What are your favourite garden flowers, either ones you grow admire or associate with childhood?

The flowers I remember most from my childhood are trilliums. They grow wild in lightly wooded areas here on the island. They are very fragile, and somewhat endangered. It is illegal to pick them. As an adult, I loved the poppies (suspiciously similar in appearance to opium poppies), in my mother's garden. There were many bluebells as well, so many that they had seeded themselves into the municipal lot next door. One of my favourite memories involves standing in the yellow kitchen of my childhood home, staring out through many paned windows at an explosion of blue flowers. I miss them very much. In my own balcony garden I award geraniums and sky blue lobelia first place, closely followed by dianthus. Within a month, I should be able to plant for our long growing season. Loved the pictures on this thread!
 

Shali, that sounds gorgeous. My mom grew poppies too, she would dry out the seedpods in the fall and grind the seeds up to use in the poppyseed cakes she would bake (being Ukrainian and all) poppies are a real eastern european thing. So our family garden was very old country style with dill and cucumbers and poppies and sweet peas and beans, you name it, it was in there. Your balcony garden sounds really sweet and will be fun to work on. I had one here for a while, but don't get much sun, so limited to only certain plants.

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This thread is turning into a flower show extraordinaire! SB, those blue hydrangeas are really blue! Love them.
 
Thanks, Cookie. I had forgotten the beautiful peonies that grew next to the Jesse tree in my mother's garden. This year I am going to try wall planters on my balcony as well, for summer greens. I already grow a small selection of herbs. Cat grass and cat nip for the catterorrists! Lol. The fuschias in the hanging baskets draw many hummingbirds in the early morning, and at dusk. Much to their disgust, the cats are relegated to purdah during these times. Butterflies love the impatiens. Cats love gardens.
 
We get lots of poppies as well - yellow, red, white. I really, really want to get to France with my camera when the all the lavender is blooming!
 
Those poppies are magnificent, Merlin. I guess poppies are prevalent all over Europe. One of the things about my mother's homeland (Ukraine) is that the poppy and cornflower motif was very dear to her, and now to me.

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The flowers that take me right back to early childhood are London Pride, I loved them and they are still one of my favourites.

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I miss the lilacs, peonies, bleeding hearts and lily of the valley of my childhood. Here in the deep south I am unable to grow them. Right now my Jasmine is blooming...greeting me with their fragrance as I open my front door. My Wisteria is also blooming, with yellow Carolina Jasmine accenting them. My white azalea have lost almost all their bloom. The yellow day lilies are sending up new shoots and the purple Creeping Lantana have set out a few blooms....mostly trying to sprout out new foliage. My succulents are all intact, from the winter....and my hostas are sprouting new leaves. I see some buds starting on my Gardenia hedges....There are some buds on my yellow Peace Rose bush also. Guess it is evident that I am not fond of red or pink flowers.
Sorry I cannot take pictures. My cell will not, try as a may, allow me to send or load them onto my pc. My nephew asked me to send him a pic of my large gopher turtle friend that comes out and greets me, waiting for his treat of dried cranberries. Have some shots of him...but, unable to send them.
 
More from our garden - I'm so looking forward to more and more blooming this year!

May bluebells

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Magnolia tree and azaleas

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One my faves - aquilegia - I really love this shot

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Crinodendron

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Poppies

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ndynt said:
I miss the lilacs, peonies, bleeding hearts and lily of the valley of my childhood. Here in the deep south I am unable to grow them. Right now my Jasmine is blooming...greeting me with their fragrance as I open my front door. My Wisteria is also blooming, with yellow Carolina Jasmine accenting them. My white azalea have lost almost all their bloom. The yellow day lilies are sending up new shoots and the purple Creeping Lantana have set out a few blooms....mostly trying to sprout out new foliage. My succulents are all intact, from the winter....and my hostas are sprouting new leaves. I see some buds starting on my Gardenia hedges....There are some buds on my yellow Peace Rose bush also. Guess it is evident that I am not fond of red or pink flowers.
Sorry I cannot take pictures. My cell will not, try as a may, allow me to send or load them onto my pc. My nephew asked me to send him a pic of my large gopher turtle friend that comes out and greets me, waiting for his treat of dried cranberries. Have some shots of him...but, unable to send them.
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They sound so lovely. Wish you could share the pics. I'm guessing you don't have an android or iphone?
 
Great shots Annie, - the bluebells are so sweet. Such beautiful flowers - I want to eat them - or paint them. LOL
 
Cookie said:
Great shots Annie, - the bluebells are so sweet. Such beautiful flowers - I want to eat them - or paint them. LOL
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Thanks! Love capturing flowers. Bluebells are such a challenge since they are so tiny. In May you see about a zillion of them all throughout the woods here and in gardens. But mostly carpets of them between trees. In Scotland it is illegal to dig them up!
 
SeaBreeze said:
I can't say that I have one favorite flower, I really love them all. Thanks so much for this thread Merlin, the photos here are amazing. As a child I remember liking to see the Hydrangeas very much, especially the blues.


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Sea, I don't remember if it was Hydrendias or marigolds, but, as a teen, I had several neighbors that had the most beautiful big colorful flowers and I always love walking past their yards because the aroma was so glorious. BTW, I thought that avatar you had a week or so ago was stunning, I forget what flora they were, but, of course my favorite color blue. I meant to tell you thought I would get around to it, but, you changed the pic twice since then. :(

Everyone, thanks for posting all the beautiful pictures.
 

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