This post is sponsored by Monrovia, but my love of spring blooms is all my own!
Happy spring to you all!
This time of year energizes me and it’s definitely my favorite season of the year. Â I just wish it lasted longer! Â When blooms burst out on my flowering trees in the front yard, I know that Spring is here and everything will be coming alive again and bursting forth with beauty and blooms. Â My flowering trees, Kwazan cherry and a pink dogwood make me so happy and when I first looked at my house 5 years ago (can you believe that?) these trees were in full bloom. Â I just felt it was meant to be my house and that God gave me these trees to make me smile. Â And they do make me so happy every Spring that I’ve lived here.
Here’s the current view of my house, with lots of spring blooms going on. Â The pink dogwood is to the left and the cherry tree to the right. Â My white azaleas are blooming right now too.
Everything is coming alive again! We’ve been having plenty of rain, so everything is greening up again. Â I just had fresh pine straw put out by my landscape company, call Greg Kuzia with Down to Earth Landscape (770.841.0162) if you’re looking for a landscape guy to handle your yard here in the Marietta area. They do a good job for me and it’s so nice to have my yard taken care of!
That pink dogwood is so gorgeous when it blooms!
Is there anything prettier than a cherry tree in bloom? Â I’m not sure there is, with their graceful and fluffy blooms in the most gorgeous shade of pink.
An artsy shot of my iron hummingbird garden stake in the front yard.
Those fluffy pink blooms up close.
Far away, the whole tree is exploding in blooms.
There are a few pink azaleas still blooming too, but they were early bloomers this year. Â I can’t wait for the big show of hydrangeas this year. They were absolutely gorgeous last year and I’m so hoping that the late freeze we just had doesn’t ruin their blooms.
So, how do I get my yard ready for spring. Â Cleaning up and pruning my shrubs was the first thing I did back in February. Â I got my pruners out and pruned back the long strands growing out of my shrubs to tame them a bit. Â I dead headed all my hydrangea blooms to get them ready for new growth. Â And wow, do they have new growth going now!
Next, is adding some spring blooming annuals to my planters. Â I haven’t done the back yard yet, but I do have some pretty planters on my front stairs and by my driveway that I like to add pops of color to. Â Enter Monrovia plants! Â I’m partnering with them today to show you some beautiful blooms and how pretty they are added to planters. Â Learn more about the Grow Beautifully program with Monrovia and get inspired for your own spring blooms!
I’ve always known Monrovia to have beautiful and healthy plants to offer and you can find them at Lowes and other garden centers. Â You probably have seen these containers in your home store too. Â I can always count on them to have healthy and vibrant plants for my garden.
I chose some vibrant and colorful annuals for my containers and I thought these pretty pops of red would look great with my gray house. Â To the left is Minifamous Double Calibrachoa with delicate and fluffy red flowers and to the right is New Guinea Impatiens. Â This variety of impatiens is more heat and drought tolerant and their huge blooms are gorgeous!
I added the Calibrachoa to my planter by the driveway with my cute bunny looking on. This planter has hardy sedum that really is super drought tolerant and comes back every year, so I leave it in here.
I added some pillows to my rustic iron bench that came from Round Top last fall. This pair of pillows came from Costco and they are a good complement to my turquoise front door. Did you spot bunny # 2 in my yard? Â He’s concrete also and sits on top of the round green termite system thingie. Good spot for him to hide it!
My black planters on the front steps are now filled with New Guinea impatiens from Monrovia and I can’t wait to watch them grow and bloom this year.
More sedum cascading over the planter is coming alive again this year.
You can see the beautiful red blooms and all those tiny buds just starting to pop out on the impatiens and also the green nodes of new growth on the sedum.
There are lots of buds on these plants just waiting to burst open with beautiful blooms.
Just a little pop of color by the front door adds so much this time of year. Â I’ll tackle the back patio later and those big planters, but for now Spring has arrived and I’m happy to add this bit of color to my front porch and driveway planters. Â Blooms are everything this time of year!
I’d love for you to check out Monrovia’s online shop and check out which blooms you’d like to add to your garden this year. Â Have you started planting yet? Â Hope this gives you some ideas to get going with the Spring blooms. Â I get flower fever every year, do you?
If you’d like to find the garden center closest to you and get more information from Monrovia emailed to you, sign up for their newsletter for lots of inspiration on planting and gardening!
I hope you enjoy your Spring gardening this year too! Â I’ve got more to do, but this is a fun start to my yard.
Such a pretty house!
Beautiful. This is a gorgeous time in Kentucky. I love all the pink! Last spring removed our pink and white dogwoods. They were ok if, diseased and rarely flowered. We replaced one with a redbud which is blooming profusely. Unfortunately our huge old pear tree was in full bud when we had several nights of freezing weather so we ended up with very few flowers…..but the crabapple did not disappoint! Can’t wait for geranium weather! Love your blog! We live in Prospect, KY.
Catt-in-Kentucky
When I woke up this morning, it was to snow! Ahh, spring break in michigan leaves something to be desired. Thank you for the beautiful pictures. As I drink my coffee your home makes me feel hopeful for spring weather to finally come here, too. Enjoy!!
Pretty, Rhoda. I’ll be curious to see if that New Guinea impatiens works in your pots with the sedum. I haven’t had much luck with impatiens, as I have mostly full sun exposure. It’ll be another month before we can successfully pot our annuals in my 7a region. Still time to ponder new combinations. 🙂 Happy growing!
Rita, the New Guinea are supposed to be very sun tolerant and drought resistant.
Lovely! We are in North Carolina and enjoying seeing everything in bloom (and hoping the Long Leaf Pine pollen goes away soon!).
Your plantings are gorgeous!
Monrovia grows very healthy plants, and I’ve always had good luck with them. My local Lowes always has a nice selection. I discovered my local Wally World is once again selling $5 outdoor throw pillows in their garden center. I bought some last year, hoping to get one season out of them…they are in excellent condition still. Large selection of great colors and designs too. We are off on our French adventure tomorrow, and Spring should be bursting forth Over There too. So excited!
Hi Rhoda, You selected beautiful plants for your containers and I know you will enjoy them. Just wondering, is that the candytuft that I gave you a few years ago peeping out behind the bunny? I hope so.
Hey, Jean, yes it is! I was hoping you would see it. I shared it last year too and I think I mentioned that a sweet reader gave it to me. It’s thriving now!
Oh Rhoda, your house is amazing and your gardens are the crowning touch! It’s going to be so pretty again this year!
We can not wait to get into our house and start the gardens. My husband and I both just gaze at all the possibilities.
Rhoda, your home is simply beautiful!! I love your color combination of gray and with white trim.
While looking at it admiringly, I wondered too how it would look with black shutters. Either way, your home is stunning. 🙂
Hey, Beverly,while I love shutters, if you look closely you will see that not all the windows in my house can hold shutters, there’s no room, so it would look very unbalanced to try to do them, so that’s why I don’t have shutters. The right side of the house can’t hold them.
Your house looks great! The transformation since you have owned it has been amazing. The Spring flowers and blooming trees are so pretty. I love the Kwanzan Cherry tree. I have two in my yard and they just put on a beautiful show every year.
Hi Rhoda: I enjoy following your blog from Iowa. Your lovely photos remind me of the movie Driving Miss Daisy. I just watched it over the weekend while quilting in my lady cave. Love that movie and Miss Daisy’s house. Cheers!
Thank you, Deanna, I love to hear where all of you live. I know that spring is so different all over the country in timing.
Rhoda, your yard looks beautiful! I love pink dogwoods and flowering trees. Here in central VA the dogwoods and azaleas have really started opening in the last few days. My white dogwood is blooming now and my weeping cherry bloomed in early March a few weeks early because of the warm weather we had.
However, the late frost we had killed most of my hydrangea blooms for this year. I wish I had covered them like I did year before last. I am really disappointed I wont be having all those beautiful blooms this year.
Oh Rhoda, what a beautiful yard. It’s so nice to see something flowering since we are still in the 50’s-60’s here in Traverse City, MI. Say, did you get your bunny online or locally? I’ve been looking for one like it and haven’t been able to find one!
Hey, Sharon, hang in there, I’m sure spring will arrive in your state before too long. I’ve had that concrete bunny for probably 20 years and I’m sure I bought him at a local shop somewhere, it’s concrete.
Darn! They don’t make them as cute as that anymore! Thanks.
Rhoda, I am new to your blog but am alreadyloving everything you’ve posted. Beautiful home, beautiful yard, beautiful person!
HI, Rita, thank you so glad you stopped by!
Rhoda-your garden is so lovely! Those gorgeous, flowering blooms would make me smile too. We had 3 magnolia trees out front which did amazingly well considering we are in MI, but they got diseased last year and had a lot of die back. Am anxious to see how they do/bloom this year, but we have a couple more weeks before I’ll be able to really tell. I love that thrifted black bench you found last year–why are you covering it up with those (lovely-but too big) pillow?! 😉
Thank you for always having something cheerful and pretty for me to read. LOVE your blog!
What a lovely time in Spring…
I love cherry blossoms! Your garden and house are breathtaking…they’re just so BEAUTIFUL.
Happy Springtime!:)
Why do you use pine straw? I live in the Midwest and we use mulch. I was wondering but the front yard with the landscaping and the annuals are beautiful
Hey, Susanne, we use pine straw in the South because it’s less expensive and readily available with all the pines around here. I love mulch too, but it would cost a lot more to put mulch in my big island.