Playing with color

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The garden is moving into its most colorful time of the growing season. Daylilies and Echinacea have come into bloom, tall lilies release their fragrance into the air on warm days and, even at twilight, the white Hydrangea flowers make a bright statement in the circle garden.

One of my favorite garden areas is the Grape and Lemonade bed, where all of the flowers are purple and lemon yellow. I’ve been wanting to paint a flower pot in those colors to place in the bed in order to amp up the color and finally had the time to do it. I’ve always been inspired by artist and gardener Keeyla Meadows for the way that she paints large garden pots and then plants them in the same color palette. You can see some of her work here or visit her on Instagram @keeylameadows.

While I’m not nearly as adventurous as she is, this is my first attempt at painting and planting a pot to echo a color theme.

Painted and planted!
Old pot
Partially painted pot

And here it is in the garden – even from far away, the rim of the pot stands out and will add color until the end of the garden season.

I created a short video of the Grape and Lemonade bed and how I painted the pot, which I consider a small gift to a pretty part of the garden. It is the first video in a series I’m starting on my YouTube channel called “Spotlight in the Garden”. Enjoy!

I hope you are enjoying floral fireworks at the height of summer, and if you are lucky, an evening show of fireflies.

All text, photos, and video ©2025 Lynn Emberg Purse, All rights reserved.

When dreams come true

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A few weeks ago, I stood looking at my sunny hillside with the man who has been helping me with my garden for the past several years. With the heavy lifting done by Bill Lucki from Natural Garden Design, I’ve systematically removed invasive and non-productive plants and replaced them with plants native to our area to support pollinators and wildlife. But I still wanted the garden to be beautiful.Bill turned to me and said “you wanted a stream of contrasting color and there it is.” And he was right. In a hillside awash with yellow native primrose, we had planted a weaving line of red yarrow a year ago and now it was starting to make a statement.

The last 4 years of systematically tearing the garden apart and putting it back together again is beginning to pay off, even though I know Bill has had his doubts about the level of destruction! Every year a wider species of birds appear and make their nests here while more pollinators appear to take advantage of the bounty. While the garden will never be 100% native, research suggests that a plant mix of 70% native puts it into the viable eco-system category and I’ve surpassed that percentage this year. The garden feels absolutely magical when I walk through it each morning, full of life, color, scent and sound.

The only way I can seem to truly capture that magic is through video, so here is my portrait of June in the garden. And while the video focuses on roses and lilies and clematis, the native plants and trees create the foundation that surrounds them.  

May you enjoy a summer of beauty and magic, wherever you are.

Going native

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We’re at the end of “Pollinator Week” here in the U.S., an opportunity to draw attention to the plants and practices that build habitats for our pollinator friends. For the past four years, I have systematically eliminated groups of plants that have either been rated as invasive for our area or simply don’t provide any value to pollinators or wildlife in general. Replacing them with natives has resulted in a massive shift in the number and variety of birds, butterflies, and other pollinators that now reside here. The dawn chorus is astounding when Pixie and I step into the garden each morning – take a listen for yourself!  

The circle garden is overflowing with lush growth after week-long periods of rain.

I’ve been experimenting with what native plants do well in different parts of the garden – one delightful surprise has been foxglove beardtongue, the graceful Penstemon digitalis native to our area. It grows equally well in rich sunny areas and dry woodland beds, stands up to the rain and resists deer browsing while its white blossoms on tall wands feed small winged pollinators. It’s easy to grow from seed so it’s time to add another dozen plants to every part of the garden!

Another happy native plant is Zizia aurea, better known as Golden Alexander. It blooms with the peonies and has handsome foliage all season long but importantly, is the host plant for black swallowtail butterflies. I’ve been letting it self seed so that I will have more to spread about the garden.

The woodland garden I began last year has begun to fill out and actually look like a garden, thanks to the almost constant rain.

Filled only with native plants, it has been a fun challenge to play with the textures and shapes of woodland denizens. A new copper birdbath provides a clean and dependable source of drinking water for wildlife while adding a little shine to the area.

Sometimes my heart hurts a little when I watch online videos of gardeners who continue to promote plants that are damaging to the environment because, in addition to adding to a problem, it encourages others to do the same without thought for the consequences. Creating a beautiful garden that is also a healthy habitat does not have to be mutually exclusive.

So this year, I’ve decided to shine a light on beautiful garden plants that also support pollinator life in the hopes of encouraging others to do the same. Today’s video features five of my favorite native plants, with more videos to come. I continue to learn and refine my plant choices as I reach for a 70% native plant balance, the “magic number” to creating a viable habitat. Enjoy!

If you have a garden, I hope you will consider adding a “native to your area” plant or three to provide food for our precious pollinators.

Garden transformation – a journey of growth and change

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The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters. ~May Sarton

The last two months in the garden has been astonishing – after a long winter, the extended cool weather and plenty of rainfall has triggered healthy growth and abundant flowers. The garden changes before my eyes every day – sometimes slowly and sometimes suddenly – and I have finally began to capture that change with my camera.

It has been almost four months since my shoulder surgery in February. I was unable to walk through the garden for the first two months because of the danger of falling, so I could only observe it from the decks and open doorways. In the past several weeks, I’ve finally been able to immerse myself in the beauty of the garden.

‘Queen of Night’ tulip
Tulip ‘Royal Pride’ and daffodil ‘Thalia’
Siberian iris ‘Riverdance’
Geranium ‘Biokova’
Tulip ‘Apricot Beauty’

Honestly, the surgery recovery process was longer and far more painful than I expected and physical therapy sessions began triggering my auto-immune response which limited how much I could do without debilitating flareups. Nothing was simple or easy but now, finally, I’m able to both work in the garden and film it. Mornings with Pixie have been so joyful for both of us as we settle into our usual routine, and the garden has never looked better now that the eye and the hand of the gardener is constant once again.

In those first few weeks after surgery, a loss of strength and mobility led me to walk more slowly and look at the garden more closely, noticing small changes and details that I might have missed otherwise. These days, I am filled with a sense of joy and hope as I awaken each day, eager to reacquaint myself with the plants, the woods, and the creatures that make their home there. Absence did make the heart grow fonder and I treasure every moment that I spend in my garden, immersed in the scent of flowers and songs of birds.

Although I was not able to garden in late winter and early spring, I did begin working remotely with Sarabeth Ramsey, a wonderful social media specialist to expand my blog and YouTube channel with the intent to start my own online garden courses.  To be honest, I was finally over the burnout of my long music teaching career and itching to be creatively productive again. Some deep soul searching went into this entire process and I’m still unraveling the details as I move forward. I found deep satisfaction from teaching a few garden classes and seminars in February and March and reconnecting with gardening friends – there is still so much for me to learn and to share! It is the season for growth and change indeed.

You can expect to see me more regularly here on the blog and I look forward to renewing my friendships with all of you. For now, I offer my latest garden video on the transformation of the garden, with many more to come. May you embrace the beauty of nature around you and take time to listen to its quiet voice.

Garden Chronicles

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The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Last night I finished editing a video chronicle of my 2024 garden. There was so much that I hadn’t shared last year for various reasons and it seemed a good idea to create a close look at the garden throughout the blooming year. I became lost in the lovely images of flowers and the sound of birdsong while editing – I uploaded the video to YouTube and went to bed. This morning, when I stepped outside with Pixie, I was shocked to find myself back in a cold snowy frozen world! Where were the flowers? Where was the color, the warmth, the birdsong? Perhaps reality is all in the mind, the imagination. If so, the garden of my imagination and memory is my preferred reality.

I’m preparing for minor shoulder surgery this week, so this post will be shorter than usual. Until I can return to the page, please enjoy my “alternate reality” of life in the garden.