Sunday Blooms Remembered

Some Sunday blooms for a rainy day.
There is a promise of a beautiful week ahead
for gardening and time outdoors soaking up
some sunlight and warmer temperatures.




How far you go in life depends on your being tender with
the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with
the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong.
Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
~ George Washington Carver ~












































Happy Gardening Everyone!

Grandma's Flowers

I mention my grandmother quite a bit because
I spent so much time at her home when we were
small cousins.
I came across this picture while going through some
computer files. This picture to me is so precious.
It was taken about 109 years ago when grandma
on the right (the blond) was about 3 years old and
her sister on the left was about 4. They both look
so pretty in this photo. I was named after
grandma's sister and looked similar to her when
I was younger.
Grandma had a big garden when I was young.
Then if you wanted to eat you grew it, raised it,
or hunted and fished for it, so the gardens were big
and the fields were full of corn to feed the animals.
For those of you who have never butchered chickens
you have not missed the messy sight and I can still
remember the smell of singed pin feathers.
On hog butchering day the whole family had to
work to get them ready and then smoked or salted
down.
Funny that what was old is now coming back around
as new and of course green.

Since most of the land then was used for food
I started thinking back to what flowers grandma had
around the house.Then I started wondering about
the flowers that I grow and why I grow some of them.
I came to the conclusion that some of the flowers
that I grow are grown because she grew them or that
they reminded me of her. Maybe I wasn't even wild
about that certain flower at all but somehow I had
grown it and still do because they gave me fond and
warm memories.

Such as Hollyhocks. Some of the newer varieties
are pretty such as the doubles or darker, brighter ones.





But this one to me has always been an ugly color
of pink. Why have I kept it and even moved it
all around the yard to make a place for it?
Even fight with the Japanese beetles that want
to riddle them every June.
Because grandma had some.





The red one was not so bad of a color but of
course I managed to finish it off in one of the
moves.





I happen to love this one that grandma grew.
She had the biggest Lilac bushes and in fact
my lilac bushes came from shoots from her
bushes. Last winter the ice storm really damaged
the two bushes that I have and I was sick when I
saw the broken limbs on the over thirty year old
bushes. They are coming back and filled in this
summer.When I get a whiff of the fragrance from
the lilac blooms as the breezes carries it across the
yard I always think of grandma, smile and inhale
a little deeper.





Another flower she always had was Peonies.

Her peonies were red and she would have loved
this Sorbet peony.





Even the honeysuckle was taken from the old
farm house where she lived in the 'Big Woods'.








She always had geraniums although they were
always red. I wonder what she would think of all
of the colors and varieties that are grown now.
For those who have followed my blog you know
I love geraniums and another reason I grow them
although they may be called an old fashioned flower
is because they remind me of her and lets face it they
are tough and hard working flowers.





She also had a small flowerbed beside the outhouse.
Outhouse!! Well it was before everyone had in door
bathrooms. I have carried a many chamber pots to
dump in the outhouse in the morning. Also you have
not lived until you have slipped on the ice and went
flying backwards with your arm flying upwards and
dumped the contents all over you from the flying pot.
Yes, the first thing I did was to look and see if anyone
saw my acrobatic display and red face. Never mind
that my tailbone went up into my ribs somewhere.
Anyway in the flowerbed beside the outhouse she
grew purple pansies.





I wonder now if it was to pretty up the outhouse
or was it just the most fertile ground.





Morning Glories always grew on the garden fence.





Rose of Sharon bushes grew on each corner of the
big front porch.





She seldom went to town but she loved traveling
to Lake Erie several times during the summers
where we all would go fishing.
It is a scary thing when your seven and the only one
in the boat that can swim a stroke is you and grandpa.
Or that you have to bait your uncles hook because
he cannot stand the dirty worms on his hands.


And did we catch fish. More fish that a little
girl could hold up.

Grandma would look out over the fields on the
trips up and back and would always exclaim of
how her favorite flower above them all was ....




a simple yellow wildflower the 'Goldenrod'.

She found such beauty in a field full of them
bright and beautiful in the sun.


What flowers have sentimental value to you?


Happy Gardening Everyone!

The Reason For Rainy Days

God made rainy days so gardeners could get

the housework done.

What Gardeners Do When it Rains

They blog and talk about flowers,
look at other gardeners flowers,
and plan what to do outdoors when the rain stops.
I am not going to complain because we were
really needing the rain in this part of the
Buckeye state.
The rain has not slowed down the traffic on
the highway out front with people going
to the Arts and Crafts Show at Old Man's Cave.
Since I did not want to melt I opted to
stay home this year. No, I am an old salty
and not sweet and sugary ;-)


I missed Fertilizer Friday, Sorry Tootsie!
But I did get some pictures of some of the
flowers that are still trying to put out some
blooms and of some of the Fall decor that
I have stuck on the front porch.





The mums are starting to bloom. They
spent the winter in the basement and were
pinched back longer than they should have maybe,
but they will last longer for fall blooming. I pinch
them back until the last of July.





Look who is coming back now that the days
have grown shorter cooler.



Not exactly a fall pansy and though I would love
some that look more like Fall I may have really
blown all of my pin money for flowers for the year.



This will likely be the last echinacea for this summer.
Poor thing looks so forlorn and lonely all by itself.



This Clustered purple Bellflower decided to surprise
me with a single new bloom.



Another Stock plant finally decided to bloom.
I do not think I will be trying to grow Stock
ever again. Who knew it took months to bloom.
I know everyone except Robin and myself.



See the pretty purple potato vine in the wagon
my Dad made me? Now picture it with just a
whole lot of stems and no leaves.
Yep, the deers like sweet potatoes too.



I am still loving this free morning glory that
the birds or wind sent to the garden.
Free is a good thing.



Stella d' Oro has been spluttering around
and putting on a few blooms to let me know
she is a trooper in the garden.



The Iboza vine in this old coal bucket keeps
trying to spread her vines. I have pinched it
back all summer and have started some new
vines from it to try to over winter.

Remember the stray cat that grew three kittens
in the flower bed. Well sadly something has
happened to the yellow one. The ornery black one
has taken over my potting bench just like momma.



And the gray one thinks Mom makes a good
pillow while hanging onto the back of the chair.
I am more of a dog person but these old strays
know how to get around me.
Now when I look out the back door in the mornings
not one old cat is waiting and staring back at me
but one old cat and four little eyes are watching
for me. What is that mother teaching them.
Who me, an old softy ? Oh, well what can I say.


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Happy Gardening Everyone!