Daisy, I have wondered so much about you and your absence. Your post thrills me with its content and it's spirit. I hope you have recovered.

Gorgeous pictures!

O, Daisy,it's so nice that you're back. I LOVE that combination of Augusta Louise with that deep burgundy foliage plant-what plant is that??? Also, Harlow Carr is wonderful-is it really that mauvy pink that I'm seeing on my screen?

Yayyyy Im glad you are back and feel up to posting. We have missed you & your garden.

Thank-you Bart. Yes, that is the true colour of Harlow Carr. It also smells delicious.

It is Canna/ Durban/Tropicana/Phasion with Augusta Louise. It has so many names, because there was a quarrel about who raised it first!

It does very well here, whether it is in a large pot or in the ground.

Daisy

So inspiring! Gorgeous! Makes me want to move to Crete! So glad you posted these.

You might have posted them before but they sure seemed new to me this morning. What wonderful combinations you created!

wink wink.. nobody cares if they are last years pix.. just post more pix .. and dont tell us ...

glad you are back ... even if it is under a HU name ... i was also wondering where you might be ... its 12 degrees outside right now.. and it been an annual pleasure to see your cretan garden in my winter ...

plz do more

ken

ps.. that is 12 F ... which i believe.. if i converted it.. is .. REALLY COLD IN CELSIUS ..... lol ... foot of snow.. ground frozen a foot down.. etc ...

Lovely photos, thank you! I think I have to find space for Harlow Carr now.

Do I remember correctly or did you have a glorious Marechal Niel in your garden? I was trying to find the photo and show it to my little first year transplant. I am sure it needs encouragement (and possibly a shovel) after a couple of weeks of minus 10 degrees C.

Wonderful that you are back on the forum!

Daisy, I am so happy to see you posting. I am so sorry that you have had health issues that were serious enough to put you in the hospital.

Your Augusta louise combined with a canna is pretty spectacular!

Hope to see more of your pictured, old or new, they are all priceless

Beautiful photos! They're all new to me at I am new here. I am sorry to hear about your health challenges last year. I hope this year brings you good health and plenty of time to enjoy your wonderful garden.

Be still my heart. Absolutely beautiful.

Gorgeous pictures Daisy! I hope you are feeling well now. We love seeing pictures of your garden new or old, edited or unedited. Your Munstead Wood makes a spectacular contrast with the oranger red of those pelargoniums. Spectacular!

Lovely photos, Daisy. Absolutely no need to "tart them up"!

It's even more lovely to have you back.

John

So glad to see you posting again. Your photos are always a treat. For a moment, I thought the photos were 'old' because you had had to leave Crete, and I felt so sad for you (and us), but am delighted to realise you still live there.

I do hope your health problems are behind you.

Hi Daisy. So glad you are back. What did you put in when you took Marechal Niel out? I'm trying my own root MN in the ground.

So beautiful, Daisy! Thanks for sharing these. I needed some color today!

No touching up needed Daisy——- your photos are stunning!

debra

I love the hippeastrums!!

Thank you! A lesson in color in every pic. The photo through the Perle d'Azur arbor keeps drawing me back. Your fire engine red geranium with Munstead is unexpected and stunning! I'll repeat what Ken said - more, please!! Now, I have to look up hippeastrum.

Oh my goodness, those photos are gorgeous! Love the salvia with the canna!

Daisy, thank you so much for posting those glorious pictures! What with COVID, and, at least in the US, way colder than normal temperatures wrecking havoc in normally warm weather areas, we could all use some cheering up, which is what your pics did for me.

Jackie

Daisy, I am so happy you posted these! I needed a little sunshine and your pics certainly delivered. Your garden is gorgeous and I'm so glad you shared it with us.

Daisy, I agree with all of these people who are complimenting you on your photos and your unusual, interesting, and wonderful colour harmonies.

I myself had to re-register with Houzz but did get to decide my own forum name-it is this very stupid "bart bart",but hopefully at least it'll help people "recognize" me. I came back to this forum because I missed the members, but Houzz is really obnoxious...

Daisy, in your Marechal Niel picture is that the rose trunks wrapping around the posts???

I looked up Ali Baba and it does look wonderful, Daisy.

Glad to see your posts again! Welcome back! Wonderful photos as always! Your garden looks so unique & dramatic .Any tips on garden design? How did you start your beautiful garden? These questions have been in my mind for a long time. Would you please share some garden design tips with us? :-)

Have you heard from Nik? He hasn’t posted for a long while. Hope everything goes well with him.

Thank you, Daisy, for the photo! That is the one exactly. I could not get it out of my head, it is so beautiful. I hope the Marechal's successor is growing well for you.

I also hope you have a great spring this year :)

What fertilizer do you use? I love your Marechal Neil photo!

Oursteelers, yes. Marechal Niel is very pliable and a joy to train.

Summers, It is difficult to explain how I design a garden. When I first arrived here, all of the plants were lined up in rows by the house for ease of watering, whilst I cleared the garden of lots of plum saplings, weeds and animal skeletons!!!!

After that I just sat in various places in the garden and just looked. And looked and looked and looked.

There were certain things I knew I had to have, such as a pond, arbours, a short pergola and so on. I also wanted to keep the few remaining mature, small fruit trees. I was already old and knew I would only get older, so I wanted plenty of places to sit throughout the garden. I also wanted to keep the beautiful view down to the Mediterranean Sea.

The placement of the pond was the factor that, once decided upon, made everything fall into place. Remember this is a small garden and having to work around the trees meant that there were only a few places for the pond, pergola etc to go, which made it easier. There was also a change of levels which always makes a more interesting garden. Also I was able to obscure the view through the garden with the pergola and arbours, so that one could not see all of the garden when entering it which was imperative. If one could see everything at a glance, it would be boring.

Hope this helps.

Daisy

Thank you so much for the tips Daisy! We have escaped to the country a couple months ago, left crowed college town behind. My daughter graduated from college and went to a medical school last year, we are no longer needed to live near her Univ. She started college at age 16, became a motorcycle rider at 16 (within a week after she got her driver's license). Yes, she is a biker girl. :-) We didn't want to move far away from the Univ to create longer commute for her. Now we are living at this historical place on acres, half of the land is open field under the sun, half is wooded. I am mapping out a garden and a small orchard like starting an oil painting on a blank canvas. I have some ideas now after reading your garden experience. Thanks again for the great tips, I really appreciate your help! :-) Here are a coupe pics of the blank canvas.

Summer

Daisy, your photos are an inspiration for my as-yet-only-partly-completed garden and a joy to the heart on these bleak winter days!! Thank you!!

Hideous! Assault to the environment! Those Asian tea roses and South American Amaryllids do NOT belong in a Mediterranean garden at all!

Just kidding - beautiful pics and thanks for sharing! Hope your health continues to improve.

Gorgeous, Daisy! Thank you for sharing these lovely garden memories.

So beautiful!!!

Everything is so beautiful!

Daisy, I have loved your garden for years. It is one of my all-time favorite gardens that I have never actually seen.

Thank you, I have learned a new word: Cretan. I wondered if it was an error, but I see it is not.

Everything in your garden looks very happy.

Daisy I always enjoy your beautiful photos...Please keep them coming!

Daisy, I love your garden so much. Your Marechal Neil was so amazing. Thanks for posting it here again. I hope Ali Baba does great there. I agree that you don’t want to see the whole garden at a glance. My back yard is 18x55 feet but I curved a path around a Strawberry tree so you are drawn down the path to see where it leads. The Chinese Garden at the Huntington makes excellent use of path winding and also of framing certain views or specific trees.

Daisy, your photos are always a joy to see, regardless whether they have been posted before. I was actually wondering this week if I had missed some of your postings. I am glad you are home again and hope that having your garden available helps with any healing you may still need.

If you want to go back to being Daisy in Crete (though you may have to change it just a little if Houzz remembers your old sign in), go to your houzz in the upper right hand corner of the page, choose edit profile and settings from the drop down menu, and then go down the page to where there is the heading Profile Information. The first line under that is first name(publicly displayed) and I just put all my info on that line, for me NHBabs z4b-5a NH.

Daisy, I've always enjoyed your color combinations and gardening style. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

Who else needs to see more of Daisy's amazing eye candy garden? old photo posts

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5640053/garden-in-crete-for-brightstar123#n=24

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5580403/i-m-bored#n=19

NHBabs Thank-you for explain how to change my name on Houzz. I will try next time I write a post. Although as I am a Computer moron, don't hold your breath!

Sultry, How did you find those? Thank-you so much for doing so. I tried looking for my old posts, but concluded that Houzz had wiped me out of existence.

Daisy in Crete

Daisy your garden is so spectacular! Thank you for sharing the pictures! You have some really inspiring combinations.

On the Antique Roses forum, go to search at the top and type in Crete in Antique Roses.

Daisy, I think you were posting more on the Antique Rose Forum vs the Roses Forum in the past.

Thanks to NHBabs, I have been able to change my name back to me.

Thank-you Babs.

And thank-you Sultry for your help.

After some hard pruning of the roses this year, only a few of them are flowering so far, but I have been enjoying my gorgeous tulips whilst waiting for them.

I will take some photos to share, when they turn up.

Until then, here is Desdemona from last year.

Daisy

Daisy, Desi is gorgeous!

So, so happy to see your posts. I have to check out about living in Crete. I used to have a woman come and visit me at work from Crete and wanted to take back info about our various mental health programs. She was just the nicest person. Gave me the most beautiful small plaque of St. Christopher for protection. I carry that in a protective sleeve in my purse to this day! I just loved her thoughtfulness.