Stoatley

I really, really want to be walking down that path.

It IS fetching. Are the ferns growing right in the creek then?

Quite a budget at that. Those are some fancy tulips! A real gift to the community.

ncgardener, you are right to worry. When I moved into my house in Northern Virginia many years ago I had no idea what this incredibly strong vine was that kept popping up across the whole of my quarter-acre property in late winter -- by spring it was as thick as a young tree, entwining with and growing to the tops of the dogwoods and strangling them, along with the privet hedges and anything else they fancied. This cycle repeats every year. Their roots travel unimpeded underground as thick as my arm. The year I was too tired to fight them was the year one of them bloomed, and I finally had the face of my enemy!

Brilliant!

Yes, Gardencoach, I would like to talk about violets! My mother had a big bed of white ones at the foot of our porch (in S.Dak.) and along the sidewalk. It looked a lot like the featured photo. Didn't seem to stray and was beautiful. I can barely get them to grow in Northern Virginia, but my brother-in-law yanks them as soon as he sees one!

It's invasive in the Mid Atlantic, too. I would never purchase English ivy of any ilk.

Yes, except apparently no one uses it -- there are no chairs!

It seems unlikely to me, too, that some of these plants would survive winter here, although you do see century plants grown in area gardens. It's more likely that these are among the seasonal plants that Smithsonian gardeners rotate. This garden is a gem. Mary Livingston Ripley saved it from being a parking lot!

Now this is an appropriate use of gnomes in the garden! Adorable.

Beautiful!

Very fetching. I don't believe I've ever seen alstromeria outside of a flower shop. Is it hard to grow?

I'm sorry, I don't know what is going on here. What is with the bare trees in front?

That's terrific!

My common sage did not have flowers at all. However, the herb lady talked me into also taking home a Mexican sage ("You will love it," she said). Though the leaves aren't edible, the plant sat there quietly and modestly through the summer until September, when it sprang to life with tall, nodding branches covered with vivid violet-coloured flowers (similar in appearance to the blossoms in the photo in demeanor, if not color), and it bloomed for a solid two months. Love it, indeed!