We are all bundled up inside while the wind and rain and sleet swirls around us. Long Island was under a blizzard warning today but temperatures rose just above freezing so it's pretty much rain now.

Spring is just around the corner and it's all I can do to keep from starting to clean up the garden. I've always been a perennial kind of gal but last season one of the stars of the garden was my Coleus on the front porch. You can bet I'm going to add more of these.

Sitting out on the front porch is one of  my favorite pastimes. You can see how small the Coleus was at first.

Total sun is hard to find here at our little cottage. Wherever I find it I tuck in some succulents.

The front curb was wasted space so it too became part of the garden.

This post is mostly a test, there have been so many changes to blogger that I'm playing around to see if I can post again. I miss my garden friends!

Rainy Day Garden Tours

Today was a tough day to be a gardener. I'm in the middle of a 3 months shift at work that has me covering Saturdays. In exchange I get a day off during the week and I've promised myself to spend the day as a gardener. Drizzle, fog, rain and temperatures in the high 40's were a challenge but I refused to back down. First stop was SUNY Farmingdale, they were having a plant sale and my daylily friends would be there. This place is just magical to me.

The large kitchen gardens are still waiting for most of it's plant material to arrive but there were still lots of things to see like this cracked but still beautiful trough.

Tucked into a wooded walk was a cheerful spring planting combination.

So much blue, I just love it!

The white trees were perfect with the underplanting of blue. The challenge was taking good photographs as I was protecting my camera from the weather and my fingers were numb.

A large planting of Allium reminded me that before their spectacular blooms the foliage already poops out and gets quite ratty.

A nice little woodland walk

This spot was perfect, I could have taken a dozen photos here.

Pulmonaria in all it's glory! This is a plant I need to get for our cottage garden.

Well one thing for sure, when it rains the Alchimella molls (Ladie's mantle) is going to show off!

Next stop was Peconic River Herb Farm all the way out in Calverton. The rain was more steady here and my poor fingers really froze but I still took my time and checked out every corner of this heavenly place.

I don't think it's possible to take a bad photo of this potting shed.

Early spring bloomers were competing for attention. Epimedium, Dicentra and May Apples, oh my!

The grounds were empty, only a half dozen employees busily filling every nook and cranny with new plants for Mother's Day coming this Sunday. 

How do you like this window box? I just adore it.

One more close up look. So yes, I'm back, I've got a darling cottage garden and I'm going to write all about it. Today's post was driven by all the photos I shot today but no worries, I'll be sharing all kinds of information on perennials that do well here for me.

Arctic Blast! Not at Planting Fields Arboretum

This past Autumn we spent a wonderful afternoon at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay NY. While all the outside plant displays were magnificent as always, it was the greenhouses that took our breath away.

This morning we awoke to a fridgid 4 degrees, talk about cold! It's one of the coldest winters I can remember, the salt water bays of Northport, Centerport, Cold Spring Harbor and Huntington are frozen solid. One place though that I know is warm is inside the greenhouses at Planting Fields Arboretum, I can't wait to get there again.

The plant displays change in the green house from season to season although the large main-stay plants are always there. I'm not going to try to list the plant names, tropical plants are not my expertise.

The best lesson I've learned from tropical gardens is how important foliage color and form can be. Who needs flowers with a combination like this?

I couldn't resist it, this is the same shot just a little closer. I'm in love with all these patterns, colors and textures.

Being that this was fall, there were quite a few Chrysanthemums in the display. I'm not complaining.

There are benches and ledges scattered around, it's easy to find a place to sit. I keep promising myself to come back here with a book and just relax for a few hours. It's something I've put on my bucket list.

If you have time, there's side rooms with different temperatures and air conditions. You'll find a dry room with cacti, an orchid room and a room filled with begonias. There's probably even more rooms, I haven't made the full tour in a number of years.

There's no reason to sit inside and complain about the snow and ice, get yourself over to Planting Fields Arboretum and soak up some plant life!

melanie