A grateful Fertilizer Friday.

I've said before I had no idea that starting a blog would allow me to meet so many new people. This year my garden will be full of flowers started with seeds that were shared with me by some of the people I've met since starting blogging. Some are seeds saved from their gardens (Darla, Rain Gardener, Robin, Ginger, Dirt Princess, Laurie, Lona, Tina, Cameron and please remind me if I didn't mention you, I have them all written down somewhere around here ☺) or sent to me through the Gardening by Letter project. Many were from trades. One trade I was very lucky in was with Donna who sent me a box of chocolates in return, something I never expected but loved! Another blogger sent me a gift for my garden but asked that I not mention it, but you know who you are and thank you!
I want to give Lona of A Hocking Hill's Garden a big thank you. A few weeks ago I commented to Lona about the fairy that is on the top left of her blog. I've always thought it was very cute and wondered where she may have found it because I thought my daughter Sweet Pea would love one for her fairy garden. Lona told me she found it at last year's garden show and offered to look for one when she went back this past weekend. Imagine my surprise when I saw a package in the mail the other day and found the fairy from Lona's garden inside. Not a new one, but her own fairy. Her note explained she didn't see any others that were very good and she thought Sweet Pea would "enjoy it much more than I do." The kindness that she showed is something I'll always remember, especially when I see the fairy in Sweet Pea's garden.

The fairy sitting in the Navelwort (Omphalodes cappadocica) 'Starry Eyes'.

And in her new home, Sweet Pea's fairy garden. It was raining pretty hard when I took these pictures so I didn't really get the full view of the fairy garden.

Through blogging my thought that gardeners were generous people has been confirmed, not just in my own experience but what I see on other blogs as well. And it's not always something material that is shared, even more often it's supportive words or encouragement that I see written in comments on other blogs. I'm happy to be part of the garden blogging community.

Now on to the flowers blooming today:

Pulmonaria and Muscari.

Frittilaria were just planted about a week ago, I was surprised to find them already started and with buds. I was hoping they'd be purplish checkered type, but these are still pretty.

Leopard's Bane (Doronicum orientale) in full bloom.

White Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis).

I planted two different types of Crocus hoping they'd bloom together, but so far just the dark purples have bloomed.

I hope you will visit Tootsie at Tootsie Time to see what she and other gardeners from around the world are flaunting today. Thanks for stopping by to visit!

A flowery Fertilizer Friday.

I've been continuing to get out in the garden and get as many chores done as I have time. One job I had to do was clean out two of the birdhouses that bumblebees have decided they want to live in. I've only had this problem once before, but this year with two being claimed by bees already I had to do something about it before it was too late. It looked as if the bees were using the actual birds nests made in previous years to build their own nest in. I certainly didn't want to (and didn't) kill the bees, just let them know they needed to find another place to live. Once the nests were cleaned out the bees buzzed around for a little while, and I haven't seen them near the houses since. I also rubbed soap on the inside roof of the houses because I read that will help deter bees. Hopefully it works and the birds will still come and use the houses. If anyone has any other tips to help I'd love to hear them.

Now it's time to show what's blooming this Friday in my garden:

Leopard's Bane (Doronicum orietale) has not been an easy plant for me. I've tried growing them several times and this is the first one that has made it a full year. They do not like to be in dry soil, and that has probably been the reason it has disappeared in other places. My husband thinks it looks far too much like a dandelion, but I think the flowers are pretty. I'll take a picture of it once it's in full bloom, the flowers are daisy like.

Drumstick Primula (Primula denticulata) just starting to bloom.

Don't you love when your neighbor has something pretty blooming in their yard that you can enjoy too?! I don't have the space for a Forsythia, but our neighbor's shrub is right next to the low part of our fence so we can see it almost as well as if it was in our own yard.

Winter Hazel (Corylopsis) 'Buttercup' is just beautiful this year. I keep going by to admire it since last year it hardly bloomed.

The Weeping Cherry tree is in full bloom now with lots of bees visiting it. The Littlest Gardener stood under it with a stick knocking petals down saying, "It's snowing!" That's as close as we've gotten to snow this winter.

Anemone Blanda has started popping up around the front garden.

One of my favorites Old Fashioned Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra spectabilis).

And the Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) is getting closer to blooming. I love how it looks against the bark of the Ponderosa Pine.

Tootsie at Tootsie Time hosts Fertilizer Friday each week. Visit her to see who else is "flaunting their flowers".

Beautiful, like a rainbow.

When I see a rainbow or think of a rainbow, this line from Cyndi Lauper's song "True Colors" from 1986 always seems to come to my mind. A pretty song to represent such a beautiful piece of art from nature. Rebecca from Prefer to be In the Garden asked us to share rainbows from our gardens to help brighten up winter.
Just looking back through my Spring and Summer garden pictures made me feel warm and brightened my day. I think lots of us like to look back at sunny day pictures, part of the fun for me is remembering flowers I'd forgotten about and made me more anxious to see them return.
The interesting part of putting this rainbow together for me is that I thought I'd have trouble finding orange flowers, and have no problem with purple flowers. It ended up being the opposite. I used to think orange clashed too much with most colors. But once while shopping in a nursery I overheard some women and one discussing how certain colors of flowers "didn't go together". The other woman said that they are all part of nature so of course they all go together. While I don't personally think every color combination goes together it did open my eyes a bit about being less critical of orange and combining it with colors I never thought it "matched".

Here is my rainbow:

Monarda 'Jacobe Cline'

Red Breadseed Poppy

Geum 'Fire Lake'

Zinnia 'Apricot Blush'

Leopard's Bane

Sunflower

Hosta

Zinnia 'Green Envy'

Hydrangea 'Nikko Blue'

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

Muscari

Clematis 'Jackmanii superba'

Here is Cyndi Lauper singing "True Colors" in the video below: