Just pretty

From the sewing room window... mini hollyhocks that are really too tall to be in front of the window but the kittens knocked over:

Nice spider web, huh?

Another non-stop begonia:

A begonia that I forget the name of, but blooming profusely:

And a hosta that will soon be blooming:

Mini rose

A year ago last March(?) I went to a bridal shower. There were a few games, and because I play a lot of Word Warp on my iPad I won a little mini rose bush by playing a word game. I put it outside last summer, and it did quite well. I didn't bring it into the house in the fall, but surprisingly it survived the winter! Here's what it looked like a couple weeks ago, right after a rain:

By the 4th of July, it had produced another bud and looked like this:

Yesterday morning it was almost fully open:

HOWEVER, my little bush had a definite problem. As you can see below, the second bud was gone...

... and the stems were bent over at a 90° angle:

The second bud was on the ground directly below its stem. It's right at the point of the amaryllis leaf above. Hmm... what happened to my poor little rose?!

Chances are, these littles may have had something to do with it:

Possibly?

That's a guilty retreat if I ever saw one:

I'm not totally sure it was them, though. They are rarely on that side of the house, and they haven't damaged anything else. There is also a somewhat smashed impatiens plant, which I'm pretty sure was due to an adult cat fight I heard a couple of nights ago. It could've happened at the same time, although I didn't notice if the rose stems were broken at that time or not.

I'll proclaim the kittens innocent until proven guilty, though. I love my kittens more than my flowers, anyway. ;)

Just pretty

Some flower photos I took awhile back and didn't get posted......

Osteospermum:

Non-stop begonia... not the best photo, and it's a little splattered with rain and soil, but so full! I don't think I've ever had one with so many blooms at once as this one has:

And the lovely dahlietta:

I'm glad I took those pics when I did, because the osteospermums and dahliettas have almost stopped blooming, for some reason. Maybe they don't like our crazy weather. I don't, either, as a matter of fact. Nice days are too few and far between.

More pretty bloomers

OOPS!! I got this post ready last night and was a little surprised just now to see that it hadn't auto-published like it was supposed to. Maybe because I set it for PM instead of AM like I thought I had, huh? ;( I guess my head's got too much in it this week and I'm not concentrating very well. Aargh. Well, here goes... hope you enjoy the photos!

Reds

Here are a couple of bright photos to start your week....

Gerbera daisies:

Non-stop begonias:

The begonia has since frozen, and I think I'll be dumping the gerberas rather than bring them into the house this year. They've been in that pot long enough. I'll start over with something new next spring. So these are the final pics of both flowers.

Now I need to take more photos... of... something.

Color!

The north side of our house has some splashes of color these days. My hibiscus is finally starting to bloom again. It's in desperate need of repotting, but I don't want to do that because then it's too hard to handle. I've cut slips from both plants, but they're not rooting right away like the last time I tried that. I might have to try some newer growth later. But here's a photo of the coral bloom (with a bud from the red plant in the background). It gets such a deep, bright color when it gets a lot of sun. I do move it far enough from the house that it gets sunshine most of the day. The wind has been mostly in the south so far this summer, so it's more protected on the north. If/when we get north winds, I move it to the other side of the house. So now you know why I don't like it in a huge pot... plus I bring it into the garage every night to protect it from raccoons, skunks, and/or whatever likes to dig in pots (kittens? never!).

Below are my colorful impatiens with some non-stop begonias in the upper right corner:

These are my favorite impatiens:

I also love my non-stops!

Oh, and the gerbera daisies are back there, too, in the sun with the hibiscus. They're just beginning to bloom nicely, too. I forgot to take pics of them, though. Later.....

Currently blooming

Besides the gerbera daisies, here is what I'm enjoying around here these days (click on each picture to enlarge):

Petunias (loving the yellow/purple ones!):

Clustered bellflowers: 

Bachelor Buttons: 

 

Nonstop Begonias:

 

Phlox:

Dianthus: 

Gazanias (my favorites right now): 

Non-stop

How I love the non-stop begonias! They've sure been living up to their name, all summer long.

That other begonia off to the left above has been doing really nicely, too.

And then there are these:

Love, love, love 'em!

Photo of the day

This is one of my gorgeous non-stop begonias. It just looked so stunning this morning that I couldn't resist. I'm sure Jess will approve of the color!

That's not the only pic I took this morning. I took lots. In fact, I have so many pics to show you right now that I don't know when I'll ever get 'em all up here! Everything takes time, and there are other things I must do right now. Maybe later today I'll do another post. If only they just had one photo each, it'd be easier. Maybe that's what I should do? Just put up a photo at a time... no write-up... just let you guess? Haha.

Right now Josie's sitting in front of my monitor with her paw on my finger. I think she's trying to tell me something. 'K... gotta go before she decides to start typing! Catcha later!!

Busy week!

I've gotten a ton of things done this week. If only I could be this productive all the time. Ha... I'd be worn out and buried in a month! But as they say, ya gotta "make hay while the sun shines"... and the sun has shone a lot this week (finally!). It not only spurs me on to get things done before it disappears again, but it also energizes me. Does it do that to you, too? I just can get so much more done when the sun is out!

I got all my planting done, made a little more hay with the lawn mower, finally sorted and got rid of all the recycleables that were stacking up dangerously in the garage, and did a whole lot of other things. Here's a sample of what I planted on the north side of our house:

I do so love the non-stop begonias. They certainly live up to their name!

I think my favorite this year, though, just might be this begonia in the foreground below. Look at all those blooms! Behind it is a new kind of impatiens, called something "tropical" because of their pink-orange-yellow color, I think. They should be interesting.

Methinks I was heavily influenced in my color choices somehow this year by "Agent Orange". I do believe, though I've never cared all that much for orange, that it's starting to grow on me. Blue, however, is still my favorite color. But really, how many blue flowers can you find, anyway?

Speaking of orange, here's another sample. I didn't choose this color, but I think it's kinda nice, too. More on him and his siblings later.....

I'm also making progress on my latest sewing project. Y'know what? I think I'd rather cut out another Amy Butler Weekender Bag than what I'm cutting now! At least those were big pieces with mostly straight sides. And little did I imagine that this new project might have just as many pieces (50) when all is said and done, if not more! But it SHOULD be easier to sew. I hope! It's gonna be really cool, too. More so than expected. I think you're gonna love it, Jess! ;)

So I'd better carry on here. I'll be back when I can, but don't worry if I don't show up for a while again... I'll probably either be sewing or out soaking up SUNSHINE! :)