Bloomin' Tuesday ~ Gardens of Colonial Williamsburg

I'm back home from my wonderful adventure last week!

For Part 1 of the trip, I'll be joining Ms Green Thumb Jean and Bloomin' Tuesday to share with you the beautiful gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Last week Tom and I celebrated my birthday with a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, our home for ten years back in the 90's. The 4th of July holiday right afterwards and preparations for a friend's visit on the weekend made for a whole week full of fun celebrations...and no time for blogging until now!

Come on! I'll show you all the flowers we saw along Duke of Gloucester Street. I fell in love with the purple blooms you see below. They look like Butterfly bushes, but they are Vitex (or Chaste) trees, and that one on the left came home with me as a souvenir of our special time in CW.After I purchased the plant, one of the colonial gardeners shared some information from a gardening book that was for sale under their retail tent so I would be more familiar with the Vitex:One of the interesting facts I learned was to use the pruned wood from the Vitex to stake other plants or fashion the sticks for climbing vegetables like the gardeners do in Colonial Williamsburg. Take a look at some of these garden photos: I thought this was very ingenious and amazing:Would you like to work like these colonial ladies in this well-kept garden?  I would...but not in those hot clothes!I could have stayed in this garden all morning looking around and getting ideas...and I almost did!Here's a picture below of a Vitex tree in Colonial Williamsburg. I'll prune mine to be a small tree instead of bushy like this one. You can also see more Vitex tree pictures on Pinterest here to get an idea. More plants for sale in the Garden Shop: Any ideas as to what this purple plant is below? There weren't markers in the garden to inform us. Also do you see the old watering barrel below right. The gardeners used the water from that barrel to do all their daily watering of the plants. I didn't see a modern watering hose in sight:So many beautiful gardens were located in the backyards of several of the residences. We didn't know if these gardens were private or open to the public. But one of the gardeners told us..."Please...go look! I've done too much work for them not to be seen!" This garden below is almost all green with lots of trees and boxwood mazes displaying flowers in the center:
A beautiful landscaped display along Merchants Square in the restored area:Are you getting the idea that all I did was take pictures of flowers while in Williamsburg? Well...we did see other areas of CW, too. And I think Tom was thankful for that!

I'll post more about our trip later this week. If you'd like to see more Bloomin' Tuesday participants and what's growing where they live, hop over to Ms Green Thumb Jean's!

~Deb

Comments

[Bev C]

Hello Deb,

I just love this post, so much to see, oh I wish I could have joined you. Is the plant a Thistle, I just googled "purple flowering plant similar to a thistle" and plants very similar to this one came up. I imagine that it would be very tough and re=seed well.

Happy days.
Bev.

[Rose]

What an amazing sight that must have been, Deb. Your photos encapsulate what I think of when I imagine colonial America, especially the ladies' costumes.

A belated but enthusiastic happy birthday to you from the cold Down Under.

[daisy]

Wow, how wonderful! I've always wanted to visit Colonial Williamsburg. I love how they used the branches to make the fence!

[Chris]

Great pictures Deb! Now that I see a photo of the Vitex tree I do remember seeing them but I never knew what it was called. I can see it now, in a few years you will have those limbs cut and arranged around your "Martha Stewart" garden, and it will be beautiful! :)

[Toni]

Hi Deb!
I absolutely love Colonial Williamsburg! Your photos bring back so many wonderful memories of our visits there. I loved this post!
Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment so that I could find your blog. We love our Smoky Mountains, but I have to say you've got some beauties in your front and backyard yourself. Our youngest lives in the Shenandoah Valley, and we always love our visits there.
Have a great evening.

[Brenda Nuland]

I'd love to return to Colonial Williamsburg but at least I can "visit" through your pictures. :)

[Stephanie in MI]

What a wonderful trip! Looks like a wonderful time. And Happy Birthday!!!

I think that purple one is a thistle, isn't it?

[Chris]

Are the purple flowers artichokes? We've been to CW many times over the years (I attended W&M) and I believe that's what they may be...or something in the same family. Beautiful pictures!

[Becky Ensinger]

That plant is an artichoke.