This spring I didn’t want to miss a chance to record all the beauty of the garden and I had my daughter come and take photos. She owns a photography business, You Make Me Shutter, that specializes in Fitness and Fashion photography and senior portraits. It was an amazing season for peonies this year and my peony bushes have finally matured enough to produce a bumper crop.
Adding a lot of foxgloves to the garden has been a beautiful addition. Their height and grace is a well needed addition to the roses and peonies.
The Dalmatian foxglove below has beautiful dark maroon spots that adds great contrast to the pale pink/lavender petals.
This past fall I also made an effort to plant a lot of pansies and edible flowers. These gorgeous pansies were scattered around the garden and their little cheerful faces are always a welcome addition in the early spring months. Surprisingly, this year I got really good stem length on the pansies and was able to add them to many of my designs.
This black pansy has bloomed for months, from early spring and continuing into June. The black pansies are from Baker Creek/ Rare Seeds and ended up having over 10 inch long stems.
In fall of 2018, I planted a new bed of bearded irises. I wanted to make this a unique offering at Blossom and Branch. Their beautiful color and shapes did not disappoint. All of these irises were purchased from Schreiner’s Irises.
This bearded iris amidst the Southern Charm verbascum and white Festiva Maxima peonies. These two peony bushes were planted in 2010 and are almost a decade old. The produced around 15+ stems per bush this year and got to be used in two weddings in Charlotte. 
May is the month where the roses explode in our area of 7B North Carolina. This is Earth Angel, a beautiful pinkish white cupped rose.
Another big late-April very early May crop is ranunculus. This is a favorite among floral designers.
Spring remains my favorite season in the garden here. The temperatures are not too hot yet, there are no BUGS, and it seems like everything blooms at one time. There is never a day that you don’t find something new in the garden. I want to especially thank my daughter Jessica for the beautiful photos of myself in the garden. If you would like to see more flower photos please follow me on instagram at Blossom and Branch.
Photos by: You Make Me Shutter, Jessica McDowell.