Victorian Edwardian Dress Aceo Painting

I've painted a few victorian and edwardian clothed ladies on aceos. The soft colors with roses and lace have me wanting to plant as many old-fashioned roses as I can this spring. The lawn dresses these ladies wore were delicate and had yards and yards of lace on the cotton. The bodice, the sleeves and the skirt. How did they not tear it when walking through gardens? You definitely had to be a lady and not race your male friend through the rose paths.

I've got some soft, soft white cotton about 5 yards. Now to assemble enough vintage or vintage looking laces to sew up my own. I can't wait.

Original Watercolor Aceo painting is for sale here.

What you could do with 19 million...

I just saw that this historic property with lovely gardens is for sale in South Carolina. It is also known as the Medway Plantation which includes 6,728 acres of wooded land, gardens, lakes, and houses, stables and other outbuildings that date back to the 1600's. Anyone have 19 million to spare? I didn't think so. There is also a greenhouse on the property. Maybe they will sell that separately? Medway Plantation property listing here for the serious gardener.

Boxwood Swirls and Twirls Art

I tilled our vegetable garden today and it looks like a blank brown canvas. There is something about the smell of freshly tilled soil that jolts your gardening dreams into high gear. Something tells you that seeds or cuttings need to go into it.I have always wanted to look out a high window onto a knot garden. This week I'm going for it.

My outdoor pots are all of a sudden barren since the frosts took the annuals. Now is when I poke cuttings down into them and wait to see how many take root and find new homes next spring.

English Gardening

English gardens are the best to explore. You always want to know what hides around the corner. I have ladies mantle (the yellow flowering plants), I have sieboldiana hostas, I have the red maple tree, and yellow roses and it looks nothing like the photo above. The brick walls, the crunchy gravel, the urns and concrete ball make this so english and delightful.

Wouldn't it be great to build a maze that had little pockets of gardens in each dead end of the maze? Use some of the fast growing evergreens around the edges to conceal the suprises. I can dream.

Seed Sowing -- Giant Blue Bird Delphiniums

To think that life waits patiently in these seeds and we are the caretakers of them gives us all hope. Hope for a huge stand of healthy and stately delphiniums...reaching for the sky and their rich blue blending as one with it.


The seed sowing bug is at our house. Some I must wait a bit to sow directly outside. Some go in hidden compartments of the refrigerator and hide with the cream cheese boxes. They aren't really hiding they just need to chill a bit. The delphiniums I start now so they bloom this summer.

They are sown on top of moist sterile soil then covered with a layer of plastic wrap directly on the soil. I put them in a place which stays about 40-50 degrees and wait for 28 days. Do not cover as they need light to germinate but not direct sunlight.

I have this dream of having the perfect English Garden with all the pretties bobbing above the roses and boxwood and topiaries. I grow delphiniums but not as gorgeous and also self-seeding like the English do. If I keep composting and give them half shade and the richest soil possible maybe this year they will be as good as the English? If not the sweet peas and poppies nearby and the roses in front of them, and boxwood holding all together will still say sweet English garden! I've already impressed the rabbits for years. Our sheep are impressed and think it's their gourmet garden bar when they get out. Now to impress the English.

English Roses: The language of love

Roses are so heady with fragrance and their lush cups of ruffled opulence dazzle us all. The english roses of David Austin look like the roses of the old masters paintings. They are made from some of the same bones, if you will.

I found my 2010 catalog unopened hidden in with some mail. The pictures make you a bit giddy especially if you love roses. David's display gardens in England are perfect! The foxgloves, the catmint, and the campanulas all mixed in and overflowing with happiness!

Our ground is still frozen. But we can surely dream.... To see his beautiful rose selections go to www.DavidAustinroses.com