DeFries Garden

 

It was such a pretty day, we decided to take a drive through the country, eventually meandering to DeFries Garden near New Paris, Indiana. This is part of the Elkhart County park system.

The concept behind the garden is a calendar garden with a brick walkway laid in a circle with the pavers representing every day of the year. The plants are grouped according to the 4 seasons. Since we are in spring, it wasn’t surprising that most of the blooms were in that section. The round globe on the pedestal represents the full moon, and there is a globe in each month with the pedestals moved to correspond with the date of the full moons for this year. According to the brochure, there is a blue globe for the occasional blue moon, but there were none there today.

There were pansies in some of the areas not yet blooming with seasonal blooms.

Unfortunately, the lily pond in the center of the circle attracted mosquitos. I came away with about half a dozen bites. If I known what to expect, I would have sprayed myself with deet insect repellant. There was also a trail down to the Elkhart River, but I knew I would get more bites walking that trail.

I am sure the garden is an ever-changing portrait of flowers. We will probably return for the Art Show on June 14th. You can learn about that on the Goshen Painters Guild web . You can see more photos on the Calendar garden at the designer’s photo pages.

 

I will end with a photo of blue, white, and red flowers in honor of this patriotic Memorial Day weekend.

More Spring

We are enjoying some nice springtime weather; perhaps a bit warmer than typical with occasional showers. This year May showers will bring June flowers.

The lilacs are still very pretty. The peonies and irises are coming on strong and will bloom in the next few weeks. My cheddar pinks in the sunny patio are finally opening.

 

 

The moss rose did come up again from the seeds I guess. Starting to fill in around the cheddar pinks.

I decided to add some color to my sunroom, too. I found a nice round tablecloth on sale at Kohl’s for 60% off.

Calibrachoa

In northern Indiana, Mother’s Day is the safe point for planting flowers. I usually just get pots/containers anyway so can move them into the garage if a frost is predicted. Yesterday I bought these two plants. Typically, I would buy one container to put on my small parsons table on the porch. Meijers had a sale that if you bought one plant, you could a second of same or lesser price for half price. The garden area had lots of plants, but nobody to answer questions. The tags did not have any identification of the flowers. I think the small roundish ones are calibrachoa. I had them in a planter last year and was pleased. They don’t need deadheading like petunias. Calibrachoa looks like small (about 1 inch across) petunias. They come in many colors. The common name is million bells.

 

I don’t know what the bright pink flowers are. They remind me of some purple flowers I had a few years ago in a mixed container. Do you know what they are?

I don’t have my mother’s green thumb. Hopefully, these will last thru the summer. I will have to get a neighbor to water them while I am in southern California for a few weeks in July. We are getting a few nice days to sit on the porch though next week will not be as nice because of wind and rain. In the back next to the patio, the moss roses are coming up and spreading out. No blooms until June probably. The cheddar pinks have stems with buds which I think will open in another week. Starting to look like spring.

Tulip Time

The tulips seem to be at their peak right now in northern Indiana. We took a drive thru the countryside today to Peabody Retirement Community which has nice plantings of tulips. Going to be 80 degrees for a few days.