Mobile Botanical Gardens Gallery of Gardens Tour 2011 - Lobel Garden

Mobile Botanical Gardens Gallery of Gardens Tour 2011

Garden #2

The Lobel Garden

Today we are going to visit the Lobel garden. Melanie Lobel (the owner) is a landscape architect. Her garden is predominantly shade, she did a great job with the layout. I always like to see shady gardens and see what gardeners come up with. I've always found that shade is somewhat hard to work with here. There are a few plants that work well in shade, but your very limited.

It hasn't rained here in about 2 weeks. Go figure the DAY that the Garden Tour opens....it rains! It was over cast and cloudy all day, but when we got to this garden, the bottom fell out. So we did what any die hard gardener would do....we went and bought umbrellas. I was more worried about getting my camera wet than getting my hair wet. Let me tell ya'll, it is HARD to hold a umbrella and take pictures. I need one of those umbrellas that sit on my head like a hat LOL.

I loved the sweeping layout of the beds around the driveway and front yard.

She had a lot of hydrangeas. I wish I would have counted them. This is where we figured out that the deep purple hydrangeas were actually Cardinal Red hydrangeas.

I loved this tree. Dummy me...I'm almost ashamed to admit this ta ya'll....but I always thought this was BIG butterfly bush!!! WRONG! It's a Vitex tree, also known as a Chaste tree.

An upclose of the bloom. Now ya'll have to admit that this does look like a Butterfly Bush....well from far away atleast.

Since her back yard is 95% shade, she planted her vegetables and herbs out in the front yard. Which we saw at quite a few of the gardens on tour.

Her back yard was so lush and green. The vibrant colors of the hydrangeas really pop.

I love these Tamukeyama Maples (on the left). This is what I bought the Dirt Queen for Mother's Day. She has wanted one for quite some time.

Now here's a problem solver for you hydrangea lovers - this is a limelight hydrangea planted OVER regular mophead hydrangeas. The limelight creates shade for the mopheads. How clever is that!!! The Hydrangea Queen has to try this, because it looks alot better than her umbrellas.

I'm not sure, but I think this is some type of monarda. I can tell you this much...I KNOW it's not a Butterfly Bush ;-)

I hope ya'll enjoyed this garden tour. If you missed garden #1, The Hand Garden, then click HERE.

Ok....guys, 2 down, 8 to go!

See ya'll tomorrow