Good Spring for Flowers

 I have always been a flower lover. I think I inherited it from my ancestors. Both of my grandmothers were flower lovers. My mother is also a flower lover. So, I guess I just inherited their green thumb.

I can remember visiting my Granny and she would take us on a walk around her yard and point out different flowers and plants and tell us little stories about them. "This one is called Artemisia and that was my (some relative)'s name...This one is a shade lover...This one is a ground cover and the color and texture really makes the flowers around it look prettier...Geraniums do well in this pot because it drains well and they don't like wet feet..."

So, I sort of think of my ancestors when I am selecting, planting, and tending to my flowers. This year I stumbled across some beautiful geraniums with a deep crimson bloom. So, I decided that they would be the base for my back porch plantings. 

I selected some that had only a bloom or two but lots of buds. They have been beautiful!

I added a deep blue/purple petunia and a white trailing plant that I think is called Bacopa. I also have some sort of plant that grows tall and has blooms along the stalk of it that is just now coming along and getting ready to bloom.

The rainy conditions we have experienced has made flower growing simple. I've only had to hand-water them a few times because we have gotten downpours almost daily. 

In the smaller pots, I added purple petunias and a variegated Lantana. It has yellow, orange, hot pink, and red in the bloom. 

I spend a while each morning wandering round sipping tea, plucking off spent blooms, and just enjoying the beauty of these flowers! 

Fall on the Front Porch

Well, it certainly has not felt like fall here in Tennessee!  We have been in a sweltering heat pattern throughout August and September.  I am confident that October is going to bring us some fall-like weather, though.  A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of a fall sale at our local big-box hardware store and picked up a few mums.  I haven't done a lot of decorating beyond hanging a wreath or adding a few large pumpkins to the front steps in years past because decorations are not noticed so much from the highway.  Now that our driveway comes right up toward the front of the house and curves around the side, I feel like a bit of curb appeal is needed. 

So, today I went to the local greenhouse and picked up a few pumpkins to add to the fall look on the front porch.  I spent almost two hours sorting through pumpkins and looking at colors and sizes and shapes in the sweltering heat that felt far more like the middle of summer than the first of October.

I really wanted to use some of those pumpkins that are UT orange.  So, I wound up getting a couple of pale Cinderella pumpkins, a couple of blue-green ones, and a smaller UT orange one to stack and form a topiary atop my clay pots that sit on the front porch.  I put them right on the top step.  Then, shifted the mums that are a yellow-orange color to the second step down.  I finished off the steps with two large orange pumpkins to reinforce the statement of the season. 

I got another large orange pumpkin to set on top of the large milk can that came from my maternal grandfather's house.  I  put a couple of small four-inch pots with more mums on the little table between the two chairs on the porch.  Another mum is nestled into a large basket surrounded by pine cones and sets at the base of the small milk can that came from Mike's grandparents that holds a fern on top.

The lavender and alyssum in the clay pots at the foot of the steps sort of anchors the look and I washed and dried the throw pillows that are on the porch.  Mike and I have even sat out here in the swing and watched the world drive by on a couple of afternoons when the temperature was below ninety degrees.  I smile each day when I'm traveling up the driveway and notice the friendly fall look - even though I've got the air conditioning blasting full force in my truck!

Pass-Along-Plants

Over the years when I have moved from one house to another, I try to take some of my favorite perinniels with me to my next home.

It is rather comforting to see the same plants and sort of makes the new house feel more like home because old plant friends are there through different seasons.  

I have moved lilies, iris, day lilies, boxwoods, hostas, and such with great success.

I've also moved this grey, barn-shaped mailbox a couple of times because I like to keep my gardening gloves and tools hidden inside and handy for use.

At my last house, I had Baptisia australis, or false indigo that I had purchased in a pot because I liked the looks and color of the bloom.

When we sold that house, I dug up some of the other plants mentioned quite easily and moved them to their new location.

Digging up a root of the false indigo to move it was another story.  I dug and tugged and strained until I finally got a piece of a root.  I didn't really think it would grow, but I put it in the ground beside this mailbox post anyway.

At my last house, it grew to be about three feet tall as described in this article.

I am just now learning that it is a difficult plant to move because it doesn't like its roots disturbed.  So, I guess I should be grateful that it survived and thrived near the steps of the back porch.

I was thinking the other day that maybe I should move it because it is as tall as me and tends to flop over onto the path leading up to the steps requiring that I tie it up to the mailbox post.

Not only does it provide beautiful blue blooms early in the summer, but it also provides interest with these pea-looking pods after the blooms have faded.  They start off a beautiful green color like the leaves.

Then, they slowly turn to become a deep, dark, navy blue color that is almost black.

I learned that the blooms were used to create a blue dye at one time and that is how the plant got the common name of false indigo.

Since I was lucky and the transplanted root grew well for me after the last move, I guess I will follow the advice of the article mentioned previously and take some of the seed to plant in a different location rather than moving the plant I have and risk loosing it altogether.

Maybe I'll also start some little plants to pass along to the daughters and daughters-in-law like my Granny, my great aunt, and my mother have done for me.