A welcoming spring porch
March 26, 2012
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I showed you the grassy, fluffy wreath I made for spring last week:
It was up on the front door, but I tried it in our foyer instead and LOVED it.
Too darn cute!
So I needed to fill the front door, and have had an idea I’ve been wanting to try for a while now.
It involved the Southern Living bucket I’ve used on our door forever. I LOVE the thing and have had it for about eight years – I sold Southern Living (now Willow House) as a second job when we were saving up for this house. :)
I’ve always filled it with lots of goodies during fall, and it looks amazing. For the rest of the year, I use faux stuff -- but I wanted to try something LIVE this time.
We have this bush on our property that I planted a long time ago:
It’s been so long, I have no idea what it is. All I know is it does great in part sun and it grows FAST.
And it bursts with these ahhhhmazing blooms every spring:
And they smell absolutely divine. I walk by it and take in big fat whiffs cause it smells like SPRING.
Anyone know what this is?
Anyway, I have to trim it up big time every summer, and since I knew I was going to do that anyway, I decided to take full advantage of these beautiful blooms right now.
I have never tried to put anything live in the door bucket, so I didn’t know if it would hold water. I ended up sticking a couple plastic cups down in there and filled them with water. Then I just stuck a bunch of the cut branches in:
OH MY, I love it!! I love how full and beautiful it is!
On a side note, I also love the natural patina on that bucket. :)
We’ll only have these blooms for about a week, so I have a wonderful few days of this gorgeous door decor, courtesy of Mother Nature:
It was in the 80’s all last week (a couple all time record breakers for central Indiana), so today’s temps in the 50’s felt positively frigid.
But the Bub and I didn’t let it stop us! We found a couple super easy hanging baskets at WalMart for the front porch:
I don’t feel like I do a great job mixing flowers in my pots and flower boxes, so this was a welcome change – it was all done for me! I love how they trail down the sides of the planters.
I also love the little white blooms that are so similar to those on our door:
Tonight the flowers will come in for what I’m hoping will be the last cold evening for a while. Tomorrow I need to pull out the American flag and get that back up! I feel like the front of our house doesn't look right without it. :)
Best part of this door hanger project was that it cost me nothin’:
My goal as we continue to plant around our home is to use bushes and plantings that will make for good cuttings I can use throughout the seasons. I did it at Christmas and loved using the fresh clippings!
Are there specific plants you love for cuttings in flower arrangements? Do you have any idea what my pretty plant is? :)
P.S. I painted our front door red last year -- you can find out more about the paint color and door painting process here.
Looks like a white lilac bush to me :) I ADORE lilacs in the spring - it's heavenly!
ReplyDeleteI thought it looked like a viburnam (snowball plant). But I don't know lilacs--it's too hot in Texas.
ReplyDeleteSimply Gorgeous. Think I'm going to have to "borrow" this idea. I have two of those bushes in my yard...I have no idea what they are either, but they sure do look pretty in that SLAH bucket. Thanks for the ahhhmazing idea.
ReplyDeleteIt either looks like what they said, or I was thinking it was spirea. I believe it's one of the 3. I have my SL@H/WH bucket on my front door, too, but I went w/ the fakes. ;o) I'm not good with the watering thing.
ReplyDeleteI think Sara is right...a white lilac. My FAVORITE flower! They are not quite ready to bloom here in MI but with all the warm weather it should not be too long....can't wait. Your door looks beautiful! Alice
ReplyDeleteI think your plant is a Fragrant Tea Olive. My Mother in-law has 2 and they smell amazingly sweet, but light. I just love them! Your plant looks a lot like the ones she has. I don't recall the touch of pink on the bloom your's has, but I could have just over looked it on hers or it could be a different variety of the same family or something. Hope this helps. :)
ReplyDeleteLooks beautiful! And free is my favorite price!! Now if it would just stop snowing here in Idaho!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have two of those bushes...I just call them snowballs!
ReplyDeleteVery pretty!! It looks great hanging on your front door!! Your front porch is looking very springy!! :)
ReplyDeleteNo flowers here yet for us in Minnesota. Still stuck indoors, so I'm anxious to see what you been working on in your basement....
ReplyDelete~Bliss~
I'm super jealous of 2 things: 1. that you can keep real plants alive (and looking so great) and 2. that you can turn live plants in to super awesome door decor! I lack in BOTH of those areas! I promised myself I would start googling how to have pretty door decor...haha! I struggle to keep my box woods alive in the front landscaping so I better just stick with all fake door decor for starters! :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful blooms, whatever they are! Don't you just love a good mysstery? :)
ReplyDeleteBring those pretty pots inside tonight... it's gettin' cold:) We saw the Hunger Games this weekend, too. My oldest and I read all the books, so we were dying to see it!
ReplyDeleteI love it! So welcoming!
ReplyDeleteHeather
Hmm, I think I'm with those in believing your blooms to be white lilacs. I grew up with 3 different kinds of lilacs on our farm and the buds, blossoms and stems in your photos all look like lilacs. Our magnolia trees are blooming here in the Twin Cities and I can't wait for my neighbors crab apple tree to bloom. Just thrilled to have green this time of year in MN!
ReplyDeleteI'm 99% sure they're white lilacs as well. My mom has 2 of those bushes in her backyard and the smell is to die for! I have to plant one in my tiny back garden this year for sure.
ReplyDeleteYour front entrance way is gorgeous. I think we have the same door colour :)
ReplyDeleteI have seen your wreath or one like it on pinterest.
Fresh flowers in a door display are beautiful! I do like the other planters being so close in looks. ~ Maureen
ReplyDeleteYep, I think it looks like a lilac too, although this is pretty early for them to bloom... but we have had a lot of nice weather early, so maybe? Lilacs are my favorite though, they smell amazing!
ReplyDeleteMock orange??? I've seen them in neighbor's yards - i have to ask what they are, i always guessed mock orange. Regardless, your door looks so pretty!
ReplyDeleteBrenda
cottage4c.com
I love the vase, and of course the beautiful flowers!
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Whoa, now that is GORGEOUS!!!
ReplyDeleteI looks fantastic, love it!
ReplyDeleteMy friend, I think you have a Korean Spice Viburnum based on the flower and leaf shape - they do smell delicious. A white lilac would have flowers organized in a more spikey way. See a photo here for you to decide: http://healthyhomegardening.com/Plant.php?pid=2178 Regardless, it is beautiful in your pot :) Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Confederate Jasmine to me. :-)
ReplyDeletewww.rhondalangford.willowhouse.com
Your porch looks great! I can't ever seem to mix plants in a pot successfully either. Maybe one day.
ReplyDeleteI believe your beautiful bush is a Viburnum. There are many different varieties.http://landscaping.about.com/od/shrubsbushes/p/koreanspice.htm
ReplyDeletei like it so pretty. my comments keep going away for the giveaway and i wanted to win can you tell me why the are going away and they are not negative i love you blog and your home.
ReplyDeleteI think your bush is a flowering Daphne. They bloom early and smell divine.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a Korean Spive Viburnum bush. I live in Bloomington, Illinois, and I'm sitting here at my table looking at a few blooms I picked over the weekend and put in cute little crystal stemmed glasses. Their fragrance is amazing! They are among the earliest of the spring blooming shrubs, and they are in full bloom right now in central Illinois and Indiana. Lilacs don't bloom around our parts until mid to late May. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it looks like Sarah has a Viburnum, but it's not too early for lilacs in Indianapolis this year. I have two in my yard, and they are blooming right now thanks to the weird warm weather.
DeleteVery pretty!! Love how you pulled some more of that color down in the little buckets on the porch.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also sold SLAH ( for 8 years) and have that door bucket on the inside of the door leading to my garage. Love it!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a Sarvis tree blossom to me. Pretty!
ReplyDeleteIt's a Viburnum- not sure what variety, but I have a Korean Spice Viburnum that blooms light pink flowers. Looks almost identical! They are known for their showy blooms and are one of the most fragrant shrubs! It looks beautiful on your door!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful porch! I think they're right, viburnum...maybe.
ReplyDeleteSarah, Your front door with the flowers looks beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI live in Arizona so I'm happy if I can find anything that will grow. Salvia's do well here and I planted a rosemary bush that's an ornamental as well as an herb. But...no flowers. :( So sad.
Elisabeth
P.S. Hey, when are you going to make the big break over to wordpress? :)
Could it be a sweet olive bush. My mom has one and I double heart love when it blooms. The smell always reminds me of home
ReplyDeleteYour front door is quite lovely! I'm going to feature it over on my Willow House blog sometime this week! (http://willowhousewelcome.blogspot.com/)
ReplyDeleteI've never been brave enough to use real flowers in my Flower Market Door Bucket -- or maybe I'm just too lazy to switch out that often! By the way, if any of your readers would like to order that exact door bucket, they can get it here: http://bit.ly/GXmCZr -- and they'll qualify for my customer special, too! The Flower Market Door Bucket is especially cool because its narrow profile can fit between a storm door and your front door (but don't use live flowers in that case, they may fry).
Saw Hunger Games with my kids yesterday. Amazing.
Love love love the watering can and gloves!! Bub's??
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a vibernum. Too early for lilacs and they have a totally different flower shape. Now you're going to have to take a sprig to a nursery and have them give you a definitive answer! Let us know!!
ReplyDeleteI am now stalking the comments trying to figure out what that bush is, because I WANT one. I didn't recognize it, so I didn't expect to contribute at all, but it turns out that I have one helpful thing to say. That is NOT a lilac. I grew up right outside the lilac capital of the country - the dark horse candidate of Rochester, NY. My yard was FULL of lilacs - we had both the white and the purple, and the single-layer (four petals) and double. The double-petal whites were my favorite. They smell like heaven itself. But their flowers are different from those on your plant, and note that lilac blossoms always grow in clusters shaped like rounded cones - not flat or dished. Here are some helpful images: http://ecologyadventure2.edublogs.org/plant/lilac-bush/. (We also had a Japanese lilac, which if anything smelled even better, but only bloomed every third year. Also, it was a TREE - 25 feet tall, at least, with branch shape not unlike a maple. Nothing bush-y about it.)
ReplyDeleteSo because I was too impatient to wait for the answer, I did some checking on teh interwebz. Looks like viburnum is a good guess: http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/news/2011/09/27/russian-flora-viburnum/. Spireas are beautiful too but the flowers look wrong: http://gardeninggoodies.blogspot.com/2009/05/spirea-you-gotta-have-some.html. The fragrant tea olives look a LEEETLE bit different, too: http://shop.liveplantsdirect.com/fragrant-tea-olive.aspx. But all very pretty! Going for the viburnum, though, because you said it thrives, and I need plants that will live in spite of me. And fragrant isn't too bad either!
Beautiful! Silly question-does the water spill or slosh when you open and close the door?
ReplyDeleteI glanced (quickly) thru some of the other comments and see that there's a lot of different answers for the plant id .... my first thought was that it may be a star jasmine, but the flowers are shaped differently so after some googling I'm voting viburnum.
ReplyDeleteSarah, as promised, featured your Spring-y front door here: http://willowhousewelcome.blogspot.com/2012/03/adorn-door-and-yourself-for-spring.html. I hope that will send some more folks your way!
ReplyDeleteHere's a tip for your readers (saw the question from Cat about sloshing water): place wet floral foam in a zip top bag, then place this down in your door bucket. It will help keep the foam wet and preserve your bucket and door!
Beautiful! I love spring and can't wait for all the gorgeous blooms to start popping out!
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Oh my, take a bow!
ReplyDeleteYou've put a "spring" in my step with your creative loveliness.
Have a blessed day!
I think it's a sweet olive. We have one in our yard, it smells devine and the flowers look the same.
ReplyDeleteHorticulture professor here--it's a Koreanspice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii)
ReplyDeleteThat's so lovely!
ReplyDeleteDoublefile Viburnum
ReplyDeleteReally beautiful collection. Love it
ReplyDeleteLooking at the leaves and not just the flower, your plant is a viburnum. :)
ReplyDeleteLooking at the leaves and not just the flower, your plant is a viburnum. :)
ReplyDeleteit is a viburnum, i live in Australia and i have one exactly like it outside my bedroom window, it is my favorite tree.
ReplyDeleteI love the grassy fluffy wreath you made! It looks great in the foyer and the flowers on the front door are perfect for spring!
ReplyDeleteOh! That must be a viburnum. My parents have one in their yard back in British Columbia and it smells wonderful - always heralded spring to me! I have planted several here in Australia called Viburnum Burkwoodii and can't wait until they flower... in about six months time!
ReplyDeletei like this
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