Picture-Palooza

So many things I would have to say, so instead I shall simply SHOW you the greatness.  We went, flower shoppping!

The garden:

The Dill. Sadly is getting quite sad but it still managed to show me its little yellow flowers before it took a turn for the worst!  I'm not sure why, but the whole bottom of it is yellowish and then the upper leaves are now turning to a sad sort of brown.  It began so bushy and stayed that way until I tookthe vacation, but the dill never really liked mom I guess.  Maybe we'll revive it yet!

This is a new addition since the last blog but still got planted recently where as the flowers we aquired last night are still in the ground.  Its very cute and is drought resistant.  I believe!!! this is my aunty's favorite kind of plant.  Only stands a mere 2 inches tall right now!

 This picture was just a quick shot toshow off our nicely growing dahlias which aren't saggy yet, and some brand new pots mom got over vacation of begonias! Not my favorite flower, but I like these because their leaves are as red as they are!

The above speak for themselves! BEAUTIFUL!!!!

 

The shopping spree!!!!

No idea what they are called but I like these they are very purple and very nice.  We have been searching for something purple with some height that wasn't too derpy looking for some time.  Hopefully this is the match we've been looking for!!!

Mom's echinacea

below: MORE echinacea w/ a spiky celosia, a plant called sparklers, and a HUGE pot of petunias!

 Yes so many plants so little time. Not even pictured here is a new oregano, jade (nifty cactus thing), a second enormous petunia pot of purples, and red puffy plants like the yellow ones above. I just couldn't help myself and neither could mom. We love out plants! There's also five coleus not shown yet.  Can't wait to give more sneak peeks!!! Keep your eyes peeled.

Reporting In

So here I am in FL, and pleased to report, that the garden has a tender!  Mom is doing a wonderful job keeping the babies well tended and growing happy as clams.  The transplanted sunflowers have even made it passed a week of life now and I'm so happy!  There were three babies, but only two made it, but that's better than nothing!  She's even sent pictures to show us all how wonderful they were doing!  That picture is the weekend that I left, and the one on the right is as of last night! You can see the two tiny baby sunflowers in the bottom left corner!  The bud below is from the sunflower that towers over the shoulder of my momma now, and she reports it as a 2 inch in diameter, golfball shaped bud.  Hopefully it doesn't bloom until I get home on Sunday!

The elephant ear has grow exponentially! From the tiny bud in the last post, to a two pronged leaf baring beauty! Soon it might get taller and I simply can't wait. There are so many growing things that she has had to send over 9 pictures last night to cover all the bases!  And apparently last night she potted the picasso petunias, the tequila sunrise petunias, and weeded! The picasso's you can't really tell, but they have purply pink flowers, with lime green tips! They are beautiful! You never know what you might find! She added some other plants but I can't quite make out what they are but there's also some spikeys!

Its the neatest thing ever.  The dill, and the lavender are yet to be close uped, but I saw some yellowing on the dill's lower branches but mom said that was from a few days in between where she couldn't make it.  It will recover and hopefully get nice and strong and big! I love the dill, its so fluffy! And for those of you that keep up on the garden progress and knew the marigolds were just starting to recover right before I left... I have a picture for you!!!!!

WHOOT! WHOOT!  More to come!!!!

From your loving gardener in the forever spring!

-Tine!

P.S.

Guess who's growing! (Mom found him while culling at home!

The Elephant in the Room

Another good day today! Just another documentation of how big the sunflowers are getting. Mr. Bean is only just 4 years old, and it is now over his head. I can't wait until it gets bigger. This of course is the largest of the sunflowers and the others are rising slowly now that I've been watering for almost a half hour straight each day. It appears to be helping! There's some real progress in the garden, despite thinking they were getting a bit tired, they weren't! The sunnies are growing, the elephant ear emerged, and the marigolds are starting to make a whole new round of flowers now that they are coming back from the desert weekend. So exciting! With high hopes I say these just may make the summer!

The Upcoming Week

Plans! So as of Saturday my little Emma and myself are going to Florida, so there is some things to do in the gardens before I get on my way. Firstly, the potted garden on the stoop will be in the charge of mom and it is growing quite nicely. As thus. This one came back from a devastating event of some bratty kid kicking it over and having the flower snap off. Now its got tons of flowers and is getting more and more healthy by the day. Sooooo exciting! The lavender has also grown in very nice proportions. it use to be quite week appearing after getting trimmed and I wasn't certain that it was what was suppose to be done despite what I'd been told. Trimming at that age seemed bad, but NOW! Now we have a beautiful healthy plant, so its obvious it was good advice. This one is doing much better than the one at Chris and Kelly's. But for whatever reason it is probably something about soil that's causing the plants not to grow as well as I would have hoped. Nothing is really growing with much vigor there except for the sunflowers that are 2nd generation and planted themselves. As far as they go we'll have them watered and tended while I'm gone and hopefully this week I'll get the remaining trees rid of. Hopefully more to come!

Mantids, Mantids, Mantids

So ladies and gentlemen, today was Emma's 7th birthday. Happy birthday to my little sister and another great year of her pestering adorable self. It was a hectic but great day and in amidst the revelry there was another mantid sighting! I believe it is Zeus, however, there is a heavier green to this mantis than the last. It still has the same ye stripe that Zeus had though so until we see mutli-mantids at the same time. I knew I said I'd have flower pictures for you, but rather more mantids! The lavender I have to say has grown quite healthily and after viewing Nicky's garden and her happy little sprouts, I have to say that mine aren't doing too terrible. I think the growing season is quite overheated this year. Everything at Chris and Kelly's house has seemed to be stunted as well as everything here. The only thing that appears to be doing well is the potted lavender plant that has grown a huge and healthy proportions in the direction of up!

Over all it has been well and good and on Monday I will get the remaining things at work cleaned up and take some pictures of the rapidly growing sunflowers, despite the fact that all the sprouts failed to rise.

I also went out of my way to watch a documentary on bugs the other day that follows the life cycle of a caterpillar and a mantis. Its quite interesting and very factful! Great to watch. Its called the Fascinating life of Bugs! Narrated by the same woman that plays the elemental in the Chronicles of Riddick. It's a great watch that I recommend. Next research project! Onion propagation.