We had a real long, cold, and snowy winter here in Minnesota. We loved it, but by April we were ready for some spring. 2014 was not real helpful with getting spring going. It didn’t really happen until mid May this year but once it happened, it was beautiful! I would like to offer this quote I find nice about flowers:
Just living is not enoughβ¦
one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
Hans Christian Andersen
Gardening is not a real hobby at our house. Mom goes to the store, reads the tags on plants and buys ones she finds pretty, that fit with the sunlight conditions. We don’t have a garden. We have lots of flowering bushes and trees and we plant five or six planters on the front step and deck which is the extent of our gardening. Most of the time we don’t know what the names of the plants are that we have in our landscaping. We have a landscaping plan, but things have changed and Mom has added bushes but not made a note of their names.
Some flowers are obvious like our very favorite lilacs! We only wish they lasted all summer long with their beautiful aroma. Well, actually, we dogs are glad they are short lived as Mom is always stopping to sniff them on our walks. We need to keep moving to find wabbits and squirrels, but she needs to sniff these lilacs. We took a couple shots of them going from almost nothing to full blown lilacs.
These pink flowers are so pretty!
Obviously, this is a rose. Even a dog knows that, especially me since I got my ears stuck in one as a puppy. These are painful, but beautiful flowers!
We did plant some crab apple trees because we like their color, and their flowers are so pretty in the spring!
Don’t know what this bush is, but the flowers are pretty.
Since Mom becomes a scent hound when the lilacs are in bloom, I had to offer the advice in the photo above. Remember to take time to always enjoy all the beauty in the world around you!
Find even more beauty by joining in the Blog Hop inspired by Sugar the Golden Retriever and See Beautiful. Today is the two year anniversary of this beautiful bloghop. Be sure to stop by a few new blogs and see more beautiful
we used to live in Minnesota too – in Woodbury…gosh we loved going to all the art and craft shows and the parks and dad loved all the bike trails. Spring summer and fall were the best – but those winters……they were tough π
Wow! I go to nose work school in Woodbury, and Bailie went to Obedience classes there too. We were just there last night for vehicle searches π Nice area, we like the newer suburbs with all the shopping and trails for walking and running. Winter can be tough, but we love it too.
Your Mom and I garden the same way. I look at the tag and if it is pretty and does need to watered to often it is mine !
Everyone has hobbies, but gardening isn’t on the list at our place π
Lovely blooms and your garden must be very pretty. Yikes about the rose bush and your ears. That is something you won’t forget in a hurry. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
It was painful, but it was almost worse for Mom, she still feels bad about it.
What’s a lilac? I do not think we have them in Florida. We do have confederate jasmine that blooms in the spring that smells pawsome. We have just trees in our backyard. The flower beds in the front have lots of hummingbird and butterfly friendly plants. The mom gets so happy when she spies a hummer. Me, I am still learning and I love the sticks (sometimes a branch) that fall off the trees, but I get in trouble when I haul them into the house! XOXO Sparkle the PBGV
Bailie is known to rip branches off our trees and shrubs to gnaw on. It gets her in lots of trouble, but since she is still a puppy for a few more days, she is taking full advantage of it I think.
I love lilacs, too. The only shrub I like more is the butterfly bush. They’re not only beautiful, they bloom all summer and they really do attract lots of butterflies. Unfortunately, nearly all of mine died in our horrible winter, and I had to go out and plant more.
–Wags (and purrs) from Life with Dogs and Cats
Mom will have to check those out as we have no clue what that is. Flowering bushes are so nice to have around.
Flowers are definitely beautiful. I am not much of a gardener either. I do the same thing, look at the tags, buy and plant BOL. I need to work more on weeding the gardens though! haha! That is definitely not my fav thing to do!!! Sheesh!
α¦ husky hugz α¦ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Mom ordered 25 tons of rock a few years ago because she dislikes having to put out mulch every year or two, and I used to eat mulch. She put the rock right over the remaining mulch a good 4″+ thick and we don’t get many weeds at all which is nice.
Gorgeous photos! Lilacs are my favorite flowers.
And they have such a great smell, well, not quite as nice as a wabbit or squirrel, but not bad.
I have always loved that quote. And all the flowers are beautiful, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know the names.
Exactly! As long as they don’t die on us, we are good.
Mom makes it work for her.
That is right!
Wow! Lots of beautiful flowers! I love lilacs, too, although every time I see them I start reciting Walt Whitman. Crab apples are so pretty when they bloom–Barley and I were sad that the crab apple collection at the arboretum where we walk seems to be taking a break from blooming this year, so thanks for sharing a picture so we could enjoy their beauty anyway!
They are just beautiful in the spring. Our neighbors behind us even thanked us for planting them in the back of our yard so they can enjoy them too!
How did you get your ear stuck in a rose? Lilacs are my favorite flower…we can’t really grow them here in SoCal…too hot and dry. I miss them.
It was dark, the middle of the night and I needed to go out. We had tons of rose bushes around the house and it is always windy on the North Sea. My baby ears were real light and thin. The wind just wrapped my ear around a stem and I was screaming. Being dark, Mom couldn’t see what she was doing and I was screaming more, it was ugly. Finally got my ear free and then the other one did the same thing. Lesson learned…no walking the puppy by the rose bushes!
LOVE seeing all the Beautiful flowers. We can totally relate having cold n long winter so we are loving every minute of Sumer weather. In our house we love gardening and wish we have more space to plant more flowers. We wish Lilacs is an all season flowers. Happy Seeing Beauty. Golden Woofs
Mom would love lilacs that lasted forever! Gardening is a nice hobby, but not for us. Too many other things to do anyway and miss Bailie would most likely dig stuff up anyway, she is that kind of puppy.
Those are beautiful flowers Emma! Do you help your mom with them? I like to stretch out wherever my mom is digging. I think fresh dirt feels good on my belly. She doesn’t appreciate my help. I love the photos today! Your Basset, Bentley
I help Mom get the flowers in the pots, get my paws dirty, but that is about it. I love being a dirty mess in general, not specifically with potting soil π
My mom is not really a gardener, she always looks in the bargain bin when she buys plants and so the plants are goners before they move in and we have not much to do :o) The color of your rose is beautiful,it’s perfect for a candle light dinner… (I’m also not the rose-guy, one of them bit me in my ear that all my blood was on the ground, mean thingy!) Have a beautiful Friday!
After my ear experience with roses at 9 weeks old, I’m careful too!
My mom screamed like an air raid siren because of all the blood and she looked like Chucky the killer-doll as I shaked my head :o)
Ears do tend to bleed heavily! What a mess!
Blooming season sure is a pretty one!
Sad most of the blooms only last a short time, but that is better than nothing.
Beautiful flowers! My mom is allergic, so she doesn’t sniff flowers. BOL! Pawsome that you are giving your mom some scent hound lessons.
Hugs,
Pepper
Oh, that would be bad! We have taught her to locate lilacs but that is about it and with her nose she needs an entire bush in her face to notice. Poor humans!
The smell of lilacs has been wafting in our back windows all week! You have a beautiful garden Emma it takes a winter like we had to appreciate it to its fullness! Love Dolly
Very true. The flowering bushes and trees seem extra pretty this year. We had the lilacs wafting in the front door at our house.
Hi Y’all!
Oh what beautiful flowers shots!
It’s so important in life to remember to take time to see and enjoy the beauty around us. Enjoy the journey…
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Mom finds it sad that so many humans have stuff in their ears, are on their phones, etc, and don’t take in what is going on around them.
Gorgeous photography! I am the same way with names, I just get things that I like. Because I’ve lived on a nursery my whole life, I am familiar with some of the names. Otherwise I’d probably have no idea!
Thank you! I would think you would have all the fancy plants and most beautiful gardens, but you may not be as interested having been around it forever.
Lilacs are one of my favorites as well, and I also have to stop and smell them when we’re on walks! We’ve tried to get our own bushes going in our yard but haven’t had very good luck with them. Some of my prettiest bushes (rhododendron and clematis) are in bloom right now and I went and forgot the See Beautiful hop!
Mom planted the lilacs three years ago and they are huge already. They don’t get special treatment, so no idea how it happens.
Beautiful photography – I’m getting into flowers slowly, my true passion is trees. I love trees that bear flowers – Magnolias are my favorite!
Trees and bushes with flowers are great! Just can’t get into the gardening thing around here.
I’m pretty fond of lilacs too!
Not too many humans dislike them. Mom loves that she can smell them from so far away!
I have to say, you’re mom is a better gardener than me. We have weeds that look pretty, so I’ve let them stay, rather than weed them. In fact, I hope they take over so I never have to weed again! π
Your mom’s choices of flowers are beautiful! Happy spring!
LOL! Thanks. We are pretty good about keeping weeds out around here.
Those flowers are beautiful! We don’t have many flowers this summer. Mom usually plants them in the pots but Diesel keeps digging everything up. Guess we’ll wait til next summer to have some pretty flowers!
We have been in the boat with holiday decorations and Bailie. Some things just can’t be done with a pup in the house.
Your flowers are beautiful!
Thank you!
We don’t like to garden either! I have a black thumb. π The only thing I can handle is succulents, which is just as well since they grow well in our dry climate! Gorgeous pics. We don’t get lilac here. It’s beautiful! And that rose photo is gorgeous!
Mom has a green thumb but doesn’t enjoy using it. No matter what we plant, it grows but Mom has no interest in it π Flowering trees and bushes are great because they just happen!
Lilacs are one of my favorites too! We have two bushes in the yard now with plans for more. I have a friend who is allergic to lilacs and it was difficult to walk with her because I would slow down to sniff and she would hold her breath and rush by any lilacs we passed.
Amazing! We had never heard of people being allergic to lilacs until this post. That would be a real bummer as we love them too.
I just adore lilacs. We had huge ones in Maine years ago, so big we could cut branches of blooms for the house. They don’t seem to like VA as much but we have 3 small ones. I agree with your mom, the blooms need to last longer or do a fall encore!
For some reason we don’t think you can cut them and have them in a vase like flowers. Mom has tried, but it never worked.
Such Beautiful flowers (or flowering shrubs) Emma. I am enjoying the flowers too. So many to remind us how Beautiful nature can be! Have a wonderful weekend!
Oz
Mom and I love bright colors anyway, so the flowering bushes and trees are really great!
Lovely flowers. You and your Mom do really good work. Keep up the good sniffing – DogDaz
We are all about sniffing at my place!
Lilacs are one of my all time favorites! They are so fragrant, sadly, they don’t last that long. For not knowing what she is doing, your flowers are GORGEOUS!!! Oh and I loved your comment on Cat Chat….your philosophy for why you subscribe to blogs via email is the same as mine!
The lilacs are already pretty much gone here, bummer. As for the email subscription thing, someone needs to really explain to me why it is better to have a whole different program. Maybe Mom and I are missing something, but we are like you and don’t get it!
The human buys plants with lots of flowers and then realises she doesn’t know what to do with them when it comes time to repot or when the flowers start to die and the plant looks ugly… not much of a gardener either…
But you have a lot of pretty flowers in your garden! π
Luckily, with our winters everything dies in the fall anyway, so we can start fresh!
Such beautiful flowers you get to see and smell. I love the rose photo just beautiful
I really prefer the smell of a critter, but flowers get Mom sniffing.
Pretty pictures. When we visited Niagara Falls many years ago we went to the Centennial Lilac Garden. The bushes were all blooming in every shade of purple. Some of the bushes were very old. It was a magical place and the scent of the flowers was wonderful. One of the coolest places I have ever been.
Oh, my mom would love that! Gramma is from Buffalo so the used to go to the falls a lot but we have never heard about the lilacs there.
That park is on the Canadian side. π
Which they all say is the better side, but I still haven’t heard of it. I will have to give Gramma a call.
Your mum sounds as green fingered as my typist. I bet your garden looks lovely, even if you can’t name everything in it!!
We have had so much rain this year, everything is growing like weeds, even the weeds! It pretty much takes care of itself and we like it that way.
Currently typist is growing grass and not much else in her garden!
We have lots of that too.
I love the smell of lilacs too and really want to plant some in my yard.
Our spring was slow in coming too, but you are right, once it got here it’s been glorious! Warm during the day but not humid and cooling off beautifully at night. I was just commenting to my mom about how enjoyable this spring has been. In years past it seems we have gone straight from winter into summer.
Right now we are pretty much under water, so it isn’t so nice anymore, but hopefully it will stop raining soon and be nice for a few days in a row.