Now Blooming

I know it's a bit late for Floral Friday, but I wanted to share a few things with you any way. It was so nice being able to stay home today and rest up a bit, and clean up my dirty kitchen! A few days of being away from home most of the day, and the dirty dishes seem to multiply! :o)

So, on to the bloomers! First, I wanted to share the seed pods on the blazing star. When the bloom first falls away, they look like this >>>


See that one in the bottom right corner, that's how they look, but when the pod is about mature, they open up and look almost like another flower!


Look at that star shape! I think it's lovely, and soon the seeds will be mature and I'll save them to share with friends.

Next up, I just wanted to show you the white beauty berry bush, now with green berries. When they are mature, the berries will be white, unlike the regular beauty berry which has brilliant 'fuchsia purple' berries.


See this pretty buddleia? I know, it's a bad picture, but it's been rainy for several days now, and the sun is hard to get just right! Anyway, this buddleia was a freebie! A couple of years ago we went to the lake for a weekend of camping for hubby's birthday. This buddleia was about 18 inches tall and kind of leggy, and right smack in the middle of where the lake would have been if it hadn't been about 16 feet down due to the drought. I dug this baby up and brought it home. It grew and grew and grew, and this spring we cut it to the ground. I mean - all the way down! Now look at it, it's gorgeous! I think next spring (early) I'll cut my other two to the ground, too. They aren't nearly as pretty as this one is now! Anyway, the purple blooms are so pretty, and the butterflies, bees and hummers just love it!



The weeds! Well, not really, I never thought I'd say it, but I'm so tired of pulling up morning glories, moonflowers and hyacinth beans! They are still coming up, and I get out at least 2-3 times a week and pull up the babies. They are just all over the place! I do have a few on trellises that are lovely, but if I left them all, we wouldn't be able to see the house!


The zinnia's around the mailbox are just beautiful! Every one came up volunteer from last year, and I've already been scattering seeds from this year in hopes they will come up in other places next year.


The cleome jungle is gorgeous, and I'm collecting seeds - trying to keep them divided by colors, and I'll share these with family and friends, too. Don't you love the views through the trellis?


This one is called 'Rose Queen' and it's very tall (5') and stately. I love the different depths of the color, from palest pink to brightest pink.


And, the star of the show this week! The moonflowers! I have a couple of them, and a couple of hyacinth beans growing on a wire obelisk right beside the garage door. There's just a bit of a wall - about 18 inches wide - and this is tall and fits there just right. Don't they look like a shrub!


And the blooms are gorgeous! They start opening right before dark, and if you are patient and have plenty of time, you can stand and watch the blooms unfurl. The scent after dark is intoxicating, too! The blooms are at least 6" across - about the size of a small bread/dessert saucer.

And the moonflowers will re-seed. As I said above, I'm still pulling them up and throwing them away! I love to have morning glories, moonflowers, hyacinth beans and four o'clocks planted all together, because there is something blooming around the clock right in one spot!

That's it from me for now. I'll be doing the drawing tomorrow and announcing the winner of the giveaway on Sunday. Good luck to all of you, and thank you for entering! Have a great weekend! Becky

Making Over On A Budget!

Hi Folks! Do you remember this fountain??? Earlier in the summer it was on my front porch with sparkling glass stones inside and water trickling over the pineapple and off the little points beneath it.

Well, before long, the pump died (it was about 4 years old, so it was time!), and before I knew it had died, mosquitoes made a breeding ground out of the bit of water left inside. As you can also see, some of the outer covering was peeling off too, so, I emptied it, washed it, and left it to dry while I decided what to do with it.

I talked it over with my hubby, and we agreed that we could better afford a can of spray paint for about $5 than we could a new pump for, oh, maybe $20. In it's new life, it would be a birdbath! So I went on a shopping mission to find just the right paint.

I finally found it! Fusion paint (for plastics) in a 'brown hammered metallic' tone. But that poor fountain sat there, in the yard where I left it for, oh, about three weeks - yikes~!! But the other day inspiration struck, so I grabbed the can of paint and a scrub brush, and went outside. I scrubbed the loose paint and dirt off the outside, wiped it down well, and began to paint.

May I just say that I love it so much more in it's new life!!! Here, take a look for yourself!

The color isn't brown at all, but more of a light, silvery~goldy bronze. And it does have, when looking at it up close, a nice little hammered look to it. Right now I have it in the cleome jungle, but I'm not sure I'll leave it there for long.

Don't you just love it! The color is perfect amidst all the green, pink, purple, whites and yellows in the garden. And it was taken from kind of ugly to absolutely lovely with one can of paint.

And not even a whole can of paint! I had enough left over to paint this French flower bucket I bought at Restoration Hardware on clearance years ago >>>

AND, this planter that I bought at a yard sale a while back for $1, and it's new! (Love those deals!) >>>


Of course I couldn't stop at one can of paint - I had to pull out another can - this time periwinkle blue! Do you see that old plant stand??? The one that is now periwinkle??? I bought that at a yard sale, oh, probably 8-10 years ago and it was an ugly over-painted gold. I used it in the dining room at our old place. When we moved here, almost 6 years ago, it went into the garage, and that's where it's stayed. Now it has a new home here on the front porch.

I think it looks pretty good, what do you think? The periwinkle pops with the yellow walls, pink and white flowers and green foliage.

And I re-positioned all the potted plants on and around it - without the fountain this time. I just love that pop of color!

I also cleaned off the old TV tray, put on a new-old chicken feed sack cloth and set it up where we can play our new hobby - chess - out on the front porch.

I put an old wood step-stool behind it and put the magazines and citronella candle there. Mosquitoes just LOVE me, so I have to have something to ward them off!

So that was my makeover day, and the whole thing cost me about $10 - 11, just for the two cans of spray paint. You don't have to have a lot of money to make things nice! Just use a little creativity and a couple of cans of spray paint, and you've got a re-do!

Don't forget about my giveaway! Go back to this post and leave a comment and I'll add your name to the pot!

Have a great day, folks!!! Blessings, Becky

Floral Friday - Bloomers Large and Small

Happy Friday! I'm excited to share a few of my favorite bloomers with you today, but first I want to share a mystery with you! Well, not really a mystery - more of someone's mistake. I ordered a few things from Gurneys online this spring. One of them was this >>>






Isn't it lovely? It's called a red prairie mallow, and I thought the hummers, bees and butterflies would love it! The description called the color 'carmine'. Mine is blooming right now, but look what I got >>>



The blooms are kind of a red-violet, and the blooms are only slightly larger than a quarter. I think they are pretty, but not exactly what I expected!


The orange 'poker plant' is blooming again, and since I didn't get pictures of the first blooming for you, I thought I would share one of the new ones.




And I'm so excited, because one of my favorites for this time of year is blooming - it's the pink hardy hibiscus. It's so pretty with the pale pink and deep red eye! Here are some buds in various stages of maturity >>>

And one more of the burgundy hibiscus just so you can see how they look when blooming >>>

And then about a week after the bloom is gone >>>

Those seed pods form really fast, and before long they'll be full of mature seeds which I'll scatter in other parts of the yard with hopes that one or two will make it to plants next spring. Of course the birds will get their share, too!

And now, the best of the best - the blazing stars are blooming! These plants came from plants that originally belonged to my maternal grandmother, and have been handed down to my mother and now me. They grow very tall - probably close to 8 feet!

As far back as I can remember, my parents had these growing beside their propane gas tank, right along the roadside.

But I don't remember them ever getting as tall as mine do, although mine probably get a bit more sun than theirs did.

In this next picture, that's the roof line on the front of our house that you see, so I'm taking the picture from standing position, looking up toward the blooms.

There's a funny story about the blazing stars! Back in the 70's, some local kids decided those were pot plants. I guess the leaves do look kind of like pot, so they would occasionally try to come pick a few of the leaves for a cheap (free) high. What they didn't know was that my dad worked nights, and even when he wasn't working he tended to sleep all day and stay up all night. He would go sit in the shadows, with an empty gun by his side. If the kids would stop to try to pick leaves, he would wait until the boys got out of the car and up to the plant, then he would click the hammer on that gun and say "I think you boys might want to move on along now!" He had no intention of shooting anyone, and the gun was always empty, but he sure got a kick out of doing that, and of telling the story to anyone who would listen.

On Sunday we are going back to Lake Chatuge for a day trip. Hubby bought a 3-man raft and has decided we're going to the lake to play in the raft, so we plan on spending the day. Hubby is like a little boy with a new toy, and I didn't realize he'd never had (or been in) one. He's not much of one for swimming, so I told him he'd better plan on getting wet, because those things aren't the most float-worthy things in the world. But I'm looking forward to watching him play, and playing with him.

Okay, that's all from me today - I'm off to see if I can find any yard sales, then go to the grocery store to pick up some things for Sunday's picnic. Have a great weekend folks! Becky

Summer Saturday - This and That

Hello there! I'm sorry I didn't do Floral Friday yesterday, but I was catching up on doing laundry - a week and a half's worth, and that was about all I felt like doing. So today I have a real potpourri of topics to cover.


First up, are you familiar with the june bug??? When I was a child, I would catch them and my mother would tie sewing thread around one leg, and I would hold that string and make that poor bug fly and fly until it could fly no more. And when it could no longer fly, I would get so angry!


Yesterday (Friday) I was standing in the front door looking out and saw something moving on my blazing star and went out to see what was making the leaf lean so, and it was a HUGE june bug! By far the biggest one I ever remember seeing.


This fellow (I'm calling him a 'him' because he's so large) was easily 1 1/2 to 2 times as large as any I remember. There on the leaf is a little of his 'spittle'.


I went in the house after taking the pictures to get a jar, and thought I would keep him a couple of days, and when I returned there was a yellow jacket after him. I shooed off the yellow jacket and tried to get the june bug in the jar, but he flew away across the yard.


He was definitely and interesting few moments in an otherwise boring laundry day!


A mystery! Do you know what this plant/flower is???

Here is the foliage >>>

My mother pulled up a few of these that were growing around the outside of a nursery we visited about three years ago. I brought them home and stuck them in the ground and forgot them. And that was during a drought. Now they are still here and growing like gangbusters! I thought they were feverfew, but after some research I don't think they are. Are they maybe false asters??? If you have any info, I'd love to know what they are!

The pink girl tomatoes are coming along nicely! I got them planted quite late, so am pleased with their progress. The one below is my largest - about the size around of a tennis ball. I can't wait until they are ripe!

I have a few bloomers to share with you today! Of course that gorgeous garden phlox is still blooming (about a month now!) but the blooms are fading quite a bit now.

See this tiny little impatiens? She's volunteer from last year, and came up in among the rocks on the patio. I don't have the heart to move her, so I'll just let her be!

The lemon mint is just blooming like crazy, but it was really hard to get a decent picture because the blooms are so tiny.

And of course one of my favorite bloomers these days is the hardy hibiscus! The burgundy one is blooming very well, but the pink one should be opening up any day now.

The glads bloomed while I was under the weather, so the best I could get was one with the last two blooms open, but I wanted you to see how pretty this one is. The blooms are three-toned, with pink, yellow and white.


And when I went out to check on the basil, I found it blooming, and a bumble bee enjoying the blooms. I'm afraid I disappointed him because I pinched off all the blooms. Once the plant gets the message it's producing flowers (thus, seeds) it will stop making the delicious leaves! So in order to have more leaves, I keep all the blooms pinched off until much later in the season. This is 'lettuce leaf' basil.

And last, but definitely not least, I had a nice surprise on Thursday! Remember the post I did a couple of weeks ago about the free quart of Glidden paint? Well, mine came on Thursday! Less than two weeks after I ordered it, and delivered by Fed Ex, no less! I thought it would be 4-6 weeks, but no siree, less than two, and I was amazed! Now to figure out exactly what I want to do with it!

Okay, hubby just came out here to join me, so I guess I need to chat with him for a while. Have a great weekend! Becky

Floral Friday - A Few Blooms

Happy Friday, and Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!! I just wanted to share a few bloomers with you, and a couple of other things, too.

First, the garden phlox is just blooming and blooming, and there are tons of babies coming up around the bottom. Obviously she's a happy camper!



The squash are still blooming, and being pollinated by the bees, but I think the bunnies must be enjoying the squash, because I'll see them at about 2-3 inches long, then they disappear. First chance I have, I'll be putting circles of flour around the plants to keep the bunnies out.



The white foxglove's big, main stem is done, but there are bunches of smaller stems blooming, and it's so pretty!

The cleome is blooming, and I just love that purpley rose color! Many people know these as spider plants. They re-seed very vigorously, so I hope to collect a bunch of seeds later on.

This is a bud from the burgundy hardy hibiscus. Those blooms just burst open over night!

And this is how they look once they open - aren't they gorgeous??? The blooms are about 5 - 6 inches across.

And just a quick photo of my tomatoes! Can't wait until these 'Pink Girls' are ready to eat!

Well, that's all for today. I hope to have a make-over project to show you in a few days. We got my dad home from the hospital yesterday, and he seems to be feeling better for now. Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers! Have a blessed Independence Day! Becky