A Visit to the Nehrling Gardens

Back in 1885 Mr. Henry Nehrling purchased sixty plus acres near what is now called Gotha, Florida. He wanted the land for the purpose of experimenting with tropical and subtropical plants. And, experiment he did! He tested over 3,000 new and rare plants.  Many of which are growing in Florida to this day.

The sign gives some more details if you are interested.

The 1880's house was moved by oxcart to the site in the early 1900's. It is in fair condition.

A very inviting porch across the front.

I don't know how old the doorbell is but I love it.

Part of the back of the house. 

An old hand pump located on a stone well.

We took a walking tour of some of the grounds. All work done here is by volunteers. And, as depending on volunteers usually goes it appears that there are not enough of them. They gather there on two Saturdays of the month to do the major work. I wish I could find the time and energy to go help! They receive no government money so that is also secured by donation, fundraisers, etc. Nehrling is listed as one of Florida's most endangered Historical Sites. It would be a shame to let it go after all these years.

This is one of the several magnificent trees on the site.

This bent-over one forms an arch over the trail.

My daughter and I were taken on the tour by this young lady. She doubled the pleasure of the walk with her excitement and knowledge of the place. And, she has a picture perfect look for doing this! 

Along with many of the plants and trees that Nehrling worked with, they have some good looking vegetables growing.

Very nice tomatoes.

Our guide stopped long enough to gather vegetables for her lunch. This is a very impressive tower of vegetables and greens!  The young lady lives on the property.

Both purple and......

.......white butterfly bushes.

They are doing the job - attracting butterflies. I am so hoping the organization can attract enough interest, funds and workers to keep the gardens operating. 

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It was a nice day before Mother's Day experience for my daughter and I. 

The Old Chair.........

.........the old chair, two of them actually, were purchased at my next door neighbor's garage sale many years ago. They are plain, folding, card table type chairs. They looked very old and very ugly with their reddish brown flaking paint. So, they went into my garage to wait until I could repaint them. They waited and they waited! About ten years later when it came time to pack everything and move to this house and even though I got rid of a lot of things, the old chairs came with me. And, they went into the new garage to wait until I could paint them. When it was very clear that I would not have room here to use everything I brought with me, I had a garage sale and sold things, then gave what was left to a charity store.  It was hard to give up a lot of those things - some nice antiques and collectibles. But, for some reason the two ugly chairs stayed in the garage. For ten more years they have been waiting to be painted until this week.......

I sanded them a little and painted with some antique white paint that I already had. After I got on Pinterest, a couple of years ago, I have been admiring plain, white chairs shown along with a few other things in little vignettes. Usually they are photographed outside. I started thinking of neat little vignettes which could be done, using one of my chairs and other things. And, before the new white paint had dried good, I photographed two blog posts.  So, you start with the chair and..... 

....find a pretty little spot to place it in and add a few things....

......a yo-yo spread that I made a few years ago, one of the dozens of old Victoria magazines that have also been held on to for many years - taking up a lot of space in my little house.

Bringing back memories and creating new ones in this spot in history.

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A hat that I had not really looked at for a long time - an old chair, a throw, a hat and a magazine, all waiting for such a moment as this.

We look at an old chair and wonder

whose bottom once sat there.

Was it someone Royal

or someone posh

with lots and lots of dosh,

or was it someone poor that treasured a comfortable seat.

No matter whom it was, just look and wonder

at the history of that old chair, 

then just sit on it 

and put more history there.

 -David Harris

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This post is linked to http://www.dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com/

Signs of Good Things to Come

"Colorful buds and new arrivals herald the changing seasons...."  I have heard from enough gardeners to know that spring is late to show up in many northern areas. We are about to leave our spring and head right into summer for all practical purposes. However, there are still signs of good things opening up here too......

The expectancy of good things to come is so exciting. In gardening, as with all of life, we can be one hundred percent certain that it is futile to be waiting  for the blooms on plants whose seeds are still to be sown! 

If you are like me you love seed packets and save them after the seeds are used. These, for me, are a sign of some good journal (scrapbook style) pages to come!

This brings a very good message of what is soon to be seen.

You have probably suspected that this will not be one of my prettiest posts. And these tiny buds on this beauty berry bush will not thrill you but I look forward to what I will show you here, later.

Some of you have already seen why I got so excited to see these buds on this gloriosa lily.

Most will appreciate these baby grape tomatoes. They should be turning red any day now.

My watchman and I have been waiting for weeks to see some action with these two leaves but, nothing yet. They stay green but a new sprout just doesn't show up. We will keep waiting as long as these don't dry up and turn brown. Some good things take a lot of patience!

Red berries are sure to be seen here soon.

Long after the potted Florida gardenia was discarded after being decimated by a big falling limb, a new plant came up from the ground. The potted one had evidently rooted into the ground through the drainage hole. Seeing a new plant was thrill enough and here it is with a bud on it!

Lots of red coffee plant berries to come!

Cleredendrun buds. Haven't had flowers on these for awhile.

See the tiny orange cluster? Wait till I show you what develops!

And, a new baby pagoda bush on the way. Looks like I will have a little thicket of these. It took so long to get any to grow!!

My favorite caladium, keeps getting new leaves emerging from the earth. The more the better, there is a big space to cover.

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There are so many disappointments for gardeners to experience but the rewards far outweigh the trials. And, it works the same with all of life - "Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God."

Fresh Cuts #4

For this one I chose an old hobnail, milkglass vase. It was not new when I got it, many years ago but I have no idea how old it might be. I have enjoyed using this vase to stick a few cut flowers in and........

........that's about all I did - cut this assortment and arranged them one by one in the small necked vase, with not much fussing around. Of course, the small opening makes the stems stay put much better than a wide one.

Only three different kinds of blooms here, pink periwinkles, whirling butterflies and blue pea vines.

I like the long tendrils on the vine although they aren't the easiest to place where you want them. Just let them choose their own place and call it perfect.

If you have flowers in your garden go choose a few and make yourself a little bouquet to enjoy inside.

Intentional, small, personal touches are well worth the effort and can bring special rewards to yourself and others.

I'm Seeing Red!

For someone who has always said she doesn't like red flowers and agreed with Martha Stewart when she said they look cheap in the garden, I sure have ended up with a bunch of red!

It is not all blossoms, however, like this glass plaque which hangs here on the stationary "gate".

It has been here for years and once got knocked down to the ground by a falling limb and did not break. The ginger on the other side of the "gate" is showing a good bit of red.

I have come to appreciate Pentas more just in the last year. These red dwarf ones are out front where it is so hard to get any blooming plants to survive our summer sun but they do quite well.

The worst thing about these is that they are not cold hardy and are just now looking good after getting frosted.

I don't recall ever noticing so much white on these and am really liking the look.

The lowly Impatiens

Two stages of Nandina berries at the same time. The red ones have been hanging on since last summer!

My pride and joy in the garden right now is this Gloriosa Lily.  This is a tropical, native in S. Africa to Asia. It is the national flower of Zimbabwe. 

It is a plant of the Colchicaceae family and has several common names (thank heavens) one being Flame Lily.  It is not difficult to see why it would be called that! It is a climbing vine, grows from tubers, has tendrils that attaches to anything it can get close to. I showed the developing pod of this one in another post. I am happy to see a few other ones getting ready to open. I have had a hard time keeping the plant healthy enough to flower.

Showing this one for the last time as it is fading fast. Snapdragons can not handle our hot sun. I sure have enjoyed this one plant but there is a different kind of plant standing by to take its place in the pot in the little rock garden.

A Bromeliad.

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I just might have to change my opinion of red flowers and beg to differ with Martha.

FRESH CUTS #3

This is the third installment of Fresh Cuts. The idea is to get in the habit of bringing cut flowers inside to make a small arrangement. So far, I have placed them in the same spot in the kitchen. It is more likely to become a habit if the plan is simple, quick and the location already decided on......

I used the basket upside down again and this time the flowers are arranged in a new container. While browsing through Hobby Lobby I saw this blue ceramic container with a marked down price of $3.99.  I immediately thought of "Fresh Cuts" and other uses.  Since my accent color in the kitchen is blue the bowl works good.
                 

Wet foam in the bowl would have been a good choice but I just put a smaller jar inside the bowl and arranged the flowers in it. The flowers chosen are three white roses, sprigs of small begonia blossoms, dark wine salvia and also a couple of cuttings of wine coleus. I have never used cut peace lilies before but three of those, one fern leaf and one white cleome flower finished it up. 

This one took a good little bit of working with before I was satisfied with the look, but loved it once it was done. Looking at it now one thing that might have given it a little better sense of balance would be to have used about three small blue flowers.

"Every garden-maker should be an artist along his own lines.  That is the only possible way to create a garden, irrespective of size or wealth."

I was hoping the "hairs" on the eyelash begonia would show in the picture but they are hard to see. They go all the way around the edge of the leaf.

So there you have #3, my favorite so far. I am glad I have YOU to share with.

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"Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike."  John Muir

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I hope you have your own special outside place and that you can bring a little bit of it inside!

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I would like to call your attention to two new additions to my list of Blogs You Might Enjoy. First, Thinking About Home (this name is very similar to one that has been on the list) and second, Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home. I think you would enjoy both of these!! Check out the whole list for the other new listings.