Majestic Mount Rainer

I am interrupting my current series of blog posts in order to share few photos of beautiful Mount Rainer, taken last weekend.

We decided to take the "scenic route" route home from the Seattle area, where we were visiting our daughter and family. We drove over Chinook Pass and were rewarded with some beautiful fall scenes at the lookout point.

The majestic snow covered mountain, zoomed in a bit.




The fall foliage, looking down into the canyon. The trees in the background were in the bright sun, while the underbrush in the foreground was in the shade, which made it a bit harder to capture the many lovely colors, but was quite beautiful!

A closer look at the lovely fall colors.....God's handiwork!


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Happy Autumn to all of my gardening friends!

Will return soon with more posts on the "Keepers" in my garden... stay tuned. :-)

Nasturtium - 'Vesuvius'

I am currently doing a series of posts on flowers that I consider "Keepers" in my garden. Nasturtiums are one of my favorite annuals for growing in containers. This was my first year to grow this beauty, named 'Vesuvius".

The lovely salmon-pink flowers are surrounded by dark blue-green foliage that complements the flowers to perfection. (The varigated foliage you see to the right is another potted nasturtium, Alaska.) Vesuvius is an heirloom selection, included in Burpee's 1923 catalog. It grows to a height of about 12 inches.

Each year I like try new nasturtiums....but this will definitely be one that I grow again, for it's lovely combination of flower and foliage!

Gentian Blue Larkspur

Among the new flowers I grew this year,
Gentian Blue Larkspur, Delphinium chinensis is definitely a "Keeper!"

I have long been a fan of Larkspur, but this one has the most wonderful blue color! The flowers may be a bit larger than regular Larkspur, and more individually spaced, but the overall plant height is shorter....only to about 12 inches. Mine were grown from winter-sown seed.

Shown here with low growing orange Cosmos, which turned out to be a nice combination. The flowers look a lighter blue here, due to stronger light. In this photo you can also better see the 'spurs' (which give the flower the second part of it's name) and some flower buds on the right. The foliage is delicate and fern-like. Overall, a beautiful plant, which will have a home in my garden next year.... and beyond!