Field Trip to Montpelier Mansion

To celebrate a few days off leading into a long weekend, we went on a field trip today.  We visited Marietta Mansion, Montpelier Mansion, and Belair Mansion. It's a beautiful afternoon with temperatures in the low 70's, sunshine, and a slight breeze.  We couldn't ask for a better day to go out and walk around some well manicured grounds and gardens.

The highlight of the afternoon was the formal garden at Montpelier Mansion in Laurel.  I told Gloria that I wanted to get out to take some pictures - and I hit the jackpot for some garden shots.  They have a formal garden with Irises, Peonies, Roses, and herb among other plants. This weekend is a great time to see the peonies and the irises.

The formal garden looking up towards the mansion.

Near the entrance were several groupings of Irises.

The Irises posed for their close-up.

Then we passed through the formal herb garden and got to the peonies,  GORGEOUS!! 

Simple and fancy at the same time, the outer petals create a simple setting for the inner fancies.

Gloria has asked for more peonies in our garden.

I'm not sure what color to call these.

In the center of the peony beds there were several rose bushes.

(speechless)

And near the edge of a cleared area I saw this fellow.

I'll never have the time for such a formal garden, but it was fun to find one nearby that we can go visit together. We'll be watching heir website for activities at the mansion for more chances to go up and enjoy the grounds.

Creating a photo log of the back hill

By far the biggest garden we have is on the hill in the backyard.  There are numerous other bits and pieces around the house, but the back hill is the biggest continuous bed.  I've been taking pictures of sections of it for years, but last summer started stitching together some of the sequences to create panoramic scenes of the whole hill.

This year I'm taking the panoramic scenes a step further and creating a series of pictures over time to show the garden as it grows through the season.  So far I have three pictures and have put them together in a sequences collage.

 The top picture is mid-April right after I had spent a weekend putting down the mulch.  I was not very careful in overlapping the original pictures, so the stitching did not work well.  It's actually two different stitched images placed next to each other.  The center image is late April, and the third one is mid-May (then there is room for several more to be added later.)

Here are the images separately - to see more detail.

<-- 2 pictures Mid April

 Mid April 3 pictures ->

Late April

And today (mid-May)

Since I'm still learning what I'm doing out there, this will give me a chance to see what is blooming when. So next year I'll have a quick reference guide that is very specifically tailored to my garden.

Now I am going to ask for help.  I have several plants that I don't know what they are (so I'm not sure what to do for them.)  Here is a gallery of pictures.  If you know what these are, please leave a comment and tell me. I'll group them by numbers to make it easier to keep track.

Plant 1 - along the garden path in several spots - getting to about 12 -18 inches tall

Plant 2 in the center left of the hill - lots of sun

Plant 3 - at the far right on the hill - plenty of full sun.

Plant 4 - ground cover - mostly behind the crimson barberry in the center behind the arbor. 

If you know what these are - please leave a comment and let me know so that I'll know how to care for them.