Life In Robin's Nest

Central Ohio Home and Garden Show

2012-03-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

Finally made it to the Home and Garden show today! It's one of my favorite things to do here in Columbus. But let's put the emphasis where it belongs, shall we? To me, it's a garden show. I usually only go to see the garden displays and exhibits. Sometimes I don't even look at the home center, but this year I did.

There are so many pretty displays, with plenty of spring blooming bulbs and flowering trees to fool us into thinking it's already spring.

But I did notice lots of rose bushes blooming this year, which was a real treat.

There are always lots of fountains and water features....

but this year there was an entire 12 foot waterfall! You'd have to have just the right kind of property to make that work, but it was fun to see it indoors.

I did enjoy the theme of Columbus' Bicentennial because then the displays were much less commercialized than past years. I especially liked this garden emphasizing art work, in honor of our art museum.

Like Lona at A Hocking Hills Garden, I echo her sentiment that the arrangement was excellent. Having the vendors all along the edges of the gardens made sense. However, several of the most popular vendors were not there this year, and I found that to be a huge disappointment. I'm curious what happened, because the booths I refer to were always crowded with people. Did the booth rental fees get too high? Were they not invited? If anyone knows the truth, I'd like to know too. And why does it have to be so dark in there? Really, it seems silly. The vendors have plenty of light, but the gardens are all in darkness. It makes it impossible to get any really good photos. Seriously folks, what is the reason for this? I think the gardens would actually look even more beautiful with lots of light on them, like a sunny spring day! Needless to say, most of my photos have been edited to show brighter than they actually were. Here is a mock up of our beloved Franklin Park Conservatory, and this is an unedited photo, with a flash.

Still, the Central Ohio Home and Garden show is a beautiful thing, and will give you lots of great ideas for your home. Go, you'll love it!

Sweet Surprises

2012-02-23T19:09:00.000-05:00

February is not generally a busy gardening month. Usually I just content myself with indoor blooms this time of year. I saw this little geranium seedling popping up in October, so I rescued it by planting it in a pot to spend the winter indoors. See how it rewarded me? Such a tall bloom for such a tiny little plant. That's not even a regular size coffee cup, it's just a mini one!

And this kitchen begonia has been blooming for months now. Gorgeous.

But with the mild winter that many of us have been enjoying, I thought I'd go out to see if the garden was waking up early. Boy was it ever! My first stop in the winter is always my Angelina Sedum. I know I've shown it here many times, but seriously, this plant is a winter show stopper. Look at the colors! I absolutely need to plant more of this one.

I could show you all kinds of little plant babies popping up out there, but most of them are just little green specks. This one really caught my eye though, and I'm not even sure what it is. I think it's an agastache of some kind.

Of course there are all kinds of bulbs popping up, especially swelling daffodils. They will certainly be early this year.

Violas and pansies are still hanging in there, no surprise.

I also figured the hellebores would be heading towards blooming, and I was right.

So as I was casually studying my late winter garden, I turned around to find the sweetest surprise of all. Not in a million years did I expect to find the Siberian Iris in bloom. To say I was thrilled is putting it mildly! This is a full month earlier than they bloomed last year.

I'm so happy that I went out to check on the garden yesterday. It brought me such a sweet, sweet surprise!

A Year of Love

2012-02-14T20:18:00.000-05:00

It's Valentine's Day, and our hearts turn to love. Now I know the day is meant for showing love to our family and friends. But I thought I'd show a little love to my garden! 2011 was another beautiful year in the garden I love.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Frosty Start to the Day

2012-02-06T10:08:00.000-05:00

This continues to be a mild winter, much to my delight. But the funny thing is, I think I've spent less time outdoors than I usually do in harsher winters. Mostly it's because we have had so much rain, and being outdoors hasn't been very enjoyable. The only winter posts I've put up here on my blog have been focused on indoor plants since we haven't had any pretty snowfalls to highlight. But occasionally, we get a frosty but sunny start to the day. The angelina sedum has been photographed many times this winter, as it continues to delight. Nothing else I have in my winter garden is as sunny and bright as this plant. Note to self, plant more of it!

Penstemon leaves have stayed evergreen.

And spring bulbs are getting ready for the show.

Creeping thyme makes for a frosty path through the rose arbor.

Silver gray yarrow leaves still look lovely with frosting.

The rising sun begins to melt the caps on sedum Autumn Joy.

Euonymus looks good no matter what kind of winter we have.

Foxglove leaves just laugh at the frost.

Arborvitae are crystallized.

The pennisetum is still holding up this corner.

And while the hydrangeas are not quite as beautiful as they were in summer, they remind me that they will be back in all their glory before too long.

Mellow Yellow

2012-02-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

Personally, I think yellow is anything but mellow. It's such a lively, vibrant color. It automatically makes me think of sunshine. I love yellow! The only trouble is, yellow is hard to come by in winter, even a winter as mild as this one. If it was April, I'd have these yellow species tulips in bloom.

Or in July, I could have sunflowers blooming, even these planted by the birds.

May is one of my favorite times to see anything but mellow yellow, because May is peak season for my beloved roses.

If it was June, I could find yellow in my favorite black-eyed susans.

See, yellow is so bright and beautiful, that even the birds are wearing it. In August, I could see goldfinches galore around here.

Even March brings me yellow in the garden, as my first daffodils come into bloom.

But it's only February 1st, and there are no yellow flowers in my garden this time of year. The only yellow out there this time of year is my Angelina sedum. It may not be a bloom, but it's definitely enough to give me just a little bit of mellow yellow to love.

But yellow flowers are still my favorite!

Looking For Sunshine

2012-01-28T14:57:00.000-05:00

This may be one of the mildest winters we've ever seen, but that doesn't mean it isn't gloomy. While I'm enjoying the warmer weather and lack of snow, there has been nothing but clouds and rain as a substitute. I opened up the blinds this morning, and my shoulders literally sagged while I sighed. Now a few hours have gone by, and the sun has finally showed up in my neighborhood. What a treat! But earlier this week when it was still gray, I went in search of sunshine at the Franklin Park Conservatory.

This is my usual winter respite. When the chilly, drab days start to overwhelm me, I head off for a little retreat of my own.

Your blood pressure drops just by walking in the door.

Peace and serenity reigns.

You can walk through the desert,

or the jungle.

Sit by the pond and watch the koi,

or just admire the view.

Before you know it, you don't even notice there is no sunshine outside.

And then winter doesn't seem so gray.

Summer In The Kitchen

2012-01-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

Even though we are having a milder winter than usual, it is still dark and gray out in the garden. I've tried to add a few spots of "winter interest" but there's nothing like flowers to brighten my day. Now there may be a few faded pansies out there, but that's just not enough to cheer me up. So I keep flowers in the kitchen to make it seem like summer! A simple pot of primroses from the supermarket...

an amaryllis in bloom....

my begonias in bloom....

and a bunch of tulips all add up to summer in the kitchen!

Cheating Winter

2012-01-19T19:44:00.000-05:00

Like many areas around the country, it has been a fairly mild winter here in central Ohio. And I'm loving every minute of it! Oh, we had a little snow last week, but just a little. And it's long gone now. Fall extended itself into December a few times before, but this year, I had a few days of January that I would still call fall-ish. By fall-ish, I mean I had flowers in bloom outdoors. That's my qualification. If there are blooms, it can't possibly be winter. Even dandelions count as blooms, right?

Now we all know that pansies enjoy the cool weather. But still blooming in early January? That was a first for me.

And the pansy cousin violas, we can also expect to see them in winter's early chill.

I also find lamium to be a cool weather bloomer for me. But you have to look very closely to find these little flowers.

What I didn't expect to see in bloom was my rosemary plant, hugging closely to the kitchen door. It survived several freezes and even a little snow, by hiding there close to the warmth of the house. Rosemary does not survive the winter here in central Ohio, but I guess this little guy doesn't know that yet.

But one of my favorite winter "blossoms" is not a blossom at all. Angelina sedum is lovely enough in summer, but in winter, it goes from green, to yellow, to orange, and to red. And long after my winter flowers have succumbed to the cold, Angelina will still bring me a spot of color in the winter garden. That's how I cheat winter!

Robin's Return

2012-01-13T22:21:00.001-05:00

Due to someone else's fraudulent activity, I've lost my original blog. I've gone round and round, trying to recover it, with little success. So while I fight this fight, I thought I'd go ahead and start a new blog just in case I never do "find" it again. Of course I still have all my photos on file, but it's quite heart breaking to think I can't see any of my old posts. But instead of mourning that loss, let's start fresh. I'll keep the original name, but obviously the address is new. So be sure to update your bookmarks or feeds, and if you know other garden bloggers out there, go ahead and tell them where I'm at! Now I know it's mid January, and there isn't much gardening to do. But I always have growing things about me, just to keep me from going crazy all winter long. For instance, my African Violets are in bloom,

and so is my Crown of Thorns plant.

But the best bloom right now is this beautiful peach begonia spending the winter in my kitchen. It actually blooms better indoors than it did all summer long.

So I won't look outdoors to see the snow coming down. If I just look at my kitchen blooms, I can pretend I'm still gardening all winter long.