For the Love of White (and Purple)

When we first started landscaping, I saw in a magazine this lovely cottage house with all white flowers in the yard. I fell in love with that idea for my house. It looked so old-fashioned with hydrangeas and other flowering bushes. So for three years we planted white azaleas and snowball bushes and roses and butterfly bushes and just about everything else white we could get our hands on.

Let me tell you it's not easy to find white flowers. I mean, I agree, red geraniums are the way to go, no question. But all kinds of color is for my back yard. The front yard had a certain look I was going for and the look was old fashioned and WHITE.

I would often grieve to buy something that was so pretty at the gardening store, then have to remind myself, "No. It's not white."

Right now we have bridal wreath blooming in several spots in the front and side yard.

And the azaleas are starting to do their thing. Hello, Sweet Azaleas!

(The flowering almond behind that little birdhouse was beautiful last week but the rain took its toll on the blooms. Man. I love it when it's all puffed up and white.)

Well, white is still the rule for our front yard, but we've broken it big time by planting a ground cover in the "flower bed" in the side yard. The green-most-of-the-year little honeys we planted last summer have totally filled in the bed now. So lush and beautiful and green...with PURPLE blooms!

I guess we all need to make a rule and break it once and awhile. Or at least color a little outside the lines. Loving it!