Mosaic Benches

Although these mosaic benches aren't adorned with Christmas lights, they benefit from the Christmas lighting around them.

There are many benches like these around the park, and many areas with this beautiful mosaic tile work. There used to be shallow pools in the Wedding Gardens, but they were difficult to keep up and the Koi kept dying from the algae, so they've closed down and now have more of this same mosaic tile work covering them. I'm still trying to decide which I like better; but of course, I don't have to maintain them.

The Florida Botanical Gardens is one of St Petersburg/Largo's treasures. I you're ever visiting the area, check them out. The best part is there is no fee to get into this beautiful park. It's full of flowers year 'round with lots of water and even some wildlife. It's Florida at its best!

Fancy Iris

My daughter has planted some fancy Irises in one of her gardens. We've been waiting for more than 2 weeks for these to finally bloom. Unfortunately, with more than 260 varieties, I'm not able to identify the name of this one. If anyone out there knows what variety this one is, I'd sure appreciate it if you could put it in the comments.

I photographed this particular bloom because I like the way it looks with the boulder in the background. It looks like I used a Photoshop technique called Selective Color. However, I didn't have to use any Photoshop on this shot.

For a better look at this shot, just click on it and a larger version will come up.

Flowers and Gardens

While in Maine, one of the things that attracted me to a lot of the places we visiting were the gardens and flowers that were in bloom. Some were unusual and I've never seen them before.

These are called Swamp Candles. I originally thought they were some type of Azalea because of their shape and the way they were in clusters. After much investigation on the internet, I found out they are Swamp Candles. They are also known as Bog Loosestrife. They were in the garden at Webhannet Falls in Wells.

The next one is a rare variety of Peony. I love the bright red color with the creamy white centers. I knew it was some kind of Peony, but didn't realize that this variety is rare. They are just as sweet smelling as any other Peony, which was my first hint that they were Peonies. These were in the gardens at St Anthony's Franciscan Monastery in Kennebunk.

Finally, I spotted these Foxgloves. These I was able to identify without the help of the internet. They're fairly common, but I've never seen them in Florida gardens. Maybe they just don't take to the heat very well. These were also in the little garden at Webhannet Falls in Wells.

Most everywhere we went we found flowers and gardens. It just adds so much to the beauty of this area. This also pleased my daughter-in-law. She loves to garden and loves beautiful flowers. She was in her glory.

Petunia

While in CT, I stayed at my son and daughter-in-law's house. I just love it there. Their yard is like a park. Donna loves flowers and her home and yard show it.

This is only one of the many varieties of Petunias she has planted. I love the delicate petals and the soft color of this variety.

Donna is smart enough to plan her gardens to get the most of every one of them. She plants early Spring bloomers, Summer bloomers and Fall bloomers so she can enjoy them through the 3 seasons. During the Winter, she has fine art flower paintings in every room. It makes for a cheery atmosphere. No wonder I like it there so much.