Anna, your garden is a joy to look at. Thanks for the pics. My plants suffered as well and some have bounced back, and some have not. I will look forward to seeing more pics of your very colorful garden in the future.

simply gorgeous

Beautiful job. I can see the artistry where the colors and textures come together; everything flows from one place to another. That patch of lawn is perfect, every garden should have one.

I'm most curious as to the size of the property - total - and how much of that is garden. It looks to be over an acre and I wouldn't be surprised if it were two.

This is a lovely garden, pentas are looking gorgeous... which plant is that with orange/red blooms in the fourth pic?

i am jealous!!!!!! that is an incredible looking yard. need to keep strolling and keep sharing pictures. love it!

Thank you Anna for the tour, I can see the artist in you as well, what a beautiful arrangements of plants! It looks like everything is coming back to life just fine. You have some amazing garden!

Silvia

Oh yes, your garden is lovely. I know what you mean, it has taken a long time for the plants to recover. My spathoglottis are just now starting to bloom again. And some plants still aren't at their best.

Please keep posting pictures so we remain inspired. ;o)

It looks like a Botanicle Garden. Beautifully done Anna!

Hi Anna. Your garden is so inspiring - so glad to see you posting pictures again. In looking at some older threads, I realized that you've been "missing" recently. I'll echo Stuartwanda's comment - yours is like a botanic garden.

June

Beautiful!

Thank-you, all of you. You made me feel so good! Makes me feel like going out and gardening. Yes, it's been a rough gardening year, but hopefully this winter won't be as bad.

Ricky, thanks for the compliment! Your garden has been a source of inspiration for me. We have an acre and about 3500sq feet of grass, split up in two swatches, this side yard (the largest side of our property), and the front yard). The rest is garden beds, paths, and hardscape.

Izhar, the plant is a shrimp plant, a justicia, which is shorter and more upright than the regular shrimp plant. As it grows, I have been sticking cuttings here and there, and as long as they stay watered, most seem to take. I wish you were closer, I would be happy to share with you, but I don't think the cuttings would travel well!

Wallisadi, your photos have kept me going for a long time! Thank-you!

Juneroses, I have been busy with family matters for quite a while, so I don't check in as often. Thanks for noticing. I hope I can start back more regularly.

Thank-you, rory tropicals, woodsgranny, silvia, katkin, stuartwanda and sunworshiper!

I realized I didn't post a pic of the pond. It is difficult to photograph well because of reflection, etc.

Anna

Wow, I would love to walk in your garden! I may never come back.

That's a beautiful garden! It looks like a public garden. How do you take care of all of that?

Anna, I am always looking forward to your garden pictures. Fantastic.

Anna, I was holding my breathe until you posted the photo of your pond. I thought I remembered, from your earlier pics, that the Cieba was growing by the pond, and now there was just grass. lol
You have done a remarkable job of recovery. I see a lot of different plants, but beautiful just the same.
BTW the heliconias you gave me are doing very well. They spent the winter in the greenhouse. Thank you.
john

Life is renewed! I'm stunned by the beauty in your garden Anna...guess I'm going to have to send you a sign for the front yard too, Anna's Botanical Gardens ;-)

Ginger, olya and tom, thank-you!

Amberroses, I try to spend an hour or two a day in early morning or evening most days, more on weekends. I wish I had more time. I have a little mower and I mow and use the blower once weekly, my DH edges and cleans the pond once weekly. We both enjoy the garden. I do the small planting, most all the pruning, deadheading, picking up, pulling, and he is the brawn and does the building, digging, large planting, sawing, etc. We are a good team. We designed and are the sole caretakers of our garden. It's been trial and error, and it still is! The large trees were here, but we planted everything else. We've been here 4 1/2 years. Once or twice yearly we have a tree guy come out and cut some stuff that's too high, too big, etc. The rest we do ourselves.

John, the floss silk tree is in the fifth picture. It is actually starting to bloom now. You can see the spent pink blooms on the grass. I actually prefer its beautiful foliage spring and summer, and the trunk. This time of year it starts shedding the leaves as it prepares to go bare, and it looks a bit ratty. Three and a half years ago it was 3 feet tall when we planted it by our newly completed pond. Now it is about 30 feet tall, but I don't think it will grow much anymore. I also have a bombax, but it is still small- maybe 5 feet tall. My heliconias really suffered this winter. My pendula almost died. It is slowly making a comeback. If it gets hit hard again this winter, it may be gone for good. Here is the only heliconia I have blooming right now. It is an orange-yellow gyro. Robin, who used to be on GW, traded me one rhizome maybe 4 years ago, and here it is now. It is a monster. The others will hopefully bloom later.

Anna

Wow, Anna!
It is simply magical. As always.
I hardly ever come here anymore, but once awhile I check just to see if Anna or Ricky posted some pictures of their beautiful garden. This time I was in luck.
It has been an tough year here as well. Seeing your pictures makes me want to get out there and start gardening again. Your heliconia pendula has survived, let me know if yours does not, I can always mail you back some.
Thank you for you wonderful pictures.
What is the plant in the second picture to the left of the bird's nest anthurium?
Veronika

Thank you so much Anna, now I got the ID of the plant, will search it out in our local nurseries... I can only wish to have such a beautiful garden.... I really enjoyed this virtual tour...

Izhar

Hi Veronika!

The plant to the left of the anthurium is a philodendron williamsii. It is huge- difficult to appreciate the scale in the photo. Started out very tiny. It is an easy plant, and has a funny growth habit. It grows straight up with a trunk, like a tree. It must be so heavy, and I keep thinking it will flop down in a wind, but it keeps growing up! I am glad you still have the pendula back up. This is why it's so good to share plants. We will see what the winter holds!

Izhar, what was the name on the justicia? I am glad you liked the tour.

Anna

Seeing the pink pentas everywhere make me happy, especially next to the cassia. I have put a few more pentas around this year too and like them a lot.

As always, your garden is beautiful..

Melissa

Beautiful!

It was Justicia brandegeana...

Hi Melissa! The pentas are such generous plants, they make me happy too. We haven't seen your beautiful yard in a while, have we? Maybe I just haven't been around that much.

Thanks mammie.

Izhar, I know it is a justicia brandegeana, but I think it is a different cultivar of it. I have the usual one as well, and it is taller and ganglier. This one is more compact and upright. I like them both, but this one is more practical for smaller spaces. I will have to spend some time on the internet to see if I can find out the specifics.

Anna

No, Anna I don't think I have posted a picture all summer. My garden was flattened last winter and like you we have not had much rain. Some parts look better than others but it is amazing what has recovered despite the conditions. The crepe myrtles were star performers all summer and I have an African blue basil that is pretty stunning. Mostly I have just been working an ungodly number of hours the last few months and my garden has had to fend for itself. Another few weeks and I should be through the worst of that too. I'll try to get out tomorrow and snap a few shots.

Melissa

Anna,

Your garden and pond are absolutely beautiful. I love the way it all looks so natural yet artistic. That is the look I'm struggling to achieve. Thanks for the inspiration.

John

Anna,

Did you & hubby dig that pond or was it already there? I've been toying with the idea of putting one in some day. I look at yours and 'some day' seems closer and closer. :o)

Lou

Looking forward to seeing your garden photos, Melissa.

Thanks, babalu aye, it took deciding to have little grass that gave us the freedom to plan other things to fill the space!

Lou, we planned the pond, marked it with a hose and landscape paint, and hired an acquaintance with a bobcat to dig it out. It is almost 4 feet deep in the middle with a shelf all the way around (for safety), and 46 feet across, so it seemed to defy one well-intentioned guy with a shovel. We also hired a pond company to install the equipment, edging, and give us advice. The pond has been a wonderful thing, but it does involve work and was expensive. The old adage about wishing it were a little bigger no matter how big one makes it is still true! At the time of accomplishing the task, it seems like a huge job, and it is. Good luck!

Anna,

My tractor has the bucket loader and backhoe and I could do the digging myself. I'm on a hill and was thinking of putting 3 cascading pools, brooks with waterfalls in between each pool and the pump run with solar electric. The picture gives an idea about the slope of the hill I have in the back. It runs about that angle for around 500 feet then levels out to around five or six more acres of level original forest.

Wow, Lou, sounds like an elaborate project. A lot to take on at once! That's great you have a backhoe. That should cut down on the expense considerably, and you can plan where to put the dirt little by little. You might spend some time on the pond forum and ask a lot of questions there before you get started.

About the slope. It is important to consider what would happen if a large rain came. You wouldn't want the surrounding dirt/mulch/ extra water running in your pond. The pond margins should be pretty level so that doesn't happen. When using a liner, it is very important for the pond to be almost perfectly level so the edge of the liner doesn't show a lot in any one spot. Just some things to consider.

You have a beautiful site for it. You are lucky to have so much land. Make sure to site it where you can admire it from a window, porch, or commonly visited area! Good luck!

Anna

Anna,

Thanks for the pointers, I will check around first before starting and I would only do one pool at a time, If it works well for the first pool then I can think of adding another. The brook would start at the side of our back deck then to a 6 foot drop cascading waterfall down to the pool. The brook would have one of those arching bridges over it and be the start of a nature path. I have it all in my mind on the layout. My wife is never too keen on my projects at first but always loves it when I get done. I just love the look of your nature paths and would like to do something like that here. I'm inspired by your pictures.

Thank You, Lou

hi Anna

so nice to see your garden again and to see how it has recovered. We lost many large landscape trees, coconut and fishtail palms and traveller palms. First the cold winter and then the hot hot summer.

what a wonderful job you do with yours. a thing of beauty, your Giverny.

Denise

Anna,

Absolutely beautiful, you sure have an eye for landscaping.

Well, Lou, you have some bona fide, REAL nature paths in YOUR landscape with beautiful surrounding trees already, so you've got a great start already! I'm glad to have provided a little inspiration. That's what's great about GW, we get inspiration from so many members!

Denise, so nice to 'see' you again. So sorry about the loss of your trees. We lost quite a few things too, and some are still struggling to survive. I guess that happens when we try to push the zone limits. You can't fool mother nature. I don't know about Giverny, but one can dream! Ha ha...thanks for the compliment on the yard.

Bamboo rabbit, thank-you! I so enjoy seeing your pics also. I thought it was time to share some ornamental pics on this forum. I love seeing the veggies, but miss seeing ornamentals sometime. We all need to post more of all kinds of photos so we can get ideas from each other!

Anna