The sun is shining today after a good rain yesterday, more that an inch, says our rain gauge. It is appropriate that the first official day of the season of flowers here at Faire Garden in Southeast Tenneessee be a bright, cheerful one. The air is seasonal, cool and fresh, after being washed with the rain.
The flowers are opening quickly, some are long lasting, others are fleeting. These Gypsy Queen hyacinths are a lovely pinky peach. The following hyacinths were not named varieties, purchased in bloom then set out into the garden over the years.
Grape hyacinths are massed around the edges of the walkways.
The heath and heather bed is enhanced by the blue edger.
Daffodil ‘Audubon’
Passalong from our neighbors, Thanks Mae and Mickey!
Also from the same neighbors, this purple leaf peach, from a cutting, is blooming for the first time.
Pulmonaria ‘Diane Clare’
The view of the back garden from the garage deck, looking west.
Out from behind the glass shower door, the shallow pot’s agave did not survive the winter, but this container has been cleaned up for a grouping of silver succulents, still in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks until the frost danger has past. The rosemary topiary has been given a haircut and fed, ready to give us pleasure as we walk out the back door.
The new veggie bed with sugar snap peas up well and onions growing to deter critters. The birch twigs are to give the peas something more to grasp than the netting, if needed. Pole beans and tomatoes will be added soon.
The violas in the blue strawberry jar in the front have perked up with the rain and warmer weather. I thought for sure that one of these beauty contestants would be crowned as the winner of the bloom days pageant. But it was not meant to be. The winner is….
Miss Margaret, Fairest of the Faire Garden, March 2008. Congratulations to you and thanks to all the participants in the vote.
Fairegarden 
(i raise a heavy tankard brimming with hot coffee) here’s to the solstice and promise of flowering frost-freedom. all around us foliage is shooting up from root. to spring (clink)
Great photos! Isn’t it exciting that spring is just around the corner? I’m looking forward to seeing your garden in glorious bloom in the upcoming months.
brokenbeat, a return clink from the mug of hot chocolate, soothing a throat dry from coughing, there is new growth everywhere we look, how exciting! love.
Phillip, thanks, bloom time has begun here, end of April is normally a flower flled feast for the eyes and nose.
Frances,
I had to sigh when I saw your garden view, it is lovely and there is a restful quality to it…it seems just right.
Miss Margaret, Fairest of the Faire Garden, is indeed a beauty.
Gail
Oh…what gorgeous flowers, and Miss Margaret is indeed, the fairest of them all.
Gail, thanks, the garden is my source of calm in the stormy seas of life. Margaret happily enjoys her moment in the sun!
Sherry, thanks from the flowers, including Margaret.
Frances, I’m jealous of your spring! We’re expecting a snowstorm tonight. I hope the weatherman’s wrong.
What a beautiful view you have from your garage deck!
Frances .. Your gardens are beautiful! .. what gorgeous flowers and it really does look like Spring is finally there for you .. we have quite a few weeks to go yet .. a very long winter here.
That was a marvaleous pick for the winning flower .. what a charmer !
Thanks !
Joy
Garden Girl, I am so sorry for your weather forecast, it’s not fair to have snow on the first day of spring. Thanks for the deck view comment, it is a good place to watch the birds. If you click on that photo, there is a cardinal on top of the bird feeder hook that wasn’t noticed before.
Joy, Thanks, our spring has begun, but we could still have a killing frost like we did last year. Hope not! Margaret is beaming at the praise.
Your garden is so springy! I love the backlit Hyacinth photo, the colors are so jewel-like. Your Muscari edging is the best use I’ve seen of them. I’m glad Margaret won. That Violet was tied for #1 in my vote.
MMD, thanks for all the kind words. Margaret is deserving.
What a great post and so wonderful photographs! I want it too, SPRING, where is it, in Germany it’s snowing!
I hate it, I want sun and your lovely flowers.
Wishing a HAPPY EASTER Wurzerl
Spring is beautiful in Tennessee and least in your Faire Garden. We had a sunny day, too, after three days (and three inches) of rain.
Welcome Spring!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Wurzerl, thanks and welcome. Your spring will be coming soon, I hope, and have a happy Easter yourself!
Carol, thanks and so glad you got to see some sunshine. What a start to the season in some places, snow, floods, cold. We will see more cold also, that’s the way of it here normally, but today was a good day.
Gorgeous photos! I love the violas best of all 🙂
kate, thanks, the violas are so sweet with their little faces. I need to plant more next fall, in fact that is said every year, but this time I really mean it!
A beautiful post for the first day of spring Frances. You must be feeling better. If my garden looked this good I would be feeling better too. 😉 Happy Spring!!
What a joyous post, Frances! and so nice to see that Margaret won the fairest of the faire…I’m constantly amazed at how far along your garden is, and I can smell those hyacinths from here…
Oh Wow! Maybe someday I’ll have a spring view so beautiful as the one you have off of your deck! Lovely, Frances. 🙂
Lisa, thanks, the sunny day and flowers blooming do cheer one up even when sick. I could go out, pull a couple of weeds, then go back to bed several times. Glad the post didn’t show the lack of brain power. Let the flowers do the talking!
Jodi, Margaret was deserving, she also took a great photo. We are about on schedule in our spring blooms, a little behind in some things, but that is good. We will still have more cold snaps. Thanks for visiting.
Black Swamp Girl, thanks so much. It has taken several years and lots of work to achieve what still needs to be tweaked. A garden is never done and is constantly changing.
It’s looking beautiful in your garden Frances (that’s my middle name) 🙂
That first photo, with the light behind the hyacinth, is gorgeous. Love seeing all your blooms and the long shots. What a lovely garden you have. Yes, the work never ends, but it’s fun along the way 🙂
Happy spring and happy Easter to you!
Kerri, Happy Easter to you too. Thanks for visiting.
Congratulations, Frances!!! As a Nashvillian-in-exile, I love seeing what’s growing in Tennessee. And what a garden you have!
ourfriendben, thanks. Sorry you had to leave beautiful TN. Have a happy Easter.
How pretty your garden looks! A real treat!
/Katarina
Lovely garden, especially liked the view from the garage deck. *sigh* We had another 4″ of snow last night, after actually getting used to seeing bare ground (ahem) mud for a week. Oh well, one step forward, two steps back, the dance of spring!
It is definitely spring in Tennessee, your gardens look so lovely.
Katarina, thanks, hope you have a happy Easter.
Blue Fox, thanks and welcome. Sorry about your snow, but spring promises it will arrive, sooner some places than others, but it’s coming!
Robin’s Nesting Place, thanks. Have a happy Easter.
Frances, you hyacinths made me smile. They are so lovely and the grapes look good enough to eat. What vivid color you have in that strawberry pot – those violas look like they were made to be planted there. Happy Spring.
Things are shaping up for us here in the south aren’t they? It looks good over your way. I like those little grape hyacinths you put along the walkways.
Hello Frances,
Whenever I look at your garden, I make ooh! it is so beautiful.
Your garden seems to me little ahead from mine when it comes to blooming stages. Hyacints and cherry will be coming up in 2-3 weeks.
Happy Easter.
Ewa
Diana, thanks. We have really spread those grape hyacinths, it seems to make them happier to be divided since they want to push themselves up right out of the ground!
Dave, we are very fortunate in our climate, aren’t we? We can grow a wide range of things, diversity is wonderful!
Ewa, thanks, we are close in our bloomings, it seems. I am waiting for the cherry tree, last year it opened March 19, which was too early, we had a severe late frost that burned nearly all the flowers of very many things. We hope for a later bloom time this year to protect the short lived blooms.
Happy Spring Frances!
Your garden is amazing – I clicked on the east-view photograph and was happy I did so. It’s a beautiful sight – I imagine it looks wonderful no matter the seasoon.
Miss Margaret deserves the ‘fairest’ award, but then I think they all do. Each is lovely in its own way.
The purple-leaved peach has such pretty blosooms. This was truly a feast for my fed-up-with-snow eyes!
Kate, thanks for your sweet thoughts. I do hope your snow melts quickly and you can enjoy your garden soon. Margaret was very photogenic the day her portrait was taken, they all really are lovely. Happy Easter.
Stunning gardens and flowers and photographs, Frances! Now, I’ve tagged you for a meme – check out my blog. John @ Born Again Bird Watcher tagged me so….tag, you’re it!!! Can’t wait to see what you share…Debi @ GHT
1) That’s a big garden; 2) That’s a lot of spring bulbs (it’d take me weeks in my clay to get them all in); 3) That’s a lot of comments on your post–how do you keep up?
Clearly that is the way to grow grape hyacinths—against plants with burgundy foliage. They really stand out that way.
I’m sorry your agave didn’t survive the winter in the shallow pot. But, boy, you sure did wow me with the long shot of your garden. It looks so enticing. I’d love to stroll through it.
Spring seems thrilling in Faire Garden!
I hope you’re feeling better by now.
Benjamin Vogt, thanks for stopping by. 1. That is only half of it, the prettiest half. Looking to the east is a work still in progress, although planted, it needs more tweaking. 2. The bulbs were put in over a period of eight years, the grape hyacinths and earlies daffs were already here and had multiplied over the twenty plus years they had been planted. I divide them yearly. 3. The comments come in one or two at a time over days and I try and keep up. Bloom days are the hardest to stay on top of and still leave comments on everyone else’s posts. Carol at May Dreams had over eighty this month! I appreciate your numbering of your points, easier for me to think about each one! Happy Easter/Spring!
Pam, I really love your agaves and had hopes, the tag said zone 7, maybe in the ground in a raised gravel area it would have made it. My garden is not that style, but I love the agaves, have been to Yucca Do and the gardens and fell in love with them. I do wish you could come stroll the paths, maybe someday! The grape hyacinths need a backdrop and also need to be massed to look their best. Luckily the reproduce like wildfire and love to be divided. Happy Easter/Spring!
chuck b., I am better now, and there is still some spring yet to be enjoyed here, and tons of work to catch up on outside! The fog has lifted. Happy Easter/Spring!
Your garden is gorgeous, I love the way you have designed your back yard. I am happy to see the flowers coming back to your garden.
Rusty, thanks. There really is no design, plants get planted and moved until they look right. Seven years of that and sometimes it pleases. This is the prettiest season for this part of the garden. Happy Easter.
Wow, Frances, could you send some of that Tennessee spring up here to Chicago since you seem to have an abundance of it.
I feel so refreshed after taking the tour of your Spring flowers. Thanks for perking me up.
Carolyn Gail, That nice spring weather will be up your way soon. Glad to give you a preview of coming attractions. Last night I was looking at the garden conservancy’s open days schedule and saw some lovely Chicago gardens that would be fun to tour. Do you ever do that?
I love all the hyancinths. You really have the picture taking down. Love semi
semi, thanks. Still need work on the photos, some are okay. love.
Your garden looks all nice and spring-y Frances. Your new veggie bed is looking promising! It is always so exciting to see the first seedlings poke their little heads out of the soil! And yay for miss Margaret!
YE, thanks for stopping by. Just like you, we had snow on everything when I got up. Plants in full bloom with snow crystal capes, pretty for photos, I took some in my jammies. Margaret still looks pretty, maybe she will make some seeds.
Frances, your garden is beautiful- and so orderly! Love it! Enjoyed my stroll through your garden.
Barbee, thanks. That is the first time anyone has accused the garden of being orderly!
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