September Bloom Day

I wonder just how many Bloom Days we could use these fabulous tomato blooms. They are so cute up close and I love the way you can see the little hairs on the stem in the photos. By far, the tomato remains my favorite thing in the garden, even beating out all the flowers. I love how they leave that interesting tomato scent on me when I brush by them or harvest them. Before I started gardening, I just liked eating them but they continue to give me more reasons to love them.
As you can see, the Zinnia and the Cleome still look great. I noticed some seeds from the white Cleome that I tried to transplant (RIP white cleome) and when I saw where the seeds came from I realized I have the potential for zillions of Cleome seeds. I hope they pop up again next spring.
Here is the Bright Lights Cosmos that I transplanted along with the now dead Cleome. It's still doing okay but it has fallen over. I still just love this attention getting bright color.
My beloved Pink Hedge Roses are still looking awesome! I did notice that the ones down by the gate have some spots on the leaves and way less blooms.
I wanted to include a picture of this purple fountain grass because I still can't believe I only paid a dollar for it. It's bigger than the Spirea now! I'll look for this again next year but I'll make sure to put it toward the back of the bed and give it plenty of room.
Here is my surprise discovery of the day. It actually made me gasp! It's Morning Glory coming over the fence! I did not plant this stuff so I'm guessing it's in my neighbors garden. God Bless those ladies! Finding this has caused me to start thinking of how other people can accidentally enjoy my garden. While thinking of landscaping the front of my house I've also been faced with what to do with the side of the house that faces the morning glory ladies' house. I've always thought there was no need to plant stuff over there because I NEVER have the occasion to be on that side of the house. There is no entry to the back yard from that side, and the only window on that side of the house is the Mr. W's studio which I never go in. But while investigating the surprise Morning Glory, I realized that the morning glory ladies' kitchen window has a horrible view of the side of my house. And then it occurred to me - THAT IS A REASON TO PLANT BEAUTIFUL STUFF THERE! Even if I can't enjoy it on a regular basis, they can! Imagine how happy that should make them for me, the troglodyte neighbor, to plant a beautiful garden just for them to enjoy while they dine or cook in their kitchen! I know what you're thinking, "Gina Rocks!" HA!

Friday Happy Dance Flowers

Every Friday morning one of the local Chicago news stations has a clip of their staff doing the "Friday happy dance." Think Elaine on Sienfeld - I always get a kick out of it. I think some of my flowers are doing the happy dance today!

I still love the pink Cleome with the Zinnia - both are growing strong on this last day of August.


The Clematis Crimson Star finally bloomed! I planted it earlier this summer to grow up the garage trellis. Unfortunately I killed the one on the other side trying to remove a bastard weed that was growing along with it. Pink hedge roses are still blooming!


Are your flowers doing the Friday happy dance?? Happy Friday, my garden blogging buddies!

Moving Plants = Killing Plants

This is my new favorite flower of the week. It's the Cosmos Bright Lights that I grew from seed. Yay me! I love the vibrant orange color. I planted a whole pack of seeds but this is the only one that came up. And now, the bad news...

It turns out that the all the seeds I planted that actually bloomed were very random and what I ended up with is clusters of flowers, taller ones in front of shorter ones and bunches of stuff in some spots while other spots are just bare. This morning I decided to just start moving stuff to spread things out a bit and make it look more balanced. I moved this Cosmos, half of the white Cleome and the Rudbeckia Goldilocks that was being hidden behind the giant Zinna.

The picture above is the Cleome that I left in the same spot and below is the poor section of Cleome that I moved this morning. Somebody call a plant doctor!!I'm guessing this thing will die but I'll keep watering it and hope for the best. The Rudbeckia Goldilocks looks about as bad plus I completely broke one of the two stems on it.

One thing I'm noticing is that I suck at transplanting stuff. All the passalong plants have pretty much died. What am I doing wrong? I don't really have this problem with plants I buy.

Weekend Warriors Project: Build An Ark?

It has been raining for almost 24 hours straight. I'm glad I got a few things done in the garden yesterday morning before it started. I took this picture of the red Pentas before the rain started. This was an impulse buy a while back and they really looked deadish for a while but have rebounded nicely. Seeing them up close like this really is a different perspective. They are the strikingly red.

I love Cleome!! I hope I can figure out how to save the seeds from these white ones above and the pink ones below. They are both way taller than I expected and I screwed up and planted them in from of shorter plants. I'll know better next year.
Blind Buddha - man that Silver Mound really grows fast!

Which way does this Peony go?

Today I went plant shopping since everything is on big time sale. I bought a white Peony from Menard's. It's one of the ones in the box with the sawdust looking stuff. It said to plant as soon as you buy it but, from the looks of the box, this thing is about 10 years old.

So there I am, standing in the middle of the garage garden, looking at this hunk of stuff from the Peony box, trying to figure out what direction it goes. The box said it contains "2 eyes". What the hell is a Peony "eye"? I swear this garden makes me feel more stupid every day. I have no clue if I planted it right. It was very gnarly looking and no part looked like it should go in any particular direction. The entire thing looked very dry and dead. I wish I had taken a picture of it before planting. Regardless, I paid $3.50 for it! I figure, at that price, I'll do cartwheels if it grows and won't be too depressed if it doesn't.


Here's a list of the other stuff I bought and planted...


Silver Mound (i think this stuff is so cool looking and I've been really wanting to buy some.)
Yarrow -
Columbine
Cleome
Snap Dragon


I think I'll make another trip next weekend to see what other bargains I can find.


In other news, I THINK I FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE THE MACRO ON MY CAMERA! This makes me very happy because, not only do other gardening bloggers gardens make me drool, so does their photography. I never knew that bad ass gardeners are often bad ass photographers. When all else fails, there are always tomato blooms.


Cleome