October 4, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Last Call

Anemones

The party is over. We’ve had a good run. The last of the anemones are finally winding down, with just a few new blooms here and there.

A few remaining blooms

We’ve enjoyed eight weeks of snow-white blossoms meandering along the back fence. The anemones appeared at our dinner table, at my book club and in several gardeningnirvana posts.They helped soften the departure of the summer cosmos.They’ve continued to bloom into early fall, waiting for autumn color to set in before making a quiet retreat. In a few more weeks the plants will blend in with the other greenery, and if it gets cold enough, they’ll go dormant. See you next summer!

What do you mean, the party is over?

Spent and dying blooms

Watercolor Edges

Birdhouse Gourd

Birdhouse Gorgeous 10/5/12

I’ve decided to rename the gourd below, “birdhouse gorgeous.” I’m stunned at the rapid acceleration in the past ten days. Count me grateful, too, that it’s growing off to the side of the trellis or I would have hit my head on it by now.

Birdhouse Gorgeous 9/6/12

Halloween Countdown

Warm and toasty pumpkins
Handmade scarf by Mary Ann Askins

September 30, 2012 by Born To Organize

September Treats: A Little of This and That

Tiny purple blooms dot the Polka Dot plant

My garden’s been busy over the weekend. In just 24 hours, the Pink Polka Dot plant produced several flowers. I didn’t know the plant would actually bloom. All plants have a flower and a fruit, but many are subtle and therefore go unnoticed. Tiny purple flowers dot the plant. They’re quite small, no bigger than a centimeter, but they look vibrant against the mostly pink and green backdrop of the spotted leaves. What a fun discovery.

Three cheers for yellow!!!

Also growing in one of the pots is a fresh, yellow daisy or daisy-like flower. It’s another surprise from the packet of wildflowers planted in early spring. Every few weeks, a new flower appears. Today’s gorgeous bloom is as bright as a sunflower, but smaller in size. Yellow flowers are the garden cheerleaders: upbeat and sunny.

In that same pot, one or two fuchsia cosmos remain, a nice backdrop for the hummingbirds darting in and out at the feeder.

Bowling-pin Gourd

I smiled when I rounded the corner of the trellis and saw a rapidly growing birdhouse gourd still thriving on the vine. Most of the early fruit was small, but this latest gourd is growing at break-neck speed. In its present form, it reminds me of a bowling pin. Several smaller gourds grew up the trellis to the side of the house and they now hang below the eaves like a string of Christmas lights. Every time I see them I get a good giggle.

Tomorrow is October 1st with a projected temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius). Crazy weather! I’m starting my Halloween countdown in earnest tomorrow, featuring something seasonal daily. Stay tuned.

I love October! How about you?

Cosmo and Hummingbird
Beauty Times Two

Who needs to hang Christmas lights?

September 27, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Seeds for the Holidays

Cosmos going to seed

The idea came to me in late July. I started collecting Cosmo seeds to give as gifts for the holidays. This prolific annual grew in abundance throughout the summer. It was such a pleasure watching the plant bloom and bloom. I want to share that with others.

Cosmos are easy to grow and spectacular to behold.They grow in planters or directly in the ground, and thrive with little fuss. It’s a cheerful gift for the middle of winter: the promise of spring blooms.

I’ve been mulling over design ideas, and finally hit on the perfect one. I created a five-panel accordion card using Creative Memories software. Starting with a basic design, I added photos to the front panels, leaving a placeholder on the last panel for the packet of seeds. I included planting instructions and additional photos on the reverse side of the panels.

Cosmos Seed Card – Front Panel

Cosmos Seed Card – Back Panel

I bought a packet of 50, 3.5 inch square glassine envelopes for the seeds. The back panel is 4 inches square. They are the perfect.size.

I can’t wait to order the sample card to be sure all the details came together. In the meantime I’m making envelopes for the cards using last year’s garden calendar. I’m having so much fun.

Are you giving gifts from the garden this year?

Resources:

Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 4.0 digital software
Paper Source 3.5 x 3.5 Glassine envelopes (for seeds)

My Beloved Cosmos:

September 20, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Bachelor’s Button

According to the Bachelor’s Button seed packet, this “care-free, drought tolerant annual, adds vertical interest and an array of colors to your garden.” Well.

Perhaps there was a single’s dance going on a few gardens over, because my Bachelor’s were largely a no-show. The ones that are in bloom were late to the party, blooming two days before Autumn officially arrives. Bachelor’s Button, also know as cornflower are drought tolerant and require “little pampering.” So what gives?

Were they jealous of the cosmos getting all the attention this summer? Maybe they didn’t get enough sun. I offered them plenty to drink and lots of encouragement. There is always enough love to go around in my garden.

I’ll just chalk it up to “one of those things” and “you can’t win them all” and I’ll move on <sniff-sniff>.

Here are a couple of pics of the one or two that grew.

Flower or fish? I love those multicolored scales.

Bachelor’s Button handsome profile

There’s the promise for next year.

September 13, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Party in the Anemones

Prolific Anemones bloomed about six weeks ago, monopolizing the back garden fence. I’ve been gathering them into bouquets every few days, then bringing them indoors. Little did I know that atop those crisp white blooms and their buttercup yellow centers there was a party going on.

Anemones line the fence

It wasn’t your typical, garden-variety party. In fact, I wasn’t even invited. Apparently you needed four to six legs to attend, and the invites are on the QT. I don’t think my neighbors even knew!

The party host wasn’t available for comment, so instead I snapped a few pics of the guests. Our host has an eclectic group of friends, including elegant grasshoppers, busy-body ants and even the low-brow house fly. I didn’t recognize all of the party goers. A few of their identities remain a mystery.

Mystery Guest

I don’t want to name names, but things may have gotten a bit out of hand. I saw a small spider chatting with a grasshopper, and in the next shot…the spider was gone! Do you think I should say something to the host? One of the spotted guests spent most of his time at the food table, while the ant kept darting in and out of the petals. I think he had too much pollen to drink.

A grasshopper and a spider chatting it up

Ant running laps. Too much pollen?

The house fly enjoyed making the rounds, but the others seemed to be avoiding her. It might have been her over-powering perfume.

Flowers and Flies

I’m no party crasher, so I finished taking my pictures and left. Back on the patio steps once again, you would never know there was a party going on.

September 8, 2012 by Born To Organize

Sunflowers: Setting Sun on the Season

I knew this day would arrive, but oh how I’ll miss them. The row of sunflowers lining the deck are starting to go to seed.

Impatient birds knocked over one of the lightweight planter boxes last week, smashing the largest flower head clean off the stalk and into a heap on the deck. My son helped me move the planters from the deck to the narrow space behind the lavender to stabilize the planters. Now wedged in place, they won’t fall over, but they look like they shrunk two feet. Hopefully the rest of the flowers will go to seed on the stalk. It’s a beautiful thing to behold.

Last year I placed the seed heads along our stone wall, just outside my office window. There I could watch the squirrels pick them clean. I don’t know why I find those cute little hands at work so appealing. I’m annoyed when they chew off the pumpkin leaves, but delighted when they snack on the seeds.

For my readers living in different parts of the world:

Sunflower (Helianthus annus) is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence (flowering head). The sunflower is named after its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. It has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of flowers. The heads consist of many individual flowers which mature into seeds, often in the hundreds, on a receptacle base. From the Americas, sunflower seeds were brought to Europe in the 16th century, where, along with sunflower oil, they became a widespread cooking ingredient. Leaves of the sunflower can be used as cattle feed, while the stems contain a fibre which may be used in paper production. – Wikipedia

Today I’m wearing my worn out but much-loved sunflower t-shirt with the saying “Love this Life” across the front. It’s my own little sendoff to Helianthus annus, flower of the sun.

Here are the last of them, photographed at dusk.

I bought my sunflower t-shirt in Hawaii from a company called Love This Life.
I blogged about the squirrel eating sunflowers here.
A little sunflower trivia. My favorite:

Floating rafts of sunflowers are being used to clean up water contaminated as a result of the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union. The roots of the sunflower plants remove 95% of the radioactivity in the water by pulling contaminants out of the water.”

August 30, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Gardens Throughout My Day

It’s so easy to get caught up in our day, isn’t it? Everyone’s busy. We rush from here to there, and back again if you have kids. Who has time to slow down?

In truth, we all do. Everyone gets 24 hours in a day. It’s up to us to spend them wisely. When my mom was in hospice at the end of her life, I read some interesting comments from a hospice nurse. Most of her end-of-life patients regretted the things they didn’t do. I try to remember that.

Yesterday, though I had plenty to do, I consciously slowed down. I attend a fitness camp three morning a week at a local middle school. We complete our drills in the interior quad, working hard for 50 minutes. Then we all race to our cars and continue on with our hectic days. I took a moment to return back to the quad, to admire and photograph this beautiful rose.

Blushing Rose at Fitness Camp

After driving my older son to school, I lurked in the parking lot till the coast was clear, then walked around to the front of the school and snapped a few shots. They have a lovely garden just outside the office, with bright red geraniums, bushy ferns and a stand of magnificent trees. I never noticed the trees before yesterday. One of the small benefits of slowing down.

Branham Geranium

Branham Office Garden

On my drive home, I pulled over to admire the sunflowers growing a few blocks over. Kelly at Boomdeeada suggested I scout the neighborhood for similar flowers, since I seem to be growing a variety I didn’t plant. She might be on to something! It was a good excuse to finally get out of the car and see them up close.

Neighboring Yellow Sunflowers with Palm Tree

Down the block, our neighbor Robert plants a colorful selection of annuals along the border of his white picket fence. He suffered a stroke a few years ago, and had a long trip back to wellness. I enjoy driving by his house and seeing his flowers in bloom. If he’s sunning himself in the driveway, I’ll wave. I realize as I write this that he has no idea how much I enjoy those flowers. I plan to share that with him today.

Robert’s Summer Display

My own welcoming committee is a pleasure to behold: a wall of sunflowers just outside the kitchen window, and my recently planted fairy garden. The purples and yellows are vibrant and fresh, as if to say “summer will never end.” Sure, I know better, but I still enjoy the charade.

Sunflowers: The Sunny Dozen
Photographed in order on deck

Wednesday is early out day in our school district so the boys return home in the early afternoon. My last stop was Office Max, for yet another round of school supplies. They have enormous clay pots planted in front of the store, brimming with colorful flowers. It’s challenging taking photographs under the mid day sun, but I still enjoyed the view. I appreciate strip malls that make the effort to bring beautiful gardens to an otherwise drab exterior.

Office Max Flowering Pots

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. ~Claude Monet

Cascading Geraniums

Guess what? I still accomplished what I planned for the day, climbed out from under a writers slump, made phone calls, booked a client and nurtured my husband, two boys and four cats.

I encourage you to take five minutes for yourself today. Look at something familiar with beginners eyes. Taste. Smell. Marvel. Rather than imagining you are the center of the universe, try to be centered in the universe. You’ll be a happier person for it.

August 12, 2012 by Born To Organize

Looking up at the Cosmos

Looking up at the cosmos this evening was a treat. I fell in love this summer with these magnificent flowers. Like any new love, I’ve enjoyed the novelty and discovery of uncharted territory.

Writing about cosmos for this blog and snapping dozens of photos along the way has enriched my garden experience. I’ve captured small changes I might have otherwise missed in pictures and prose. Such simple pleasures.

All week I’ve wanted to gather a few seeds, but the heat has been oppressive. This evening, after an hour of tending to the less glamorous garden chores, I sat cross-legged in front of the cosmos and took a moment to enjoy the view. Then, using a soft toothbrush, I swept up the seeds gathering on the pumpkin leaves below. I’ll package some of the seeds for holiday gifts and the rest will be carefully stored in my Seed Keeper for next year. I’ve spotted several black and white songbirds lately, so I’ve left plenty of seeds behind for them too.

Seeds safely stowed, I rolled on my back and took a few photos from the ground looking up. For a moment in time I was a girl again, lying barefoot on the grass, eyes skyward. Time for a bit of daydreaming until reality intrudes.

Cosmos Looking Up

Cosmo Seeds

Cosmo seeds at the Beach

Blooming Thursday: Dwarfed by the Cosmos (gardeningnirvana.wordpress.com)
Sit Back and Enjoy a Cosmo (zone9b.wordpress.com)

August 2, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: A Tiny Bouquet

I used to dream of growing tall, sturdy flowers that I could arrange in elegant bouquets.

I’m over it.

Gathering tiny blooms, bits of green here and there, and then arranging them in a small vessel is infinitely more fun. Last night, as I gathered seeds from the Cosmos, I snipped a few blooms for a bouquet. I added lavender, asparagus fern, tall grass and a few bluebells and arranged them in my favorite cup.

Cosmos, Lavender and Bluebells in a vase

Cosmos at rest: Flowers from the garden, cat mug from the heart
Cosmos, bluebells, lavender, fern and grass

Cosmos by the light of day

My college friend, Carrielin, gave me this cup thirty years ago. It’s always been a favorite. She knew how much I loved cats, flowers, and tea, and managed to combine all three in this charming mug. What better way to display my little bouquet.

Kitty Mug Close-up

Even the Handle is a Cat

Do you have a favorite little treasure filled with joyful memories?

July 26, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Lemony Yellows

The first flower on my lemony yellow tour self-seeded from last year. Within two weeks it was covered in buds and blooms and tripled in size. My friend Laura, referred to it as a Four O’clock, the time it usually blooms. Our plant must think it’s in a different time zone, as it was in full bloom at 9:00 this morning.

Lemony Yellow Wildflowers

Next up are the ‘Evergreen Yellow’ daylilies surrounding our Magnolia. Is it just me, or do the stamen look like delicate, curling fingers?

Trio of Daylily Flowers

Yellow Daylily Up Close

Rounding up the tour, we have Fuzzy little Kangaroo Paws shooting up behind the lilies. They’ll grow to about three feet tall and will bloom now through fall. Aren’t they sweet?