Our Annabelle Hydrangeas

When I started growing plants and trees and flowers in my yard, a little piece of me regretted it. I know it's somewhat of a trial and error process and I did not want to get attached to anything living and growing in my yard only to see it wilt and die. 

These pictures are not from Pinterest. Or a Google image search. They are from my camera because these lovelies ARE GROWING IN OUR YARD!! Apparently they are indestructible because after what happened to them last year plus a brutal winter, I didn't dare hope that I would ever see them bloom. But they did. They make my heart sing. And sometimes I ask Danilo to drive around the block so we can approach our house from the opposite side and I can see what they look like to passers by.

P.S. If you have ever considered growing hydrangeas, apparently this is the variety to go with. Unlike other types, they do well in Utah, they can handle extreme heat, extreme cold, and recover from neglect. I am so happy that trial and error worked in my favor this time. :)

A Sad Story

One week ago we brought home some Annabelle hydrangea bushes from the nursery. They really, truly looked like this. They were gorgeous. Our plan was to have some mulch delivered the following day and go to work planting. Knowing we had a wedding in a couple of days, I decided to postpone the planting one week.

About three days ago, all the beautiful blossoms started to wilt and the leaves too and got worse day after day. It made me ill to look at them. It makes me sad and embarrassed that something so gorgeous went so downhill under my care.

We got them in the ground as promised yesterday, mulch and Miracle-Gro and all, and I am literally praying for them. I have shed tears over these hydrangeas (Danilo's just happy it's not over something he did :). I have heard that plants in distress will do better if you lop off their blossoms so the energy can go to saving the plant. The man at the nursery said over the phone he agreed and that he's fairly confident I can bring them back. So I chopped off all the once-popcorn-ball-sized-now-wilting-near-dead blossoms with a pair of scissors and I'm reporting it here so you can hopefully share in my joy when they bloom again.

OUCH

(There are four of them total.)


Thanks for listening.

On a happier note, look at our lovely lawn!! I am so proud of Danilo!

Tending Gracie

Those that have followed our blog long enough might remember a post from May called $59 and a Really Wonderful Husband. It told this sweet story about Danilo following me through a nursery picking out flowers and tools for our first "garden" on our front porch. Well, folks... except for the toughest of the tough, the flowers are dead. Here's a little before shot of our freshly planted flowers:
And here's a picture I took today before I toss them... the picture is slightly crooked because I was holding Gracie in one arm.I was so excited the day I planted my flowers. I told my mom, "These are going to be the best taken care of five flowers in the world," because that's about how many I planted. Well, here's how it all went down.

The petunias were flourishing until my water broke and I didn't get back to our house until four days later. They were crispy brown when we got home.

The gerber daisies needed more sunlight than our shady porch provided, and I watered them to death.

The violas were in a pot with the gerber daisies. After several revival attempts, I finally tossed the whole thing.

The vincas are the only flowers that have survived. There have been a couple of occasions when I've been sure I've lost them. They'll be drooping and looking super thirsty. I water them and when I see them later that night, they'll be chipper and upright again. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

When I told my mom about the sad state of my garden, she told me about a book she'd read called Tending Roses. It's about a young wife who goes with her husband and family to live with her grandmother and the lessons she learns there. Here's a pretty line from the book, "The best times in my life, the times that have passed by me the most quickly, were the times when the roses grew wild." The woman had been wishing she had more time to prune her roses. She's not able to tend to them as she'd like to because she's raising her little ones. That's the lesson she learns from her grandma. I wish I had wild roses instead of dead flowers on my porch, but I don't know, tell me. Is she worth it?

$59 and a Really Wonderful Husband

Today Danilo and I ran and grabbed a bite to eat for lunch. As we were leaving the restaurant, I noticed that ShopKo across the street was having a huge garden sale. I'd been wanting to go pick up some gerber daisies to put in a pot on our front porch, and when I mentioned that to Danilo, he said we could go take a look. As we walked in and saw tables and tables of trays of flowers, I started to get a little gardening bug. Long story short, a couple of stops and $59 later, we'd picked up everything we needed for our first flower garden, which has to consist of hanging baskets and flower pots when you have cement instead of a garden plot. Danilo was wonderful and I kept telling him he was as he followed me through the aisles and the greenhouses. We didn't forget a thing among the 40 pound bag of soil, the Miracle Gro, and my very first own trowel and gardening gloves. I think he felt like I did the time I followed him around RC Willey to find the best entertainment system. While he worked on homework, I sat on our porch and threw our little garden together. Once I got it all cleaned up, he came out and said all the right things about how pretty it looked. I go out every half hour just to look at it again and get all tickled inside. I think it's because I planned on being inside all day long doing the house cleaning routine and instead it turned into a beautiful outdoor Saturday in May. I'm also especially feeling grateful for Danilo this weekend. I had a co-worker and friend unexpectedly lose her husband this past week and it has given me a fresh perspective on how fragile life is and how grateful I am every time I get to be with him.