Watch my poor beautiful butterfly tree come to life in under 1 minute (time lapse), flowers only… and then in the painting below you can see the full butterfly tree. My heart broke when this tree died this year so I special ordered a new seedling.
So, one tree dies and another is born. I hope my new seedling grows healthy and is soon tall with many flowers. It’s doing well so far and is currently looking healthy. I have a rather somber, but also uplifting story about a human life that dies and another is born. I will save that story for tomorrow.
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Cropped section of Come to the Garden oil painting by Natalie Buske Thomas
“That’s me, on the swing. My real life swing is actually a rather cheap, much smaller, version of this, but I enjoy my time on the patio. The morning glory vines along the top were real, but we later yanked them out because birds were perching on it and pooping on the swing! The birds don’t usually come around all at once, but all of these do visit our patio in the places I’ve painted them. The bluebirds visit seldomly, while the cardinals and hummingbirds are here every day and I’ve begun to think of them as my friends!
The potted red roses and wisteria are real, as are the plants in the white trellis/planter combo my husband made for me (lavender and a grape vine). The pink vines I painted aren’t there, but were planned to be- ditto for the potted Gerber Daisies. The white roses in the foreground aren’t there- that’s where my patio door is. I’ll explain the rest of this painting over the next two pages (refers to physical book- here on website, just scroll down).
Right section of Come to the Garden oil painting by Natalie Buske Thomas
My real life patio is about half this size, and there’s no path leading off to a secondary garden (no hedges or white picket fence either). The forestry is real. It surrounds a lagoon (man-made retention pond that isn’t in this painting, but is in the Blue Heron and Savannah Snow paintings). Our yard ends very near the patio.
Years ago, we owned a hobby farm in rural Minnesota, but the company my husband worked for moved to Canada and ghosted the town. We sold our house and started a new life. It’s been a long, uncertain journey. We are finally rebuilding our lives, although it means renting a small house with a tiny yard for a few years.
While I no longer have our Babydoll Southdown sheep, hens, or other animals, the wild birds keep me company. My garden patio is full of life, and I am content to wait for our lives to take off once again. We will have our own home again one day. For now, this is my home- home is where our heart is.
More about the painting: The tree on the right is the butterfly tree that I showed you in a previous painting. The shepherd’s hook is there, with the bird feeder below it. The cardinals sometimes pose exactly like this. We’ve changed things up a bit since I did this painting. We’ve added a red tower for smaller birds, that’s supposed to attract the elusive migratory Painted Bunting I showed you earlier. We’ll see, come spring!
Bottom section of Come to the Garden oil painting by Natalie Buske Thomas
This type of flower is called a Cherokee Rose. I’ve been told that it can take up a lot of space, so I’ll need to wait until we have a bigger yard before adding this flower to my real life garden. It is the state flower of Georgia, so I painted it separately as well (next painting).”
Come to the Garden oil painting by Natalie Buske Thomas
List of Oil Paintings in this Collection, linking to their pages here on the site, and also citing physical pages in the hardcover book:
Watch Natalie paint this art, and all 50 oil paintings in this collection (menu below)
“Our first year here, I was so excited to have a vibrant garden on my little patio. I can see it from inside the house, and we bought a compact 2-person swing that fits on the patio so we can sit outside among the flowers, birds, and butterflies. One of our first investments was in an inexpensive “butterfly tree”.
The small tree has butterfly shaped flowers that really do attract butterflies and hummingbirds. That’s how I was able to train the hummingbirds to visit our home. I put a sugar-water feeder in the same pot as the tree. It worked almost instantly!
Best of all, the tree blooms nearly continuously for most of the year! It’s such a lovely gift to our family. I looked it up for you just now, and I was happy to learn that it’s easy to propagate and share this plant! I will definitely do that. The tree is apparently actually a “bush”. It is called Clerodendrum Ugandense (Blue Butterfly Bush). Mine is outdoors, but others consider it an “everblooming houseplant”, so I could try starting some indoors as well. I wouldn’t enjoy hummingbirds or butterflies inside, but it’s a pretty plant on its own. Now that I know how easy it is to start new plants, I’ll soon have many more of these, indoors and out!”
Butterfly Tree Flowers oil painting by Natalie Buske Thomas
List of Oil Paintings in this Collection, linking to their pages here on the site, and also citing physical pages in the hardcover book:
