Nacreous Flowers

 

 

It's the 8-sided table inlaid with nacreous flowers, 1650.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took these photos in the Rijksmuseum, Museum of the Netherlands, Amsterdam.  What an awesome work!

My Garden in Mid-May

Well, just a warm enough week for my garden to bloom. The temperature during the day was +26..+ 21 C and the night temps are already +13 C. Of course plants and people love this weather.  

We have a late spring so last week all the plants suddenly started making up for lost time.

Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, daisies, dicentra, delphinium, mahonia, anemones ... Almost all bulb and perennial plants started growing. The spireas, blackthorns are covered with white flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

The day is getting considerably longer than it was in April. The sun rises at 4 am and sets at half past nine in the evening. So there is a lot to be done in the garden in such a long day!  I plan to transplant shrubs - Potentilla, Spirea, Roses, Physocarpus to a sunnier place. 

  

Finally, I had some free time and went to the garden center. It is located not far from my house. Of course, I liked everything here and would buy many things. On the shelves a lot of flower seedlings such as viola, tagetes, carnation, dahlias were displayed. There were also many conifers, berry bushes, fruit trees. In addition, there were sacks of garden soil and fertilizers.

 

 

But I had to restrict my appetite and I bought Clematis Mountain and New Guinea Impatience. Flowers and vegetables were waiting for me in the greenhouse, and I hurried to take care of them.   How are you doing in May? 

Combination of Colors

 

I love visiting various gardens and I always pay attention to a combination of colors of flowers, plants. I wonder how experienced gardeners create unity and balance of colors. I have learned the color wheel and would like to apply it in my garden. 

 

Here are some examples of a wonderful combination of colors. I took these  photos in the Kensington garden, London.

 

The eye is naturally attracted to different shades. Gardeners combined dark red and green, used a variety of shades, red with blue, white or yellow with purple.

I payed attention to how white color was added as a lovely neutral. I often add silvery cineraria as a monochromatic color in my rose beds. White is always a wonderful color to mix into any colored plants.

Our gardens are a matter of personal taste. If you are interested in what combination of colors I like most, so it is a photo above: white with dark blue.

In fact, I rarely use a color wheel, because if I plant perennials or bulbs, taking into account the combination of colors, maybe in the next spring, some plants will not survive. Our climate in unpredictable:-(
Do you use color wheel when you plan something in your garden?