Focus on Flowers

Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote, "As long as one has a garden, one has a future and as long as one has a future, one lives."

"Love your garden and work in it, and let it give you what it surely will and let no one feel that the benefit is all on the side of the garden, for truly you will receive more than you give."

Flowering plants are forgiving, and they usually give much more than they receive.

During the 1860s, watercolor paintings by English artists depicted rural scenes with thatched cottages surrounded by profuse cottage gardens. It was an idealized version of English country life.

Lancelot "Capability" Brown, landscaper to the rich and famous in 18th-century England, died in 1783. He advocated vistas that were "simple, uncluttered and restrained."

What gardens existed around the world in In the 6th-13th centuries?

A mixed border is usually a defined space with a mix of perennials, annuals, shrubs, bulbs, and/or grasses with a walk, or path, in front and a wall or a fence behind as a backdrop. A mix of plants of different varieties ensures an extended period of interest.

Shrubs are long-lived garden residents and help create the architecture of a garden.

Streptocarpus are pretty plants to grow once one gets used to their habits.

Caryopteris (Bluebeard) has a winning combination of foliage color and pretty flowers that provide focal points in the fall garden.