Outfit Details:

Express Dress c/o, Stubbs & Wootton Loafers

Growing up, we spent a lot of our time in my grandmother’s many gardens. Our summers were filled with picking berries and nuts, climbing trees and trying not to get stung by the many bees buzzing around the flowers. When I think of roses, I think of my grandma. She’s still known as the rose queen (she’s even had stationery made with pictures of her roses on it- how cute is that?!). I’ve always loved flowers and gardens for this reason. One of the first things we talked about after we bought our house was where we would want to put our garden. Where will we put it? What plants and trees will it have? How big? How many? Luckily, Thomas has as big of a passion for it as I do, so we’ve both sort of come up with our dream list of what we want it to be- both are pretty similar. At the beginning of the year, we made our first trip out to the garden store to start on some smaller potted plants. That one trip quickly escalated to three, and then four, and then five. We were hooked! We’ve since created quite the mini (potted) garden at our place.

Our two favorite garden centers in Charleston are Abide-A-While in Mt Pleasant and Hyams on James Island. We’ve made many trips to both! We love going and perusing through what’s in season and learning/reading about the different types of greenery, flowers, trees and more. The beautiful part of living in the South is that there is always something blooming. Right now it’s the crepe myrtles, and they are beautiful! We really go in with an open mind. Thomas is more practical than I am, planning out what will go where based on the necessities it needs (sun, shade, extra water, etc.), while I pick up what catches my eye, usually based on color, texture and size. It’s always a compromise with what we go home with!

After we got home from our France trip, a few of our flowers didn’t survive our two and a half weeks away. Although we set up a watering system before left, we don’t think it evenly dispersed the water, so back to Hyams we went. We arrived first thing in the morning, and it was hot and raining, so we were one of the only people there. That meant we got the best pick! Aside from pulling some smaller plants to replace the ones that passed, I couldn’t resist these mini baskets they pre-made, filled with an array of different flowers.

Visiting a garden store has become one of our favorite summer activities. Even if you don’t have a full yard or garden to fill with plants, it’s still fun to go and learn and see what’s in season and what you like. You can even start out with buying a few small pots and see where that takes you!

And speaking of summer- I’m loving Express’s summer collection this year. It’s so good! Remember this gingham dress I wore last month? Well I recently found this striped shirtdress there, too. It’s so flattering and lightweight and easy- such an ideal piece for summer. It also comes in a classic light blue version here and a slightly different white version here. And if you’re looking for a few more affordable dress options for the season, I also love this lace-up gingham dress from Express as well as this white eyelet tie shoulder dress.

 Thank you to Express for sponsoring this post.