The South is in Bloom!

Beautiful bougainvillea home of little birds

I took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Florida to visit my Mom and was captivated by all of the lovely Spring growth that I saw along the way and while there.  The trees are starting to bud here, but much further along the more I drove.  Once in Florida, I had to capture the beauty of this gorgeous bougainvillea growing next to the home that Mom rented.  The bush is full of little birds just twittering away every morning; they were probably talking about how lucky they were to have such a beautiful home!

New Guinea Impatiens growing as perennial

Also growing everywhere were huge mounds of New Guinea Impatiens, which we can only grow as annuals in Wisconsin but grow in Florida as perennials.  I was jealous!  It was also funny to see poinsettias growing along the side of the homes -- sometimes next to homes that were growing a lot of palm trees and cactus.  It seems that almost anything grows in that hot and often humid environment!

Wisteria blossoms

The drive home was almost unsafe while going through Georgia and Tennessee as a result of the stunningly beautiful wisteria growing along the roads.  When I attended the Philadelphia Flower Show, one of the lectures that I attended cautioned the planting of wisteria because it can "come in through your windows and choke you in your bed."  As I saw the huge areas of wisteria growing wild over trees, bushes, light poles, etc., it was easy to see why the speaker had cautioned about making sure to keep it pruned or it would literally take over everything.  That said, though, I thought it was really beautiful and took lots of pictures!

Beautiful patch of wisteria growing over everything in it's path!

I have no desire to be strangled in my bed, but would be truly delighted to have some portion of this beauty added to my butterfly garden where I planted a wisteria last year.  It's at the base of the arbor so it's feet will be shaded from the strong afternoon sun by my Joe Pye Weed, and I'm looking forward to it covering the arbor with the lovely purple blooms.

Arbor last summer (Joe Pye Weed is purple)

I've planted a climbing rose bush on the other side of the arbor (which is really coming along already this Spring), and I'm looking forward to seeing the rose bush filling out the left side of the arbor (and along the wooden fence), and the wisteria climbing up and over the right side of the fence and complementing the purple of the Joe Pye Weed and the bright yellow black-eyed Susans.

Pink flowering dogwood in Tennessee

The pink flowering dogwood was another beautiful spot of color along the sides of the road during this past trip.  We'll be driving back from Florida again mid-April and I'm really looking forward to seeing if things have changed or whether they'll still be as lovely as this past trip.