Choice Morsels

Today's Garden Pics: My White Daylily: Though, among Daylilies, "white" is more a creamy white with a trace of yellow in the center. It's relatively new. I bought and planted this one 2 years ago and this is it's first bloom! It's petals have a ruffled edge and the greenery is tall and doesn't die back during winter. (some do) I grow these special colored hybrid daylilies in particular to photograph.   And a Balloon Flower: The bud just prior to opening looks like a hot air balloon, thus the name.  I like it because it is a blue flower. 

Last week I was out of town---my friend, Megan and I drove down to Disney World. We spent 4 days there and Galaxy's Edge was our favorite place. So much so, we weathered rain to go back there in the evening to ride "Rise of the Resistance" a second time. Definitely, dusk when all the planet town's lights come on was best. The "Rise of the Resistance" is an experience: you're part a group of new Rebel recruits trying to flee their base, but are captured by Imperials and tractor-beamed aboard their ship, threatened with interrogation, then rescued by the Republic---and that's all before even the actual ride part begins! Gardenia's are in season, so that's Today's Garden Pic: This particular Gardenia has large blossoms about 4 inches across and the air near them is fragrance with their spicy Clove like scent.   When Gardenia's are in bloom, I like to make arrangements with them and bring their fragrance indoors: Gardenia's have heavy...

 Today's Garden Pics: I've been busy getting ready for a trip, so a little delay on getting garden pictures up, but there they are: My Raised Bed Veggies Garden: This is what my vegetable garden looks like right now. It includes a tomato, 2 bush zucchini, 2 bush spaghetti squash that bears a smaller size then regular, purple bush beans and pad chai. There are 2 lettuce flowering in far bed, so they'll seed themselves and hopefully give me an abundance of winter lettuce this fall! The space at the end of the closer bed will be planted with more purple bush beans when I get back. At least one more row. Perhaps more pad chai. And I have a spot for one more zucchini. I've been eating zucchini for meals this week. It has a cycle of fruiting, then growing, then fruiting, so it should be in a growth cycle while I'm gone this week. In the background you can see my neighbors fence, which is on higher ground then my yard, so I have a block retaining wall below it and a bed of...

Garden Pics today: My orange & white Amaryllis: Backlit by late day sun! Gorgeous! And: A spaghetti squash blossom this morning with a honeybee visitor!

Three Garden Pics Today: First: Siberian Iris & Shasta Daisies These are in a bed along the front side walk. I can grow any kind of Iris except the German Iris, which has a rhizome root. Siberian Iris just has regular roots. So it grows.  I like it because it's on the dark blue side, though Siberian Iris does come in a rainbow of colors. I collect blue flowers in particular, though. Also it spreads. Over the years, it has turned into a whole row!   Next: my Louisiana Iris in my backyard rain garden. I have 2 colors: First this pretty purple with touches of yellow. And then this more solid purple one, called Black Peacock. Backlit by late afternoon sun like this, it looks more purple. But in the shade, it's a deeper purple one could almost call "black."

Garden Pics today: Shasta Daisies hanging out by my mailbox: Raised these from some free seed a neighbor gave me that came in charity junk-mail. They're perennial, but I've read they'll stop coming back after abut 5 years. I actually have about a dozen clumps scattered in various beds. I'll try to collect seed from a dry bloom or two to create a new generation. This is their 2nd year. Here's a closer view captured in end-of-day sun . The blossoms attract a variety of insects. I saw a Lady Bug nymph on one the other day. (a nymph is the stage prior to transforming into what you normally expect a Lady Bug to look like. They are spiny and bi-colored. Odd looking. But your friends as they are carnivorous at all stagesof life, dining on other insects that normally cause harm to plants and flowers. Who knew? Also, today a nice end of day sun-glow shot of my container of Red Salvia & Purple Petunia's on the walkway just outside my front door. It's what greets y...

  I joined a local ladies book club I saw mentioned in Next Door because it was an opportunity to hang out and have lunch with ladies in my age range. We meet on the 2nd Wednesday every month and today was my 3rd meeting. We together choose a new read and the goal is actually to find reasonably clean books to read. It's something fun to look forward to and the restaurant we meet at is a local place that let's us in at 10 am, then we order lunch. Today's Garden Pic is my Clematis. Blooms are just now popping open. Clematis are climbers, so it has an metal trellis. This particular one is on the bluer side and has a shorter growth habit; something I chose deliberately.  When you buy plants & shrubs you want to pay attention to their height and width dimensions! Clematis Has New Growth! I planted it and it put up 2 vines and for the past 3 years, it's been blooming just off those. This Clematis blooms off the "old wood" meaning, new greenery sprouts off the or...