Friday Flowers

What's blooming now? Let's see...

Might you know this bloom?

This is a flower from the datura plant, an annual also called thorn-apple. I love the colors!

The gardenias continue their blooms. They like lots of water, sun and food. A bit demanding, but their scent on a summer evening is the reward. We use lots of them for bouquets.

One of Pieter's beloved employees gave him the original pineapple lily bulb and he has slowly been nurturing it to multiply. This is such a charming, unassuming flower that is very long-lasting as a cut flower. No scent that I can detect, though.

Inspired by Gina over at Art & Alfalfa blog, I planted Shirley poppy seeds. They did great, but are slowly starting to fade. This white version looked charming with the dichondra.

Dichondra is an under used trailing plant for pots and window boxes. It just gushes out of the container and grows very long. The silver/green goes with everything.

We harvested a few greens for floral work at Pieter's studio. The maidenhair fern (in the bottom front) was specifically requested by a client for its delicacy.

Tell us- what is blooming in your garden?

Our Scented Garden

Walking into the back garden right now, the rich scents of summer's blooms are evident. And it is also one of the main reasons I like to garden!

If you are a gardenia lover, you are in luck. Gardenias tend to bloom in flushes and we are in the first flush of the season. We overwinter our trees in a cool warehouse. The trees do take a bit of time to recover after we place them in the garden in May.

The Oriental lilies are in full swing. I don't know their names, but I do know they smell divine!

And, last but certainly not least, the Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpets) topiary is finishing its first round of flowering, as it also blooms in flushes. The flowers only last a day or two and are only scented during the evening hours. If you try to smell its fragrance in the morning, you are out of luck. If you remove the spent flowers and fertilize, the plant will bestow you with its soft, slightly lemony fragrance.

What are your favorite scented flowers in the garden?