Happy April! I’m impatient for flowers and garden time so I gathered some blooming dishes and wisteria free-for-the-picking.
I’m biding my time until our April 15th frost date and when I can get planting!
Wisteria is blooming here now, rambling along roadsides, fields and climbing trees.
I cut some pretty purple blooms to enjoy along with its sweet fragrance in my Potting Shed.
Even with care and conditioning after cutting, the wisteria blooms don’t last long. . .
Quickly wilting and dropping petals from the grape-like clusters~ a cruel April Fools’ joke from a vine that’s so tenacious and strong that it can strangle trees and move iron fences!
The good news is, there’s no shortage of blooms to cut and enjoy for a day or afternoon.
A Johnson Brothers Sheraton plate and Windsor Ware Garden Bouquet creamer add some additional purple blooms. . .
And I fashioned a wisteria vine handle for a tureen I found thrifting . . .
I decided to give it a home despite its missing lid when I saw it blooming with the pretty delicate purple flowers.
A Royal Staffordshire Charlotte plate is blooming with a lavender basket of flowers. . .
And I picked this unmarked lavender blooming transferware creamer for $6 an a favorite antique mall. . .
Serving up purple blooms rather than cream :)
Hope you’re enjoying some spring blooms where you are!
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Good morning, Mary! You did it again! Beautiful dishes and flowers! Love the lavender color! Enjoy your weekend!
A wonderful blog have had a lot of sadness this year but reading this makes me have time for myself and think of the great things in life t hank you
What a composition! And that tureen with wisteria handle! I love your comment of how it wilts but can manage to strangle trees….
Pretty purple posies and love your dishes- gorgeous vignette- reminds us that the circle of life continues with God’s natural beauty every Spring!
Beautiful, purple flowers always seem so romantic.
Very pretty! Your little gravy boat has some great curves and cute feet Mary-enjoy:@)
Oh how pretty! I just read that in the south wisteria is considered invasive. It’s such a pretty flower and I hear it smells wonderful. Here up north it’s a treat to see them blooming but it stays fairly well contained (no doubt do to the winters). Love the pitcher filled with them and their graceful way of draping. Have a great weekend!
Mary, such beautiful eye candy this morning! You are right about the wisteria…beautiful but invasive! Love, love, love the lavender transfer ware! Happy Friday! Pam @ Everyday Living
Beautiful….I have always enjoyed seeing Wisteria. I didn’t realize they droop so soon after they are picked. I live in south east Michigan and we don’t plant until Memorial Day weekend. So sad…I have planted earlier but we can still get frost. I saw my first cherry tree in bloom yesterday and was it a beauty…. so big and full of blooms! Love, love, love spring!
I am so glad I visited first thing this very gloomy morning Mary, your wisteria display has brought sunshine to my day! A 100% chance of rain and a bad cold makes your bright arrangement so appreciated! My husband told me it was going to snow tonight, a cold front coming in…April Fool’s :) isn’t he funny…I just love all your purple blooms, especially the wisteria “basket” in the tureen, and the unique china pieces you’ve collected. How nice to have an ample supply of flowering things to play with! Happy April
Jenna
I’m trying to breathe in the scent of the potting shed with the wisteria!! What a pretty lidless soup tureen that found a home with you, Mary. The handle that you fashioned makes it look like a blooming basket. The creamer is adorable, along with all your blowing dishes. However, it’s that sweet cherub, that shines so proudly on your windowsill, that made me *smile*! Happy weekend to you, Mary!
All that purple is beautiful. Here in SC we’ve seen wisteria pull down porches and old buildings, but I love that heady fragrance and color. I am impatiently waiting that magic April 15 frost date too. By the way, Mary, yesterday I made your Patchwork Chicken and Bacon potpie…my husband of 43 years pronounced it the BEST he has ever tasted!! Thank you so much! 😘
Hi Roxanne, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe, my hubby loved it too!
I’ve seen old wisteria vines actually move and shift wrought iron fencing in Charleston, it’s powerful stuff :)
I realize you must have acquired a lot of your pretty dishware from being in retail. I’m curious to know just how many patterns do you have, do you have a room just to store them, do you purchase the whole set or just one place setting of many of the patterns?
Hi Arlene, I have a lot of dishes because I’m a dish-a-holic! The vintage transferware ones here I just have singles of that found at an antique mall. If I buy dishes these days, I buy 4 or 2 place settings and then just salad and/or dinner plates. I don’t keep all my sponsored Pfaltzgraff or Mikasa dinnerware, there is nowhere to store it all :)
Oh so pretty! I love wisteria but have never had any. A formwer neighbor had it growing up his deck but the new neighbors must have taken it out cause I stopped seeing it:( Your plates and pitcher are beautifully blooming with the purple blossoms. Pretty tureen too!!! Have a beautiful weekend. It is going to 77 today but then wind chills in the 30’s Sun:(:( Crazy weather!!!
Beautiful!! Just beautiful! The only thing blooming here is daffodils and the Easter Lily I bought. Mother’s Day is our planting date. Can’t wait!!! Your China dishes are just gorgeous! Thanks for a delightful beginning of April!! 💜💜💜
Beautiful post. Love all the blooming florals on your dishes…especially the purple transferware. here in Georgia we see Wisteria EVERY WHERE~!!!. You have to wonder how such a beautful sweet flowering vine can be so invasive and destructive! Hope you have an amazing weekend! Please give Chloe and Gracie a pet on their little snowball furry heads!
Swoon….. I have already decided about a month ago that purple and white will be the color theme of our summer potted flowers to coordinate with our white hydrangeas on the patio. Can’t wait to get potting, however we are not out of frost danger yet. This post gave my heart a thrill.
Beautiful Post! You have inspired me, and I have been collecting all sorts of lovely things for the shed my husband is building me in our yard, here in West Scarborough, Maine! Thank you!!
I adore that purple transferware creamer! That was a bargain! Lovely display.
A gorgeous post! I love wisteria. We still have until after Mother’s Day before we can safely plant and my wisteria won’t bloom until May. Thanks for sharing yours with me. Love all the purple dishes!
Beautiful settings and I particularly LOVE the purple. Here in KY waiting until after Derby day to plant-,have planted some pansies though that got pretty battered from high winds that rolled through yesterday :(. Thank you so much for sharing your gift with us – it is appreciated!
Mary,, this post is truly a visual feast! Just yesterday I was admiring all the blooming wisteria by the roadside. I also wanted to tell you that I made the lemon bars with the rosemary crust yesterday and took them to a function last evening. They were declared delicious by all!
Thanks Jane! It seems to be everywhere I look around us. So glad to hear the bars were a hit! I still have a couple in my fridge that a little soft and past their peak but that won’t stop me from using a fork to eat them :)
Your photos are gorgeous; they brighten my day! Thank you.
I’m in LOVE!!! The Royal Staffordshire Charlotte pattern is new to me & it is GLORIOUS! Just beautiful with your purple wisteria…which does NOT grow this far north, darn it.
I want to go shopping with you, Mary. You find the neatest things on your jaunts.
I love how you made a handle out of the vine….so creative!
Mary, your wonderful vignettes and your super imagination delight me! Keep up the good work!! Now I’m inspired to go to the thrift shop and Good Will today! Thank you for lifting me up today!
Oh Mary, your post is so beautiful. Love all the dishes you showed. I am always drawn to dishes at garage sales. I need to down size so I will have to part with alot of them.
Love your Garden Shed, always so many beautiful posts.
Have a wonderful weekend. We are expecting 90 degree next week and no this is not a April Fools joke,
Mary
such a pretty grouping, Mary. Love the colors for spring, and I’m very fond of old Johnson Bros. patterns. Very pretty, thanks for sharing. We are forecasted snow flurries again, lol. No planting here yet, Sandi
One of the things I miss that I never see blooming here is wisteria, and yet, I think it would grow (but might turn invasive here?) Lovely stuff. My mom had a huge patch over it that grew all along her back fence, but the niece that now lives there had to get rid of it because she is deathly allergic to bee stings and the wisteria would be swarming with them all through the blooming stage.
Love the pattern of the Royal Staffordshire Charlotte plate and the shape of that creamer!
Mary, this is a bright spot in my very dark and rainy day here in TX. Thunderstorms rolling across us since early morning. After shopping Round Top yesterday in what was a very warm and humid day, I’m welcoming a quiet day on the sofa here at home visiting blogs and stitching on my needlepoint.
Thought of you frequently yesterday as I saw many wonderful garden and garden shed things. ‘-)
Pretty Pretty Pretty :-)
I love purple flowers and they look absolutely beautiful in the white ironstone
~Mary~
Beautiful as always !! I love the statue such a sweet face. Thank you again and again for all you share and bringing joy to our days , hugs.
Paula
IN
Love your wisteria vignettes! I hope you’re having a sunny weekend. We had a night and morning with storms, and it’s raining now :(
So lovely!
Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley
The Potting Shed is looking very pretty with that invasive wisteria!! Love all your dishes and how you display everything. I am so ready for warm weather to start planting flowers.
Love Wisteria! I bought one years ago to go over a special garden trellis my husband made and it does grow just like you said, but sad to say, mine has never bloomed! I just get a ton of leaves. In anger and disappointment because it never bloomed, one year I decided to cut it down. Or so I thought. The next year it still came back, even more so! ha. So now I’ve left it and it makes a great “green leafy cover” for Robins who build a nest every year in the same area of the trellis. So while I don’t get the pretty blooms, it has become a nursery for the young and I go with it. Thanks so much for sharing the Wisteria pictures, they are beautiful and I can always hope, maybe this year it will. :)
Lovely!!
Beautiful!
I love the Charlotte plate and the little purple transferware pitcher! I can’t get enough of your vignettes and photography! Always, it is simply stunning. Thanks for sharing your talent!
Hi Mary, I escaped to Washington DC for the weekend to see the last of the cherry blossoms and arrived back in CT late last night to snow in my yard! (more to come with severe freezing today!) Our planting date is May 15 so I will be enjoying seeing your plantings for a month before I can indulge. I do not know what wisteria smells like! We have it here but it is not common. Lilacs are another purple aromatic blossom that droops as soon as it is cut, and that is much more prevalent here, in so many yards and even along the roadways. Your dish display is beautiful and the purple transfer ware plate is my favorite pattern of course :) Hope you have a very nice day. Linda
I just discovered your blog and I love your photographs/photography. Since I am dish crazy, I was curious do you have an entire set of these two patterns of dinner plates. I’m over the moon for the Royal Stafford shire Charlotte pattern and I think the Johnson Brother Sheraton would be absolutely gorgeous setting an autumn table. Have a great week.
Mary, I discovered an enormous wisteria this spring, and the electric company painted some sort of ominous symbol on the trunk. They better not cut it down! I adore your purple transferware with the wisteria. And your shelves are perfect. I need to find something like that for my shed. Thanks for brightening this cold, windy spring day!
I have been so drawn to the lavender/purple transferware lately…such a beautiful color. The creamer is such a fabulous find!!…I have been also enjoying the gorgeous wisteria these past couple of weeks….the roadsides here seem to have turned to a spectacular shade of lavender and purple with the wisteria weaving and hanging from the trees. I had a wisteria vine in a home in North Central Florida…We called it “hysteria” as it took over the entire bank of trees in our yard….Have a great weekend Mary!
I love Wisteria! We have it growing in our garden too! Your blooming purple dishes are just beautiful! I just love how you put the vignette together, you’re so creative! Thanks so much for the inspiration ♥
Hugs, Jody
If only I could get a whiff……….ummmm………I haven’t smelled that fragrance since a child, and saw tons of it on
the roadway in South Carolina and North Carolina as we traveled last week and so wanted to stop to pick some and have a whiff, but it was off the road so figured I couldn’t get to it anyway………..but it was a delight to see and it was my Mom’s all time favorite flower.
Love your vignette and that pretty wisteria basket, how cute………..and all the other lovely dishes …gorgeous!
If only you could email fragrance I would beg you to send me a whiff……….lol
Thanks for sharing these delightful pics. So enjoyed them…………so lovely.
Blessing,s Nellie