A Few of Our Client Projects

Hi Everyone....I hope you all are having a tantalizing Tuesday!  I thought it would be nice to post a few jobs we have done for some of our wonderful client's.  Here are a few before and after pictures for you to peruse through.  I feel so lucky to be able to bring our client's garden wish list to life.  Some projects are more challenging than others, whether it's a small renovation or a brand new landscape but that's all part of the fun.

The first job is one that is dear to my heart, my Dad.  He moved from our house of 40+ years in Miami to be closer to me since he is getting up there in age.  He found a lovely home in Coconut Creek and the first thing he wanted to do was put in a new landscape and remodel the kitchen.  Yippee for me!

Before - front yard, exactly how my Dad bought it

Before - front yard, exactly how my Dad bought it

After - front yard, this is about 2 weeks after we
finished the rock wall install

After - front yard, this is about 10 months after we completely finished the install

Before - back yard, exactly how my Dad bought it

Before - back yard, exactly how my Dad bought it

After - back yard, about 2 weeks after we finished
the stacked stone rock wall

After - back yard, about 7 months after we
completely finished the install

Before - front yard entry way

After - front yard entry way

After - back yard, new planter bed along the patio

After - back yard, looking at the beautiful lake

Our next project is at a cool house along the deep water canal system here in Pompano Beach with an amazing family who lives there.  Unfortunately they were left in a lurch by someone who never made good on their landscape promises.  Luckily they met us and we were able to bring them some smiles.

Before - front yard before we started

Before - front yard before we started

After - front yard about 3 months after install

After - side view of the island

Before - front yard before we started

Before - front yard before we started

After - front yard about 3 months after install

After - close up of blue daze &
tricolor Jamaican croton

This wonderful west Boca Raton family needed a little sprucing up before family arriving for Easter.

Before - front entry courtyard

Before - front plant bed

After - front entry courtyard

After - front plant bed

Before - front entry to courtyard

After - front entry to courtyard

After - front entry courtyard 

After - front entry courtyard

Hope you all enjoyed a few snippets of small spaces & front yards.  Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Happy Gardening and Best Wishes,

Sheri

xoxo

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Keep up the great work everyone!!!

There will be a day when we can look to history and know we 

made changes to make our world a better place.

If we can continue to teach our children how to protect our planet

then maybe dreams can come true.

Happy Gardening and Best Wishes,

Sheri

xoxo

Triple Hybrid Rose from a Thai Hobbyist

Finally have some time in my uber busy schedule this week to post about the tri-hybrid rose I bought from a sweet Thai man at the Asian Culture Festival back at the beginning of March (see the March post).  This man didn't speak any English so his son's were very patient & kind to translate for us.  Apparently grafting a variety of different roses to create a single specimen rose standard (a tree like form) is just a hobby of his, go figure.  Everything he created was absolutely magnificent!  The week after the festival I had two wishes: I wish I had brought our truck because I would have bought more of them and I wish I would have got their name and phone number instead of me relying on them to contact me after giving them my card.   Cause over a month later I still haven't heard from them.  Oh well, a famous musician once sang..."we can't always get what we want, but if we try sometimes we just might find, we get what we need, oh yeah!"  So without further adieu here is the triple hybrid rose I now have (and wish I had more of).  

To the best of my knowledge the three varieties grafted on this one plant are:
'Dream-Come-True', 'Black Baccara' and 'Moondance'.

My new standard rose with three hybrids grafted on it.
This is the pot it came in.

This is an older 'Dream-Come-True' bloom which
is about 5-6 inches wide, very large & richly sweet
smelling like candy!  This is a grandiflora cultivar.

This is the same bloom 3-4 days later, notice how
darker, more intense & more of a solid color
the pink gets on the flower.

This is a younger 'Dream-Come-True' bloom where
the yellow color dominates & the hot pink color
is on the outer tips of the petals.

A few days later you can see more pinkish blushing towards the back of the rose. The area's on the flower that get more sun are the most pink.

The same 'Dream-Come-True' bloom yet another few
days later.  Still incredibly sweet smelling, yet much
darker hotter pink & extremely full in flower.

Here you can see how much lighter the pink is on the lower part of the flower.  The sun hits the top part of the flower hence the "suntan", lol.

Here is the 'Moondance' bloom that just opened up.
This bloom is about 3 inches wide & very tartly
citrusy sweet smelling yet flavorful intense.

This is the other bloom where you can see it's
a bit older & has opened up to about 4-5 inches.
'Moondance' is a floribunda cultivar.

Here 'Moondance' fully open in all it's glory.  It
kind of looks like a lotus flower with the way the
petal's open flat and have pointed tips.

It's incredible the way the gentleman grafted the three different hybrids on one tree. This is 'Moondance's'
section which is almost half of the whole tree.

This is one of 'Moondance's' largest blooms yet!
A whooping 5" wide.

Last to show up to the party is the 'Black Baccara'
Well I think it's the 'Black Baccara', I couldn't
understand everything the Thai gentleman was saying,
so I am guessing here.  It must the newest addition
to the tree since it's the smallest.

A small rose compared to the other two but still
just as beautiful.  This one has a lighter smell, more like what you  think a traditional rose smell to be like.  Here you can see the darker edges on the petals & lighter colored center.

The picture is on the light side as I was playing with my ISO's but
the true color is a few shades darker.  Again I am not sure this is the
'Black Baccara' which is a tea cultivar.  So if anyone knows, please leave a comment :)

So there you have it...my triple hybrid rose.  A rose tree standard with a floribunda, grandiflora and a tea cultivar all grafted on the same tree.   I can only wish that the wonderful Thai family who produces these will reach out to me.  Not only would I love to purchase more but so do the folks I have showed this magnificent work of art to as well!   Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Happy Gardening & Many Best Wishes,

Sheri

xoxo

Watermelon Patch Wednesdays

Welcome to our watermelon patch my friends!  Because of our long winter, it had a slow start gettin' goin', but now it's really going!  I am so impressed...so far no caterpillars!  Gosh I hope I didn't just jinx that.  The little yellow flowers are peeping out everywhere with the promise of melons soon to sprout.  Though I hope they hurry up as I may not be able to defend our watermelon patch for long against a bigger predator.  Joe has a different view of our patch..."that looks so awful,  it looks like a weed," he says.  My reply to him, "be patient my dear, watermelons need time & lots of encouragement."  I giggled as I turned around knowing that we will have so many watermelons that he'll be grinnin' from ear to ear.

Happy Gardening & Best Wishes,

Sheri
XOXO

Asian Culture Festival 2013

The first weekend of March held an incredible event down at the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead, Fl. called the Asian Culture Festival.  This was my first time going to the event but it's actually the 23rd year for Asian Culture Festival.  I learned about the event from the owner of BG  Asian Grocery, a local Asian grocery store in Deerfield Beach that I absolutely love to shop at.  So I invited my best friend, Linda, for her birthday and boy did we enjoy ourselves!  Sooooo many different Asian countries are represented at the festival like Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Laos, and on and on.  The festivities were of the abundance from the Japanese taiko drummers, to Chinese acrobatics and all kinds of dance groups like Thai classic dances, Indian and Filipino folk dance, Persian dance and the famous Lion dance!  The traditional costumes, jewelry and makeup were incredibly detailed and exquisite.  The performances were absolutely fantastic to watch from the martial arts, to the sepak takraw (no hands volleyball tournaments) to the fashion show's.  They also had a fruit and vegetable carving tent filled with all kinds of beautiful works of art.  There were a few master carvers on hand showing people their skills.  For the kids, they had a huge area set up for them to "travel with a passport to learn about many of the Asian countries" as well as a large play area for them.  The vendors brought wares of all kinds from hand made jewelry, clothes, trinkets, exotic plants, orchids, flower arrangements, incense, body lotions and soap, perfumes and fashion accessories.  There were even massage therapist's, yoga instructors and a full blown buddhist monk temple where for a monetary donation you could receive monk's blessing as well as offerings of orchid flowers, incense and foods.

Now for the best part.....the food and drinks!  Oh my goodness, I was soooo excited to eat so many delicious home-made dishes.  Believe it or not, most of the vendors were ordinary folks making extraordinary delicious goodies, only a couple were restaurants.  Same with mostly all of the other vendors where they sell their wares at these types of festivals throughout the year, only a handful actually have a retail store.  Well all in all we met some of the most wonderful people and made some new contacts for our work at this event.  I will most definitely be coming back next year and bringing many more of my friends!  I hope you will be there too!

While you are down in Homestead and the Redlands, there are many more places to visit: The Fruit & Spice Park (where the festival was held), Schnebly Winery, Banjong Orchids, Knaus Berry Farm (only open Nov thru mid April, closed on Sundays), Robert Is Here Fruit & Vegetable stand (they even have a mini zoo in the back), Peublito Paisa Miami, Coral Castle, the Theravada Thai Buddhist Temple, Cauley Square, get the best local BBQ at Shiver's BBQ, Monkey Jungle, RF Orchids, The Bonsai Gardens, the historic downtown area of Homestead, the Everglades and Everglades National Park, Redland Koi Gardens, Redlands Market Village, Burr's Berry Farm, Larry & Penny Thompson Park,  Sam & Philly's U-Pick and Market, Homestead Miami Speedway and so many more!  So Linda & I went tooling around Homestead like we used to when we were young...ahhhh, the good ol'days.  What an absolutely awesome day we had...life is good and I am truly thankful for that!

Here are a few pictures of our day at the Asian Culture Festival and our stop at Robert Is Here fruit stand and market.  I was disappointed that I didn't take more pictures but I realized afterwards that I was so absorbed in the festival that I totally forgot, lol.  Well, you will just have to attend next year and see for yourself. :)

Beautiful grandiflora hybrid rose
Wait till you see the post on the rose I bought here :)

Ground orchids and pink begonias for sale
So many different kinds of plants and herbs

Close up of one of the ground orchid flowers

Cool carnivorous plants from Envy Botanicals

More carnivorous plants for sale from Envy Botanicals

Tillsandia (air plants) for sale from Majestic Foliage in Homestead

More air plants and orchids from Majestic Foliage

Bananas and bamboo

The fruit & vegetable carving tent, way cool!

Carvers showing their craft.

Ornately carved melons

At Robert Is Here fruit stand & market,
the "canning" section, with honey tasting.
Soooo delicious!

The aviary at Robert Is Here
Surprisingly lots of different kinds of birds
I'm not sure they are all supposed to be together

Cool old farm tractor with lots of wear-n-tear

Another cool old farm plow & jack fruit tree

The "zoo" area with lots of farm animals, super cute goats.

A great way to get rid of corn husks, lol.

Who doesn't want a sweet coconut head keepsake, lol, so 1960's :)

What a great way to end our Homestead trip, with a little
homemade key lime pie from Robert Is Here market. :)

Hope you enjoyed our trip and maybe one day you can make it to our South Florida gem of a place...Homestead, FL.  So get out there & take a day trip to enjoy your local neck of the woods.

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Best Wishes,

Sheri

xoxo