"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
                                                                                                                       - Robert Bault

Here are some photos of my dear friend Sharon's beautiful perennial garden. As you can see, she loves  the pink and purple color palettes. Daylilies are a predominant part of her garden, but she also has a wide variety of other perennials. Enjoy!

The days are getting longer, the birds are singing when I wake up in the morning and afternoon temperatures are nearing 60°. Spring is on the way. It's time to start thinking about what I will need to start gardening again. Here are a few things I like to have ready-to-go:

• Liquid fence – we like to start putting deer deterrent on our plants before they start growing. By doing this we can train the deer to stay away from our flowers before they actually come up. It's also nice not to have deer foot prints in the garden, especially if it's been raining, because they put big holes in my flower bed.
• Garden gloves – you can never have too many garden gloves.
• Kneepads – gardening can't happen without these!
• Garden tools – make sure your pruners are cleaned and oiled, your shovels and implements are in good repair and clean, and you have a sturdy wheel barrow ready for action.
• A new supply of mulch – I like to get an early start on weeding so that we can lay the mulch down as soon as possible. We usually order half a dump truck load and have it dumped close to the garden for easy access.

Let the fun begin!

Pictured above – 'August Wedding' in front with 'Bela Lugosi' in the background

I am in love with orange daylilies and the big, bold 'Fiesta Latina' checks all the boxes for me. It is a beautiful vibrant orange, has a large bloom and is a consistent performer. Hybridized in North Carolina in 2007 by Bob Selman at Blue Ridge Daylilies, Fiesta Latina is a dormant tetraploid that grows 36 inches tall in my garden. Last summer it bloomed from July 3 through the first week in August.

I have this daylily planted in a very prominent spot by my backyard patio, so when I sit outside I can enjoy it up close. It is planted by dark purple, near white and red daylilies that bloom at the same time so that the bright orange pops.

With spring right around the corner, I am already looking forward to seeing this beautiful mini iris. My friend Sally gave me a division of 'Captured Spirit' from her garden about ten years ago.  What a joy this delicate ruffled iris has been! It has reliably bloomed and happily multiplied year after year. Captured Spirit bridges the bloom gap between my daffodils and tall bearded irises.

Captured Spirit is a standard dwarf bearded (SDB) iris hybridized by Hooker Nichols (in Texas) and registered in 1980 as an early bloomer. Registered height for this variety is 13 inches, but mine rarely grows taller than six or seven inches. This may simply be the difference between growing in Texas as opposed to growing in Wisconsin.

If you make sure Captured Spirit gets six to eight hours of sun, has average, well-drained soil and some water it will reward you every spring. It is cold hardy to US Zone 3 (-40 °F to -35).