Spring is in the Air!

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.

- William Shakespeare

Happy first day of April!

Wishing you a day filled with sunshine and the

promise and glory of Spring, wherever you may be ...

Mexican Petunias

We visited my parents over the weekend at their home in northeast Louisiana, and enjoyed sitting on their back porch watching the antics of their hummingbirds as they swarmed around two feeders. I'll share a few of the pictures I captured of the hummers later this week, but today I'd like to share these colorful Mexican Petunias (ruellia brittoniana), which are growing in a flower bed near their porch.

Mexican Petunia is a perennial shrub that grows to be about three feet high and three feet wide.

When grown under hot sunny conditions, the foliage assumes a metallic bluish cast.

The flowers are trumpet-shaped, and between one-and-a-half and two inches in diameter.

They can be white, pink, purple, or any shade of blue, but I've never seen any color but the bluish-purple. The flowers bloom profusely during the hottest part of the year, and butterflies love them.

This is a picture of my Mexican Petunias which I took a couple of years ago. If you look closely, you can see butterflies in and amongst the blooms.

The plant is native to Mexico, but it can be found throughout the southeastern United States. Unfortunately, in some places, like Florida, it has been declared invasive.

Invasive or not, I love Mexican Petunias — but, then, I love Morning Glories ...

Chinese Tallow Trees ...

Honeysuckle ...

Kudzu ...

And Clover, too!

The Master Gardener

Is this an exotic Orchid?

A prized Hybrid Rose?

A Blue Ribbon-winning Daisy?

A rare, lacy flower grown in an English garden?

The answer to all of those questions is, of course, "No."

The "exotic Orchid" is a Honeysuckle blossom, which can be found in abundance this time of year growing along rural fence rows and ditches ...

I found the "prized Rose" growing on the side of a country road near Vicksburg, its tangled vines climbing high up into the trees overhead ...

I was delighted with such colorful lagniappe, and braved the tall grass, ant beds, and briars to capture the beautiful little clusters of roses up close.

The "Blue Ribbon Daisy" was in the midst of this little clump of wild daisies growing around a bend and down the road from the wild roses ...

And that lacy flower wasn't growing in a fancy English garden. It, too, was on the side of the road, towering above a patch of red clover ...

This time of year, most gardens are at their loveliest, carefully tended by flower and plant lovers all over the world ... but none of them, no matter how grand and lush, can hold a candle to God's gardens. He is truly the Master Gardener of all time — and His gardens are open year-round, 24/7, and there's no charge for the tours. I hope you will visit one near you soon.

A Beautiful Flower with an Ugly Name

I love wildflowers, and one of my all-time favorites is a beautiful little exotic-looking blue flower that has a very "un-beautiful," if not downright ugly, name ~~ Spiderwort. The name Spiderwort is presumed to come from the way the flowers hang like spiders from a web off the main stem, and "wort" is the Old English name for "plant."

During a drive down some country roads last week, I found a clump of Spiderworts growing in a ditch beside the road and stopped to capture them with my camera.

In this picture, you can see how its purple
center resembles a spider's tangled web ...

If you would like to see some pictures I captured of other wildflowers while on my "country roads adventure," you can click on the links below.

Honeysuckle and Wild Roses
Roadside Daisies
Buttercups Blowin' in the Wind

Also be sure and click on the "lagniappe" picture at the bottom of this post to see what I found nestled amongst a patch of pretty little lavender wildflowers.

Lagniappe

Honeysuckle and Wild Roses

Yesterday was a glorious day in Vicksburg, and a perfect day to take a drive in the country. The wildflowers are at their peak right now, and there were some in particular I was hoping to capture with my camera. I wasn't disappointed.

I don't know about you, but I love honeysuckle. It's delicate blooms are so elegant and, of course, it smells absolutely heavenly (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like).

I know honeysuckle can be invasive when it's growing in your yard, but there's just nothing prettier than its flower-covered tangle of vines growing wild on fences and fence posts along a country road.

I took the next three pictures last April on another "roadside photo shoot."

Even though it's just the first of May, our days have already been quite warm. Yesterday, I was trying to find some honeysuckle in a shady spot when I received a little lagniappe in the form of some gorgeous wild roses growing on the side of the road.

I slammed on my brakes and backed up (this was a deserted country road, thank goodness), and discovered that there was also honeysuckle growing amongst the roses. Honeysuckle, wild roses, and shade -- it just doesn't get much better than that, folks!

The roses were pretty from a distance, but even more beautiful up close.

In the days to come, when I look at these pictures, I will recall the day I took them and remember that magical place in the shade, heavy with the scents of honeysuckle and wild roses mingling in the air around me. I'm so thankful that I was able to capture that memory forever in my pictures.

In the next few days, I will be sharing more pictures from my drive in the country, and hope you will join me.