Mother's Day, French style

Last week was the French version of Mother's Day.  As I will never be French, no matter how long I live in the country, and as I no longer fulfill any kind of a Mommy role, I decided to honor myself by admiring the results of all the hard work I've recently done in my gardens. 

However, the day started off with all mothers being given flowers at church, and I think I made a rather nice interior bouquet.  I don't normally cut my garden flowers and bring them inside, so this was rather pretty on my table.

A view from my window

The prettiest spot in my whole yard right now is my new Street View garden, so it's quite easy to spend a lot of time admiring it.  While I tried to put various seasonal plants in it, the spring ones are what's out now and will probably be the most dramatic. 

I haven't been able to see much of any garden from the house, and this area had been a horror not commanding attention before, so this view from my dining room has been very enjoyable.  There is quite a vertical drop between the camera and the garden!

Almost every day the blooming flowers change, and it will be interesting to see what may come out next.  Or, will I have to wait until next year for some things to develop?

In direct sunlight

By nighttime sunlight

Because we have tried to make our entrance more enticing to anybody passing by, including ourselves when we take our weekly walks after sundown, we've set out some solar lights.  They used to be a real pain, but the battery system has been greatly improved, and it's been really fun to highlight our new gardens.

Happy to be climbing along its new home

I moved this clematis from somewhere it didn't show up, and I've never seen it bloom this pretty before.  I didn't expect much from it this first year, either.

They seem so fragile, and I've never been all that successful with them, but I now have great expectations for the future!

A beautiful relationship

The original English rose

The idea is that it will mix with this white rambling rose we bought in England many years ago, when we were still in Paris. 

This little one is a clone I made of the mother plant, which is currently on our balcony.

The winter installation

The spring happiness

It's also rewarding to observe the other new garden I made down at our entrance, although so far it's not colorful. 

The hyacinths have come and gone, the irises didn't feel like blooming, and I have no idea if the totally disrupted lilies of the Nile will have any inclination to flower later this year.

However, it's still exciting to see how everything is leafing out, showing me that everything is intending to actually survive all the trauma I created.

While I was working on this garden, the other two driveway strips I've developed in the past were really depressing.  They apparently don't have a lot of staying power in the winter, which I hadn't realized.  I'm not sure what I can change, as I don't want anything tall.  But at least now I can see that what I did before was actually functional!

The dull and boring winter look

The spring promise of color

So pretty

Almost looks like a civilized yard!

The strip on the lower wall is glorious with the lilies in bloom.  Doc Leo really likes lilies, apparently, and orange is one of the house colors, so these are just perfect.

While the lilies have been there for a few years, this is the first time I've had something pretty behind them as I walk up the driveway!

Happy Daylilies

More happy Daylilies

Along the other side of the driveway, the daylilies are currently blooming. 

Later, the gladiolas and dahlias will add more color.

Fat and happy

Colorful greenery

I've been collecting different varieties of succulents, as I've discovered I have a bit more success putting them in my window boxes.  But this year, I learned some new arranging ideas, and I'm really enjoying how pretty they are looking.  I have one arrangement in a trough I bought in Paris, and another on the gate, although the poor box itself is falling apart.

A rose for the Doc

But don't forget his lilies

Elsewhere on the property, there are a few other colorful spots.  While my pictures blew out and don't really show up how pretty these flowers are, here is one of the Doc's favorite roses and more of his lilies, this time in yellow, another house color.

Orange on orange

We have some really pretty orange roses along a walkway, and I was able to clone one of them.  I put it outside our bedroom, in anticipation of it growing up and around my sewing window. 

This picture was actually taken from fairly far away, down in our upper parking area, where it really shows up nicely! 

I have great expectations for even more blooms next year; hopefully by then we'll have a pretty blue trellis built for it.

Brightening up a shady area

Finally, I have to show you my most colorful window box so far this year, under my kitchen window.  I just love blue lobelias!  Unfortunately, the seeds I planted didn't work, so I had to buy some, but they just look so pretty with the begonias and impatiens.  The greenery is large vincas, otherwise a weedy vine all over our hillsides.

While so much of our property is still just ugly weeds, I hope you've enjoyed this tour of what I've actually managed to succeed at creating to add color beyond the flowering weeds that help to continue them, to our backbreaking dismay!