Monday, August 21, 2006

Four o'clock, and all is well....

I love my 4 o'clocks. These are fantastic plants, and what's even better, is that Mr K and I grew these from seed. It's really cool to grow a bush (and they are a low bush) from seed. These are about a foot high and a foot wide, and so many little flowers on them. They do, however, not tell time that well. They;ve been open at 6 am, middle of the day, and late evening when they are supposed to.

I *think* they just open when its cooler. So tomorrow, which should be 28, they won't open till very late. We will grow these again next year for sure.

So the pink...what's really cool is when they were teeny tiny seedlings, their stems were pink, so I was able to plant them staggered instead of pink all over.

The yellow ones...
And there are white ones but they just won't photograph worth a hoot.

Ok, you've all seen these and assumed they are a beautiful buterfly when they grow up. NOT!

Spotted Tussock Moth (Lophocampa maculata)

MOTH! Eeew! Dammit, I was just touching them showing them to Mr K! I've picked them up all my life...eweeweweewwwwwwwww! NAsty! Look what they grow into!


I have a fear of moths, they creep me out. If you've watched Melissa run from wasps, then you might have an idea, but I scream. I was typing this as Mike thought he was really freaking funny and scared me. He'll regain consciousness in a few minutes...

So they are all over, we counted 7 of them! And K was so interested....now I need to go drown them. Eeew. They like the dogwood bushes, they are concentrated to those..to think if they were butterflies I was happy to let them eat the leaves to give K a science lesson. but MOTHS! Creepy, nasty, fluttering night-dwellers....

I'll have to think on this for a while.....wonder if he will remember tomorrow...sigh..who am I kidding, he'll remember....

Sunday, August 06, 2006

I found this lovely flower (weed?) tucked in with my irises and lilies. Very small,blue and cute.

My domesticated tiger lilies. I took this picture from the bottom since its totally pointing down towards the ground. These came all the way from my grandmother's garden in Dauphin, Manitoba, I am really glad that they are thriving enough to bloom after the transplant. They will come up year after year, and if I move I can take some with me, to always have at my home. Like having a part of my grandma there at all times.

Monday, July 31, 2006

Pink pink and more pink. I swore the seed package said "mix"...mix of what, different shades of pink? Or I just happened to plant alll pink seeds?

However, this one is a gorgeous multicolor, ranges from some lilac shades to a nice yellow interior.
Ah, my mutant lupine. And its not pink, of course, this one, had it grown instead of mutating into lord knows what, would have been purple. See the two purple blooms on the stem? WEIRD. Perhaps I should be getting my soil tested LOL!

And this is what they are supposed to look like. Uh, yah, not seeing the similarity. Mebbe next year since they will come back looking like this.. its like I am growing midget lupines.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

So pretty when I got home tonight, I took a pic during a small break from the rain, they looked so cheery against the fence in this gloomy weather. But they must looove this rain, because it went from 2 flowers to 5 gorgeous ones over the weekend. Hey, when you buy it as a spindly, sickly stick with a couple buds, you get excited over these things. Cause now its a spindly sickly stick with FIVE FLOWERS!

Then I decided to try and identify it.

Did you know there are over 3100 (and counting) varieties of Clematis? Riiight. That would be me. Pick the most difficult plant to narrow down to an exact name. And so many are purple... I was overwhelmed in about 5 minutes.


There must be somewhere to email the above pic, some gardener who has the database in their noggin or puter and can say "ooh! oooh ! its a........."

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

This is my complete self-indulgence blog, (cause I don't think anyone but my sister has a gardening passion like I do (so Karami, enjoy my pics!) I won't clog the kids blog (ah, I am so talented with rhyming) with my gardening rants and pictures, because it will be mostly talking to myself. Oh, and I know Kandice will read to see what planticide I am committing this week :)

Now that all my hard work early this summer is starting to pay off, I am wanting to take all sorts of pictures and blather on. I am hoping that next spring I can look back on it all and figure out how to go about it better.

Remember you can click on all my pictures to enlarge them!

One of the many dragonflies around the flowerbed. Not a bad pic for a POS camera..but makes me want a newer, better one. Good thing Christmas is coming!

My tallest Lupine...I am guessing white on this one, even tho they all look white at the beginning, this one should stay white....this one is almost a foot tall.

I think I see pink (holy, what's with the rhymes today??)
S0 I guess Lupines can just up and die after blooming, they rot at the stem and croak. Nice. Maybe some mulch would help that problem....I realize in retrospect that the front flowerbed should have been mulched for more than just the Calla Lillies, (tho I am damn proud, if you had asked me 3 months ago what mulch was and what its use was....nevermind USING it on purpose LOL)