Your Birthday Flower For February 2022

Happy Birthday February Babies! I'm one, too! Did you know that we have our own flowers to mark the occasion? Violets, Irises, and Primroses are our special flowers!

With Violets, sometimes called Pansies, we do tend to think that they only lean toward the cooler shades of purple and lavender ...

but they can also be found in the warmer colors of red, rose, pink, orange, cream ... and even white!

 Legend says that Violets represent spirituality, creativity, and gentleness. In Victorian times, it was often said they symbolized Courtship.

Irises are another group of Spring blooming flowers that come in gorgeous colors! Generally speaking, there are 2 main groups. This lovely one pictured above is called a Bearded, or German Iris. I like to call them the "Frilly Girls" because of their abundance of flowing ruffled petals. They come in a rainbow of colors!

Here is another beautiful one in purple!  And below ...

A pretty white one!  They, too, are Spring into Summer bloomers!

The flowers are often associated with Royalty, Wisdom, and Respect. 

 The Beardless variety of Iris are beautiful too ... but in a uniquely different way. This one is called Siberian Iris. The petals are more streamlined, not as frilly ... and the stems are tall and very slender.

And this is the other variety of Beardless Iris, called Japanese Iris. They have more elaborate flowerheads and shorter, wider leaves. 

Last, but not least, Primroses! Lovely little rounded flowers nestled in the center of a circle of bright green leaves! The name "Primrose" means "first" or "early". They, too, come in a range of colors such as vibrant blues and purples ....

bright and soft yellows, oranges, reds, pinks, rose, cream colors ...

and whites to delight the eyes!  Primroses are also known as Butter rose, Early rose, and Golden rose. Primroses, too, bloom from Spring into Summer.

Wishing all of you born in the month of February ... a very Happy Birthday!

*** All photos are courtesy of ...   Pixabay. ***

Feel free to leave comments!

July In The Poconos 2021

It's been a long time since I last posted to my blog. Life has a way of sometimes taking you down a different path. Things eventually work out ... and you go on from there. So, here I am back in my garden! My Happy Place!

This Summer here in the Poconos has been the wettest Summer I can recall in years. And my plants haven't been very happy about it. It's been a slow go ... to say the least.

My Heavenly Blue Morning Glories & Moonflowers are just barely climbing up the trellises. Cool temperatures and too much rain have made them sulk. Normally by mid-July they would happily be sprawling all over the trellises.

This is my little back corner garden off my back deck. My Hollyhocks in the back left corner look stunted and unhappy. I have a few Asiatic Lillies next to the small sunflower plant on the left that aren't very happy. The Catnip plant in the front on the right side is doing OK, but should be larger by now. That's a Little Miss Kim in the right hand corner ... she was transplanted to that spot last Fall, so I really didn't expect her to do much this year anyway. Maybe next year ....

This is my Front Deck Garden. Not too bad. My Astilbes are doing OK ... also have some Tall Purple & White Garden Phlox in the back center that are growing pretty normally. I actually pruned them back a few weeks ago. I find by doing that, the plants are somewhat shorter but produce more flowers in the later part of the Summer.  The Hydrangea in the front center (Strawberries & Cream) I bought a few weeks ago from one of the local supermarkets. I loved the colors! I have a feeling it's not Winter hardy in my zone (5A), but who cares! I thought it was pretty!

Now on the other hand ... Gotta love the Wildlife! Any Season ... any Time. You never know what kind of animal or bird might come visiting. 

                                           Happy Gardening!