Tag: shopping

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Let’s Check Out a New-to-Me Nursery!

French Ethereal

While I’ve been on winter holiday break from school, my mother-in-law Gini wanted to go down to Dallas to find the fabric district. We did find several shops and there are more to go visit over off Harry Hines Boulevard, if you know the area. Later in the afternoon, though, after lunch and before heading home, we drove around seeing parts of Dallas and finally found Ruibal’s Plants of Texas.

Ruibal’s Plants of Texas – 7219 E. Grand
Dallas, TX 75214

I really loved their family shop atmosphere! Ruibals has several locations throughout the DFW area and I hope to check out several others as time allows. They had a good selection of pots and wire planters (like you would find coming up from Mexico), a small selection of statuary, and so much cabbage! I asked about the two fountains they had on-hand and if they had more. The manager said to check back in mid-March, which I will do!

From our final year in our last California home, this was the water fountain I had to leave behind. There just was no where to store it in either of the two storage units we had. ~ Spring Tea for One in the Garden.

I didn’t think to take a bunch of photographs, as Gini and I were just having fun looking around, but in summer they carry a lot more plants than shown here in my photographs.

A summertime photo ~ Courtesy Ruibal’s website

The cabbages were beautiful, large and small! I already had six smaller purple and green ornamental cabbages at home in the front planters, so I didn’t think I needed any more.

I loved that Ruibal’s had these incredible brick pathways loaded with flats of purple and white sweet alyssum (upper left above), flats of multi-colored pansies and other annuals which grow well around Dallas during the winter.

Dallas, I believe, is growing zone 8b and is a good 10 degrees warmer on average than our lowest temps up in Denton, Texas. It was really nice and warm at this particular location.

I wish we had had time to go over to the Rosemead location as this looks like their flagship store. The Farmer’s Market location also looks promising!

Courtesy of Ruibal’s Rosemead ~ 3646 Rosemeade Pkwy
Dallas, TX 75287

I thought about grabbing a flat of mixed sweet alyssum but decided to wait until after February. I just know a killer freeze is still bound to come and I don’t know the lowest temps alyssum can handle. I had no alyssum come back from 2022 into last year. I do have some seeds which I picked up this week to sprinkle around the garden as soon as we are out of deep freeze danger (around March 1st).

I did find a lot of boxwood and small hollies available which do well all over North Texas in the winter and during the summer. Boxwood likes a bit of shade to keep it from scorching during the super heat of late July, August and sometimes September.

I just saw that Better Boxwood is becoming available here in the USA in 2024. These are the boxwood which are resistant to boxwood blight, the blight which has been killing beautiful hundred year old boxwood topiaries and hedges across Great Britain and Europe. Some boxwood cultivars do better than others.

The boxwood ball in the background is the one which gets nailed with mites… I’ll be cutting off the dead stuff here as we get out of winter. Looks great here!

For me, ours have trouble with pest, specifically mites. I get an organic Neem oil-based spray to spray on our boxwood and other plants troubled by mites (pretty common here in Texas).

Prices are really good for flats of plants ($21.00 for 18 plants). And they had large hellebore plants for $24.99 each. For some reason, I was given a 10% discount, which was really nice!

And that’s our trip to Ruibal’s! I am so glad I found this nursery. Can’t wait to see their other locations and what all they have there. 😉

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Happy gardening hugs,

Christmas, Gardening, Home Decor

How-To Use Garden Orbs in Your Garden – Especially for Christmas!

French Ethereal
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Happy Christmas time, dear friends!! Today I want to share how easy it is to decorate your front doorway area and with a couple of garden urns and a pair of garden orbs.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a pair of large garden orbs from Red Barn White House through Etsy. The owner Patrick was very nice to work with and had provided detailed instructions on how to measure a pot or urn to determine what size orb would be needed.

I calculated that I needed the large orbs based upon the width of my urns’ tops. However, what I didn’t take into account was the height of my urns ~ an important fact if you have short urns like mine. 🙂

The photograph above shows the large urn in place. It was definitely too big, so I contacted Patrick and he was happy to make things right. A return label was sent via email by Etsy and I repackaged the original orbs into their box, taped it up, and sent the package back via Federal Express.

The new medium sized orbs were ordered and arrived shortly thereafter, as soon as the large orbs were credited back to my account.

Here is one of the orbs situated into one of our urns. The fit and size of the medium orbs were perfect! (See below.)

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So how do you decorate with these garden orbs??

Here’s how I put mine together this season:

How to decorate for Christmas using a garden orb

  • First, situate the feet of each rib into each urn packing dirt around them for stability.
  • Add in faux or live plants to decorate for the season to each urn.
  • Add in several types of real or faux greenery and picks of red berries for the holiday season.
  • If you have curly willow or other twisting sticks to add vertical interest, add those too if you’d like. (I didn’t have any for mine.)

This arrangement will last through the holidays with pops of color with each red poinsettia. Later, the flowers can be removed and the remaining greenery will look good throughout the winter until spring.

The rest of our doorway area is dressed simply with a softly flocked wreath hung on our front door. Two more poinsettia picks were tucked into a small cement planter set into the wire plant stand to the right in the doorway.

A wooden gingerbread man I painted years ago adds his cheery presence to the scene.

Here’s how the garden orbs look all dressed up for the Christmas season at night, and…

Here is how one orb looks during the day. Three ornamental kale are planted in each planter and will really fill-in as the winter season progresses.

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How to take the garden orbs into the next season

As we head towards spring, simply remove the greenery stems and add Johnny jump-ups, violas, pansies and/or colorful spring snapdragons to change up the look for the upcoming season.

So easy to decorate with in your garden pots and urns! These Elysian medium size orbs are linked here. (not sponsored)

I am super pleased with the quality of each garden orbs’ hoops, the ease of putting them together and Red Barn White House’s customer service! They are having a sale through Etsy, if you are interested in ordering, and I wholeheartedly recommend them!

Let me know if you order them and what you think of these garden orbs. If you have something similar, let me know about those, too. I know that one of the Big Box store has some, but I don’t know the quality, nor if they are just raw steel, iron, or what.

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Enjoy your Christmas season,

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For the Love of Nöel Bleu ~ A Visit to Judith’s Christmas Sale

French Ethereal

Welcome, friends! Today we are taking a Christmas trip to see Judith Stringham at her lovely French-styled home in Mansfield, Texas…

On the first weekend in December, I drove down to visit Judith at the annual Christmas Sales Event she has hosted for 12 years. Each year I see new and inspiring ways we can use to decorate in a French Nordic style…

Love this sweet girl! She reminds me so much of our Stuffy and Tigger, from my high school and early college years.

Her sweet calico cat greeted me as I stepped out of the car and kindly showed me the way back to the potting shed outback. Here Kitty is up on the front walkway to the family home’s front door.

A weird FYI

Notice the *Arc du Bois fruits used as Christmas ornament balls in these urns… Lovely in their limey green skins, these 2-5 lbs. fruits can and do break car windshields when they fall. Here in North Texas, these seed pods can be turned into a petroleum-type product and there was a man near the last trailer park we lived in who bought 50 gal. barrels-full for $10.

*also called horse apples

But I digress…

Down the garden path

Walking around the side and into Judith’s garden, tufts of mondo grass edge the paved walkway guiding us through the park. Old oak trees give the garden really nice structure!

Pink and white lantana (?) or maybe a dwarf butterfly bush decorate this pretty hayrack.

Taking a peek up onto the south-east facing front porch, one can see Judith’s love of French blue, brilliant pops of color brightening up the wintertime porch… She told me she loves blue pansies this time of year!

I love all the conical topiaries she has!!! Tall ivy clamors up a trefoil topped trellis.

Back out along the pathway, an enormous butterfly bush is still blooming in December! Our weather has been so warm, much warmer than usual for North Texas, so many annuals are still going strong coming into the winter season.

The Stringhams have kept much of their acreage as Texas forest which adds a nice layer of privacy from close neighbors.

Judith’s Christmas Potting Shed

Doorways and trim painted a pretty French blue, the double doors welcome us into Judith’s world, Botanic Bleu… I personally love the contrast of textures outdoors! The potting shed’s white limestone walls, the rustic wood decking contrast nicely with the brick pathways. Fallen leaves nestle into cracks and crevices, adding their own brand of texture to the scene…

Let’s check out what’s for sale!

This pretty bowl filled with juniper greenery caught my eye. I loved the pretty gilded cage topper. Of course this came home with me along with six horse apples to decorate the inside. The pretty birdcage to the right also came home. 😉

Stepping inside, a tiny office is set up snugged underneath this hanging area. As I write this, I just noticed the silver urn with a little bird on top along the front wall shelf… Always so much to see!

Looking further right, large scrolls of sheet music lend their beautiful backdrop behind Pêre Nöels…

A lovely nativity scene decorated the middle of the room with a deeper French blue…

Judith creates this large wall hangings with her signature fleur de lis in the background.

This year she has added English boxwood hearts to her collection of boxwood for sale. Last year she had large and small round boxwood wreaths, and I bought one then. This day, I picked up one more to decorate our hallway.

Airy glass ornaments and icicles hang from the rafters, on Christmas trees and in front of some windows. Judith has candles and Old World style candleholders, mini narcissus bulbs, and more gilded wire garden cloches for sale.

Out in the Garden

Back outside, Kitty is back for another pet. She is just a beauty!

This year, this outdoor patio hosts a collection of potted plants. I love the basket weave pot! Judith’s sister helps take care of the garden, her special gift.

Here I think Judith “planted” some of the faux narcissus bulbs… Pretty!!!
Love this urn! I believe the little garden shed in the background is her husband’s workshop.

If you’d like to see more…

2019 Part 1 touring Judith’s garden and home ~ Meet Judith and the Home of Botanic Bleu.
A Bleu Christmas ~ Part 2 of the 2019 pre-Covid visit with friends Cindy of County Road 407 and Laura from Decor to Adore.

Last year’s Christmas event ~ A Christmas Visit with Judith and Botanic Bleu

Well, friends, I hope you’ve enjoyed these Christmas visits with Judith and seeing her pretty French country home! She is very gracious and I always wish there’d be time to just sit and visit (we do, but it’s while shopping). 🙂 Hopefully soon!

Happy Christmas time,

Barb 🙂