Monday, April 29, 2013

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

Monday, April 22, 2013

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

Saturday, April 20, 2013

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

Thursday, April 18, 2013

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