Choice Morsels

 I was disappointed today because the Lawn/Landscape company I'd made an appointment with for this morning a week ago and he randomly didn't show up. I was quite disgruntled. I had to get up an hour earlier then usual to be ready for a no show. Not even a call. So, I called a different Lawn/Landscape company I'd gotten reply from on Nextdoor and he sounded more professional.  What I want is to lessen the work-load on myself by having a professionals hedge 3 front shrubs, do a general weed eating along driveway, walkway & various edged beds and, most importantly, remove the 2 large Pampas Grass in front yard.   I'd like to plant Plumbagos in their stead, which is a blue flowering shrub common here, which is also easy to maintain. Today's Garden Pic is a nice shot of one of my Cheers Daffodils. These are the most faithful Daffodils, showing up every year more numerous then the year before. They're clusters of small double white Daffodils on each stem that smel...

I walked around to the back yard today and suddenly saw my Cheers Daffodils were all starting to all pop open! They bloom cluster heads of miniature white double flowers and are delightfully fragrant, smelling just a little like baby powder. Once I finishing my outside shots, I cut all the fallen stems and put them in a vase in the house. What they look like outside: Some stems stand upright, others flop over. The stems are hallow and the blossoms tend to be top-heavy. I bought the bulbs a good number years ago. A closer view of one of the upright stems: A close-up of a blossom cluster in a vase: On the table: I put some Gardenia greenery in the vase to hold them in place. You can find Cheers Daffodils in most garden catalogs.

Today's Garden Pics are shots of my Cheers Daffodils from bud to fully open to vase! Cheers Daffodils are a cluster style daffodil with multiple small double blossoms. I ordered them from a nursery catalog and those 5 original bulbs multiply every year, giving me more and more! They have a light, sweet fragrance reminiscent of baby powder. Buds:  Ready to Open:   Fully Open: Vased with Dusty Miller:   This is a small nosegay style arrangement in a 5-inch ginger jar vase with 3 stems of Cheers Daffodils and two Dusty Miller stems with the Daffodils arrangement in a cluster on one side & Dusty Miller on the other. Both perform well in a vase! A lovely Cheer-ful bouquet to brighten this gray & rainy winter day with their sweet fragrance!  (Dusty Miller can be rooted in water, so I'm hoping these might root along the way, too!) ***** That's it for today! Do check out my Mama Kat Thursday post!

I was expecting major rain today, but---nope. It was initially sunny this morning when I drove up to the YMCA for my bi-weekly interval training class, but is now gloomy gray, though still cool and pleasant enough to get some yard stuff done:   #1 was cutting down the decorative banana trees in the far back yard. They freeze and turn brown in winter, and cutting them causes a fresh tree to spiral up from the center of the stump. This helps control them a bit. Ignored, they can turn into 10 foot wide clumps. They're easy to saw through, being a water-logged type of pulp inside, but water is heavy. About 10, all different sizes, ranging from an 1 1/2 inches on a few babies to 8 inches on the one oldest. It's a work-out. # 2 was taking the hedge shears to a couple small pampas grass clumps also in back. #3 was a brief mow of some of the front lawn, mostly to collect mulch to spread over the hosta beds and front flower beds I recently edged.   G...