Good morning from the garden!

Today I thought I’d share some of the prettiest garden pics I took on our recent trip to Norway and the Netherlands.

First off though, I have to say that I didn’t take nearly as many photos on this trip as I usually do.  Why?  Well, I had this notion that rather than trying to get photos of everything I would just focus on being ‘in the moment’.

But you know what?  In hindsight, I think that was a mistake.  It turns out that photos are my way of remembering the experience.  Now that we’re home, I’m finding myself wishing I had taken more time to get good photos.  It’s certainly something I’ll keep in mind for the next trip!

But in the meantime, I still have a few pretty garden pics to share with you guys.

By the way, have I mentioned that it rained nearly every day of our two week trip?  As you saw last Sunday, it rained while we were touring de Hortus in Amsterdam.

And the rain continued to follow us throughout our trip.  That may have been part of the reason I didn’t get so many photos as well.  It’s tricky to wrangle both an umbrella and a camera, especially when your camera really requires two hands to operate properly.

We did get some sunny weather in Amsterdam, and the sun peeked out from the clouds eventually during our visit to Kristiansand.

But the rest of our Norwegian ports of call were full on rainy.

But no matter, things look pretty in the rain too.

And we were prepared with rain jackets, hats and umbrellas.

That being said, we did give up on walking around Oslo earlier than we might have on a sunny day when it really started coming down.

Aren’t those nasturtiums pretty?  I used to plant those in my early gardening days.  Mainly because you can fill in a big chunk of space for the cost of one packet of seeds.  I may have to consider planting them again next year.

Autumn is probably not the best time of year to be touring gardens.

It certainly wasn’t the right time if one wanted to see tulips in Holland.

But it was an awesome time to see the hydrangeas.

Apparently even gardeners in Norway can grow magnificent macrophylla hydrangeas.

I’m so jealous!

Holland had their fair share of hydrangeas too.

For the most part, other than those macrophylla’s, the plants in Northern European gardens were very similar to what we can grow in Minnesota.

Including lots of cosmos, zinnias, dahlias, salvias, and my new favorite, verbena bonariensis.

I saw tons of verbena bonariensis everywhere we went.

It looks like butterflies like it as much as I do.

I even found it deep in the valleys of Norway.

You may remember that I searched high and low for that plant this summer and eventually found it at Abrahamson’s Nursery in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.

Another plant that I’ve been hearing about lately, and one that I want to find to add to my garden next year is Persicaria.

At least I’m fairly sure that is Persicaria (if any of you know differently, please leave a comment).

Despite all of the rain, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing pretty plants everywhere we visited during our trip.  One of these days I’d love to take a garden themed tour of Great Britain.  How about you?  Are there any garden destinations on your bucket list?  Leave a comment and let me know.