In 2003 we didn’t have a house or a garden that we owned but we treated the Great Smoky Mountains as our garden. We traveled frequently to the park and took pictures of anything that caught our interest. As part of the Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop: Color in the Garden at Gardening Gone Wild I thought I’d contribute some photos for mother nature. One of the best designers out there!
Purple and green beneath a strategically placed boulder.
A close up.
White and green.
Yellow and green.
More white and green!
White and brown!
Shrooms
Green and green!
FernsOrange and red and what else? Green!
Flame AzaleaThe next few pictures were taken at my parent’s house and not in the Smokies.
Purple and green!
IrisPink and Green!
DianthusRed and Green!
A Japanese maple with nandinas planted beneath.Green! (with a little blue flag)
The woods at my in-law’s house.
Oh, yay for spring! I must say that adding that blue flag to the woodland shot was a nice artistic touch, Dave.
Well the flag wasn’t my idea. It was left over from the construction of their house. It does add a little contrast though!
what a gorgeous Japanese maple!
Those pictures are beautiful Dave! We drove up into the Shenandoah mountains in VA last fall and I was shocked at all the flowers in bloom and the color that time of year! The Mountain laurel was beautiful the last time we went to the TN Mountains.
The mountains are truly a magical place to visit. Dont think I would want to live there and deal with all the snow in the winter though. Burrrr..
Wonderful taste of spring! I have a thing for those deciduous azaleas, that ‘Flame’ is scrumptous.
Frances at Faire Garden
Tina,
I only wish I could claim that Japanese maple for my own yard!
Skeeter,
The mountains aren’t too bad in the lower elevations in the winter. When you get up high you get lots of the white stuff. When we lived out there the roads in the mountains were closed over the winter usually due to icy and snowy conditions. We loved the scenery though!
Frances,
That has to be one of our favorite pictures. That was taken along the Abram’s Falls trail off of Cades Cove. A great place to visit in the spring!
maybe you can dig it when no one is looking and handily transplant it into your garden? just kidding. try to start a cutting from it. i have tried but had no success, maybe you will do better. it is beautiful.
I love violets – thanks for posting some pics of them in the wild!
I love all the natives in bloom. I try to incorporate natives into my garden where it is feasible. Often they are the ones that will survive my dry shade. However my garden is achangin’ as all gardens do. Thanks for this bit of inspiration.