Life's little luxuries
An entire day of steady spring rain left my garden so happy and a delight to behold. The front garden has been in the ground for about five years now and is really beginning to look as I had imagined. We did not install the garden immediately upon moving into the house, as I needed to think about it for a year or two before beginning. My street is lined with gorgeous live oaks just dripping with Spanish moss so I really wanted to do a landscape that said "Savannah". We started with a few mature camellias, some azaleas and a couple of dogwoods. I've always loved hydrangeas but was reluctant to base the landscape on them due to the fact that they are deciduous. Then I saw a photo shoot of a grand Buckhead mansion planted almost entirely with hydrangeas, and I just couldn't resist the temptation. This morning, I sat out front for a few minutes taking in the garden, thinking about what needs to be done and noticed that one of the few lace-cap hydrangeas is just beginning to bloom. The blooms on the lace-caps are just too short lived for me, but this particular variety, a Japanese cultivar called "Shisua" is worth it. The oak leaf hydrangea is in full bloom, as are the amaryllis, the climbing roses and, oh, the scent of the confederate jasmine. I counted the hydrangeas in front this morning--there are currently twenty-five and counting. Give it a few weeks and the show will be spectacular.