One of the plants that I’m really glad that I planted in my yard are the gauras. Some people call them butterfly plants, but that’s not their correct name.  (I also planted some butterfly flowers)  What I love about the gaura plants is that they put out these long skinny stems with little flowers on them that wave and sway in the wind, and that’s something we have plenty of here in Oklahoma. They look so graceful when they’re dancing in the wind.

This is what the individual little flowers look like on the gaura stems.  Aren’t they pretty!!!  I orginally had two of them in my back yard and loved them so much that I went back and bought 4 more.

I also have a bunch of pots around the edge of my patio and I have colorful dianthus and string sedum growing in them. It all makes for a lovely view our my computer room window.

Well, maybe not my house, but the wind was really blowing here Saturday and Sunday, and this is what’s left of the rose bush that I showed you on Friday’s blog. It must have happened sometime Sunday afternoon, because the rose bush was still there when I came home from church Sunday. Oh well, we’ll just consider that a little “self pruning”.

However, the wind didn’t seem to bother the rose bushes in the back yard at all. Today the wind was not blowing so vigorously and I managed to get this shot in one of the moments when the roses weren’t waving in the wind too terribly.

And here is my very first peony to bloom in the new yard.  I just love peonies. Most likely because we had them in our yard when I was growing up.

Look what was waiting to greet me in the back yard this morning. It’s Jessie’s Song . . . a lovely iris. The irises that we moved from Alice’s yard to mine hardly knew that they had been moved because we did it so quickly.  So I have high hopes that most of them will go ahead and bloom for me this year.

I wasn’t really keen on having rose bushes in my landscaping plan, but this is one that the landscape guy who my builder provided recommended.  You see, I’ve never been really GOOD with roses and I didn’t want to have to pamper any thing planted in my yard. I’m sure glad he talked me into this Home Run rose bush. I have this one in the front and since I liked it so much (it blooms constantly) I also put in 3 in the back yard as well . . . 2 Home Run bushes and one Double Knock Out rose bush.  In fact they are so prolific that I’m now thinking of creating a  long skinny island of rose bushes on the strip of land out front that separates my neighbor’s driveway from my driveway.

And see how all the pink tulips are looking out front of the house.  Beyond the tulips you can see my driveway, then that narrow strip of grass and then my neighbor’s driveway.  That narrow strip is where I’m thinking of putting the rose bushes.  Your thoughts?

I now have a respectable showing of lovely pink tulips out in the front flower bed. It took them long enough, but they were worth the wait.

Would you believe it’s a geranium?  I never knew that geraniums came in so many different colors. I thought they only came in the basic red. Go figure. Our Garden Club went to a local nursery today . . . Whispering Springs Greenhouse.  I don’t believe I’ve ever been to a nursery where all the plants looked so healthy.  I didn’t intend to purchase any plants unless they had cilantro. They did but I couldn’t resist some of the others too.

I planted the cilantro in this large pot along with some Anagallis for a little color. It’s a delicate little ground cover with lovely little pink flowers. I also bought some columbine and more oxalice, but I’ll have to plant that all tomorrow, because it’s been raining here all day.

As you can see, the tulips are actually starting to emerge. Maybe by the end of tomorrow there will a lot more to look at.

I’m also glad that I planted several different kinds of daffodils, because they bloom at different times and I like having color in the yard at ALL times.

Alice and I went to Tulsa yesterday for our Cousins Reunion. There were 6 of us cousins(pictured above) and 4 spouses and/or dates.  I was really glad that we had agreed to attend. It had been over 40 years since I’d seen three of the cousins and only 2 years since I’d seen the other one.  And I had NEVER met any of their spouses.  We had a great time. I’ll bet that restaurant was glad to see us leave . . . we were quite loud and boisterous.  At least they had us in a separate room. My photos did not turn out nearly as well as Tom’s or Steve’s. You can see some of those on Alice’s blog.

PS – Still no tulips, however they look like they’re slightly closer to blooming. Maybe tomorrow.

It’s like they are poised to become tulips, but they are a little hesitant to actually pop open. They’ve been “poised” like this for several days now and don’t seem to be making any progress.  Perhaps it’s because cold weather made a come-back and they might be waiting for it to go away for good.  Maybe Sunday or Monday we’ll see them open up, but probably not again tomorrow, because it’s cold and rainy with more of the same on tap for tomorrow.

Here’s a photo of my latest project . . as promised. Gotta run now, though.  I just have time to take a shower, change clothes and go to a friend’s house for dinner and cards.