On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Sometimes, all this politics stuff makes you tight and so you cry out, and then jackals and Nature come through!
The year after my husband died, I bought a house. It turned out to be exactly right for oughme, but at the time, I was not in a good place and was vaguely unhappy about the house I bought.
The backyard was very overgrown and I knew it was going to be a lot of work. Well, as it turns out, the house I bought was owned by the former president of our neighborhood garden club, and she had planted many gorgeous azaleas and other wonderful plants.
I spent many hours over the next few years bringing her gardens back to life. Here are some pictures from her gardens.
Azaleas across the back of the yard.
Another angle of the backyard. There are forsythias back there too, but they were already finished blooming when I took this picture.
This azalea is about 6 feet tall, and the most beautiful shade of lavender.
This is the front yard, showing the dogwood in bloom and a beautiful orange azalea.
I love caladium, so I planted some in the backyard for color in the summer.
I plant tulips every fall so I see them in the spring. I was particularly fond of these.
These are a type of ground cover that bloom in the spring. It’s just another pop of color in the yard – when spring arrives, I want color everywhere!
Close up of one of the azaleas in the backyard.
JPL
Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures. I for one needed that.
Mary G
Those are all amazing, but that lavender one is extraordinary.
JPL
My daffodils are blooming and it’s presently 68 degrees. By nine it’s going to drop to 60 and continue dropping throughout the day. It’s going to freeze tonight and tomorrow night, so my little bit of color will be gone.
Baud
Is it Sunday morning already?
p.a.
Very nice! About ready for some green…
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Oh my! Such a beautiful yard
thank you
WaterGirl
@Baud: At this point, I wouldn’t mind if every day was Sunday.
WaterGirl
I love azaleas but they don’t like it at my house. Yours are stunning. Thanks for this bit of happy on this bleak morning.
Barbara
@WaterGirl: Azaleas are shallow root plants that like acidic soil. They thrive around evergreens.
Betty Cracker
Azaleas are by far my favorite shrubs, and those are just gorgeous! All of the plants are lovely!
The first house we bought (we’re on our third and hopefully last now) had a ton of mature azaleas in the yard, and they always seemed to peak in blooming on our birthday week. (Hubby is a few years older than me, but our birthdays are within three days of each other — next week, if anyone wants to get us a little something!)
debbie
Azaleas are my most favorite flowering thing! The yards of my neighborhood are prolific with azaleas. Their colors overwhelm me every time I pass by one, and it is a sad day when blossoms cover the ground beneath them and spring is done.
WaterGirl
@Barbara: Even when I had evergreens, they didn’t like it!
Azaleas, succulents and zucchini. Everything else loves me, but not them.
edit: But I did buy an azalea last spring right after easter and planted it on a side of the yard where I have never tried them before. Ever hopeful, I guess.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: My clematis always blooms for my birthday, and I take that as lovely birthday gift from nature.
A year ago I was shopping at TJMaxx and they had a big tote bag that (I swear) had a big picture of Badger on the front. I wanted to buy it for you but of course I had no way to send it to you. I was there again last week and, of course, no Badger bag.
But I offer up the Badger* bag as a virtual birthday gift.
Seriously, it didn’t just look like any old Boston Terrier. I swear it was Badger, with that side-eye look of his. I really wish I had gotten it.
arrieve
What a beautiful garden. I have never planted anything in my life, and have killed every indoor plant I’ve tried to keep, but your yard is now added to my fantasy list of Things I Might Like To Have Someday.
Auntie Anne
@arrieve: The best thing of all for me is that there was/is very little to plant – just the caladiums for summer and some tulips every other year. The rest is all thanks to the previous owner.
Barbara
@WaterGirl: Where I live, there is actually a fungus that gets in the soil and if you have it, forget it, every azalea you plant will die. We stopped trying and my sister suggested a bush called skimmia, which worked pretty well.
Neldob
They are lovely and remind me mine need feeding. They look so great in your garden! I have a tattered, struggling orange azalea I love. Haven’t quite figured out the pruning aspect though. They are still new to me.
Leto
This reminds me of where I grew up, and where my parents still live. They have two huge azalea gardens in the downtown area and host The Azalea Festival, which is just a beautiful mosaic of color each spring. I’m very jealous of you Auntie Anne :)
TomatoQueen
Oh lovely. One of the benefits of DC is the long spring, with azaleas everywhere and out the wazoo too. Some nutjob planted a purple one next to a red one in front of a holly at the east side of my patio, so every spring I get a battle of the eyeballs as they bloom in succession, and then the purple one leafs out and climbs back up the holly (8 to 9 feet tall now) and down to the patio. That azalea is going to win.
My mother was a great gardener, and white dwarf azaleas in a semi-woodland setting was one of her specialties–acid soil and gentle pruning to be sure.
J R in WV
Around here we have wild azaleas in a gentle orange color, I remember my mom went to great lengths to plant some of those along the strip between the local road and our driveway, in a naturalized looking way. Then one morning the State Road sent a crew through one summer at the crack of dawn, and they cut everything down to the ground. Since my dad worked nights, he and mom slept in late, while I was up early.
I told mom that they were clearing the roadside and she erupted from her bed, grabbed a robe, went to the scene of the crime and erupted on that dismal crew of vandals, who had been sent to ruin that bed by a county pol dad was editorializing against. Law suits flew, and eventually the State Road planted more of what they had destroyed, dogwood and azaleas and some little spruce trees.
brettvk
@JPL: As a fellow bulb lover I understand your feelings, but in my midwestern-weather experience the daffs and tulips are more resilient to late freezes than one would expect. They’re much more viable than fruit tree blossoms, f’instance.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Lovely garden! It reminds me of when we lived in Gainesville FL. Gainesville was filled with azaleas and in the spring it was breathtaking.
Neldob
@J R in WV: cool mom, nice story.
prostratedragon
Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, “Azalea”
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: This is one of my favorite J R stories, ever.
Dan B
FYI your “groundcover” is Ajuga, common name Carpet Bugle (almost never heard). Yours looks like a named form since the size if the bllom spikes is large and it’s a strong bloomer. You csn probably figure out the name from an internet search. The color is typically mire blue than yours but that could be caused by the camera. The color in your photo would be called ‘pink’ by Ajuga aficionadoes (sp?).
In Seattle Ajuga is badly nibbled by Root Weevils that survive our mild (drippy) winters.
Dan B
FYI your “groundcover” is Ajuga, common name Carpet Bugle (almost never heard). Yours looks like a named form since the size if the bllom spikes is large and it’s a strong bloomer. You csn probably figure out the name from an internet search. The color is typically mire blue than yours but that could be caused by the camera. The color in your photo would be called ‘pink’ by Ajuga aficionadoes (sp?).
In Seattle Ajuga is badly nibbled by Root Weevils that survive our mild (drippy) winters.
Ajuga is easy to propagate by dividing. Each rosette, connected by groundhugging runners, produces roots. Each rosette, separated from the other rosettes and replanted in spring or on a cool fall day, will produce its own colony. They like mulch / aged bark.
Auntie Anne
@Dan B: Thank you! I’ve never known what it was called. And it’s funny that you mentioned how easy it is to propagate because the picture is from a bit I originally snipped from another group of ajuga in the side yard.