Why Fling? Reflections from Denver

After having come home from the latest Garden Bloggers Fling I have been trying to sort out the best way to share this wonderful experience. Do I share garden by garden? Do I do an overview of the whole experience? Do I pick styles of gardens? Favorite blooms? Sometimes it is overwhelming to wrap your head around the Fling, it is so packed with gardens, it is hard to process all that you saw.

Some might ask what the heck is a Garden Bloggers Fling. Fair question. A Garden Bloggers Fling is a gathering of 80+ garden bloggers from all across the States, Canada, and a few from the UK. We are hosted by a fellow garden blogger team in their city and tour private and public gardens. The time of year is dependent on the location. Last year was Texas, we went early, in May. This year we went to Denver and it was mid-June.

What draws me to come back year after year? The bloggers! We gather into buses. The conversations fly... catching up with each other, making new friends, what gardens did you like best, and everything else under the sun!

Meals are another opportunity to chat.

Lunch at Denver Botanic Garden

Lunch at Boulder's Dushanbe Teahouse in the rose garden 

Dinner in town 

After of course, when we are dog tired but aren't ready for the night to end, we gather in the hotel-

Downstairs in the bar lobby area

Upstairs on the 27th floor restaurant with a view of the sunset and city

Sunset over Denver

Our farewells are full of hugs and promises to come to next year's Fling. Breakfast out before we go our separate ways is peppered with lots of laughs.

I cherish the bloggers I have gotten to know over the years. There are no strangers, only friends you don't know yet. Want to be a part of this group? Do you write a garden blog? Is it older than six months? Have you posted in the last year at least once? All guidelines are here. Come and commune with your people, your tribe, your kindred spirits.
More posts in the upcoming weeks from Denver's Fling. I leave you with one of the many gorgeous views of the mountains.

©Copyright 2019 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Wildflower Wednesday- Orchids

This is a quick addendum to my previous post on Crane-fly Orchids, back in July.  This native ephemeral plant has those beautiful green basal leaves that are present in the winter and then a flower stalk in the summer. Well, this week while walking through the shade garden I noticed a spent flower stalk.

Tipularia discolor

Difficult to photograph with a cell phone, the automatic focus function has a hard time focusing on the slender stalk.  I persevered and was able to get a couple shots. Here is the best. Look at all those seed pods! I believe we will have a nice stand of Tipularia discolor, Crane-fly Orchid for years to come. 

Be sure to stop by Gail's blog for Wildflower Wednesday.



©Copyright 2019 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Number Three - Fragrance in the Winter Garden

The third and final post in the Fragrance in the Winter Garden series includes two shrubs. First is one of our native Witchhazel, Hamamelis vernalis or Ozark Witchhazel. I have ordered a number of  these Witchhazel from Missouri Department of Conservation over the past few years. You order them in bundles of ten bare-rooted seedlings. I have planted them all over the property --most have survived but few have bloomed. One day I hope to share photos of a large shrub, full of fragrant spicy clove blooms.  Be sure to check out the link for the Department of Conservation, the seedlings are a nice size and a great price. 

The second shrub I have included in this winter fragrance round-up is Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans. Tea Olive blooms multiple times during the year, this is not its only nor its heaviest bloom period but it is appreciated at this time of year. 

This photo below shows the cluster of tiny white blooms on a bare stem. This shrub for some unknown reason lost all its leaves, bloomed heavily, leafed out again, then died. When it had its first leaf drop I thought for sure it was voles eating the roots because this shrub variety has few pests or disease issues. Sadly it was not the case, so it is still a mystery.

These tiny white blooms are hard to photograph. The fragrance has been equated to Fruit Loops cereal-- kind of funny.  Mature size can be 10- 15 feet tall and wide. It can handle part shade to full sun.  Deer leave this shrub alone, another bonus in my garden.





I have seen some pruned up to be a small tree and others a full shrub. It is quite adaptable to pruning.  This one by our shed is well over the gutter line of the roof on the shed. You can see it behind the Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide'. It is one of seven Osmanthus fragrans in my garden and the largest. It gets more water than some but not as much as others....hard to tell why this one is doing so well.




























Thanks for stopping by to see what's fragrant in my garden. Do you have fragrant blooms this time of year in your garden?


©Copyright 2019 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.