Beebalm ~ so pretty.

Hostas are great under trees.
Low maintenance and ground cover.

Veronique.
I would have more,
it I didn't mistake them for weeds.

Pink Veronique

I have an assortment of Astilbes at the 
North side of the house.
They do well in shade.

A red one.

A Paper Poppy

Variegated  leaf Coreopsis 
I love the foliage on this plant.
After the blooms are finished,
 the pretty leaves stay all Summer.

White Phlox 

Black Eyed Susan

Echinacea

Cone Flower

Jewelweed.

A very invasive pretty plant that bees love.

They have thousands of seeds

 (in the pods that are hanging) that fall and

produce a lot of plants the following year.

However, they are easy to control.

They pull out easy.

 I have them growing near my back door.

I pull most of them out and leave

 a few because they are so pretty.

They look like little Orchids.

I like to sit on my deck and watch the

bees. They disappear completely in

the flower to collect pollen.

In my wild garden,

 I leave a lot of them. 

A smaller species 

They grow wild in the woods.

A herbal remedy for poison ivy,

 and other rashes and itchy skin.

White Woodland Asters

So pretty in the woods.

Wild Asters

A tall Ligulaira 

Ligularia in flower

My flower of 2018

Clematis 

After many yrs. of trying,
I get this Clematis vine to grow. 

 Nasturtiums.

An annual plant,  I start from seed.

 "The Sunken Garden".
This garden is a working progress project.
It was an area all overgrown and my
sister Annie and I cleaned it out,
and placed large rocks for stairs.

It is steeper than appears in this photo.

Down looking up.

I transplanted these

 Goosenecks Loosestrife
below,  between the trees. 
They are invasive and eventually 
they will surround the trees and
I'll have less weeding to do there,
 and less grass to cut in this area. 
(I hope!)

A Weeping Willow tree and Daylilies.
I have never seen the Daylilies in flower, 
and they have been there for many years.
I wonder why. I am thinking maybe the deer,
 that frequent this area,
eats the flower buds?

The path into the woods

Winter and photos gives me time

 to reflect on what we've done last year

 and what we plan on doing this year.

We must have HOPE.

I hope this flower tour added 
some colour to your day. 

Thanks for your visit xo.

💛💛💛