Looking Forward

It's December 31st, and it seems that I'm supposed to be looking back over the year.  But I'm not.  I'm looking forward!

Spring snowflake - Leucojum vernum

I'm not counting down the hours or minutes until midnight.  I'm counting down the days until the first irises, and daffodils, and crocus bulbs emerge.  Spring starts a whole new gardening year after being cooped up from the cold.  And I can't wait!

Irises

There's something magical about seeing the earth renewed after its winter slumber.  Something poetic.  Last year, Stacy of Microcosm, waxed poetic thirteen (or fewer) ways about the crocus, and asked us to join her.  It was a fun lesson in patience and anticipation waiting for the first crocus bulb to emerge.

Jasmine

But the best part about spring is that it turns gloriously into May.  I know - May is not technically a separate season.  But for gardeners, it is!

Roses

Before I started gardening, May was for graduations and holidays.  But now it's much, more more.

Hydrangea

It's the month I look forward to the most, because it seems that the entire garden bursts forth in blooms in the merry month of May.  You can literally watch the grass growing, and the buds opening. I guess that's why Carol of May Dreams Gardens named her blog after this particular month.

Gaura

Of course, May also heralds in the start of summer.  And when I think of summer, I think of roses.  Glorious, beautiful roses that bloom all summer and in my dreams all year long.  Some summers we have the nightmare of a drought, but the thrill of seeing the garden filled with roses blooming is what I most look forward to each year.

Roses

It's also always fun to find another gardener that has fallen completely head over heels in love with roses and has the same dream for their garden.  Recently, I've found the blog of a new rose addict, Janie of Alabama Rose and Flower Garden from a Non-Green Thumb, and her words make me yearn to see in my roses in bloom again.

Roses

Other rose lovers that keep me dreaming of summer (to name just a very few, and in no particular order) include:
Redneck Rosarian
Hartwood Roses
The Garden Diary
Organic Garden Dreams
Dirt Therapy
If Only Sweat Were Irrigation
Sequoia Gardens
Garden Musings
A Rose is a Rose
Joyful Reflections
 

Peacock orchid

Of course, summer eventually morphs into fall.  It comes late in Texas, but it does finally come.  And my eyes stray from the roses to the camellias.  Gardeners are a lot like playboys.  Every pretty bloom turns our head, and we can't be expected to have only one love!

Asters

And I'm not the only one that has fallen for the camellia's charm.   It seems everyone that has camellias fall madly and deeply in love with them.  Garden of Aaron and Christine of The Gardening Blog have both fallen under the spell of blooming camellias.  But perhaps the biggest camellia lover I know is Carolyn of Carolyn's Shade Gardens.

Hibiscus

But as beautiful as they are, when the fall blooming camellias begin to bloom, it's almost bittersweet.  I know that when they begin to bloom, winter is on its way.

Camellia

The garden begins to shed its summer clothing, and puts on her heavy coat of evergreens.  The gardener turns to books, berries, inside blooms, and of course, to dreaming of spring - and to another year of gardening.

Christmas cactus

Goodbye 2012.  I'm ready for 2013!