A View of My Shady Oasis.........

I am the "queen" of close-up photos and seldom take a picture across the yard. I usually don't like the ones I do take, mainly because of no depth perception everything looks like a jumbled blur and a mess. But, I decided to show a few of the shady back yard where I spend most of my time when I am outside.  Starting just outside the screened porch door and looking slightly to the left......

 .......where the stepping stone path begins and turns to the left across the back of the yard.

 

 

There is quite a little incline and this is where the path crosses over the dry creek bed.

 

 

 

Just a few steps along. That is an above ground tree root, bottom right. I have several of those in this yard.

 

 

Looking on and a bit more to the left, directly behind the porch is a large bed of Oriental Jasmine ground cover. It is great for here and can be "mowed" with a weed-eater.

 

 

 

Looking straight on ahead and just beyond where the stone path goes left and back up the incline to the other side of the house. However, if we don't turn up the stone path, straight ahead becomes a mulched path which goes by this bench and on to the very back left corner of the yard.

 

 

 

Just beyond the bench and slightly to the left is a small almost hidden area with a stepping stone patio and the little table and chairs. The huge  macho ferns and other plants help keep this little "room" somewhat hidden.

 

 

 

Getting back on the mulch path we soon come to the big clump of peace lilies where the path does a big curve and heads across the back again but at the very back edge of the yard.

 

 

This is actually looking back in the direction of the clump of lilies  Here, you can see the lower leaves of the native magnolia tree, a large cardboard palm and a small native Coontie.

 

The magnolia bloomed on low enough branches for me to get a few pictures.

 

 

 

Heading on down the path and on our left is where my petaled bicycle sits.

 

 

Ut. Oh, I am back to showing close-ups!

 

 

Next in line is my cherished, old mossy bench.

 

 

Passing up where we started from and up near the corner of the front yard, but still in the shade, sits the little arbor.  I wanted to show it because the sweet potato vine was recently planted on each side and is really taking off. The sago fern is looking better than it ever has, too.

 

 

I love the bright chartreuse green color.

 

 

In closing, I will show a few pictures of some critters that frequent the yard.  The butterflies have really been hard to capture, so far, no especially good pictures.

 

 

 

 

This White Ibis acted like he wanted to pose for me. I have never had one be as friendly as he was.

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As always, thanks for staying with me to the end.

 

Wordless Wednesday - May flowers from my garden

Wordless Wednesday - Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for visiting.

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Lily Time...........

.........I have been enjoying the lily season this spring!  About three weeks ago I saw the swelling of "a" low bud on one of my four Crinum lilies. That is a happy sight!  The next day there was the same on a second plant. It takes some patience because it was about a week later before I found this on a very tall stem......

 

At this stage it looked like the color might be much darker than last year's and they did open to be darker at first and then lightened up to the beautiful peachy pink color.

 

 

They open one blossom each day.

 

 

In fact, it took more than a week for the seven blossoms to be fully opened.  And, the second plant was even slower.

 

Here are five of the seven on the first stem.  They look smaller here than they are when they reach their full bloom.

 

 

 

 

 

It's one of my favorite plants. Too bad they don't last a little longer.  And, too bad those other two lazy plants have not bloomed at all.

 

 

I have shown gloriosa lilies several times on posts but, the plants have multiplied and I have more blooms than ever before - in two locations.  They are vining plants and need something to hang on to. Here they are using a potted Little John Azalea.

 

 

Looking from the opposite direction. 

 

 

I love their exotic, old-fashioned look.  And, also the contrast of the dark azalea and the lilies. I'm not sure Little John likes them clinging so much to him! They really wrap their twining tendrils tightly, all over the place. I am surprised none are showing in these pictures. 

 

 

Oh, here you can see a wrapped tendril in the left top corner.

 

At the other location they are twinned around a trellis and also the blue Plumbago.

 

The big clump of peace lilies has been fuller and showy this spring. This is about

half of them.  You can also see a newer grouping to the back with native petunias between.

 

 

These are one of the few things that got some cold damage this winter but, you cannot tell it now.  I cut out some of the leaves and they grew a lot more new ones.

 

  

 

I have a few daylilies blooming, too.  I am not a big fan of orange but this one is pretty this time with a full-petal look. There should be several blossoms of this as the week goes on.

 

 

 

Early in the year I had this dark orange and yellow one.

 

 

 

All the daylilies have been in the ground for years.  I am not very good with them and they struggle but they have stayed alive.

 

 

 

 

 

I like the look of these from the back, too.

 

I have had many blooms from the Walking Lilies like the one in my banner at the top of the blog.

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After I posted this I remembered the "walking lily" I mentioned is not a lily but an iris!

 

Next up will be an assortment of blooming plants and I will probably make it a "Wordless Wednesday". See you then!!