A Lacy Carrot

I'm referring to the wildflower, Queen Anne's Lace, which I excitedly purchased at my neighborhood garden center last weekend.  Each year I see their QAL display next to their fence so I took a chance and inquired as to whether they had any for sale. Yes!!!! was the answer. So I bought one.

Interestingly enough, this plant is also called Wild Carrot (Daucus carota). It has a long taproot, just like the carrot plant. Introduced from Europe, carrots today were originally cultivated from this plant.


Here are some pictures of the QAL growing at the garden center.  So lovely!

The plants can grow up to four feet tall.  The flowers are tiny and white with a dark, purplish center. And yes, the plants have fruit, which curl inward to build a "bird's nest" shape. That will be interesting to watch for.

A few days after planting. So far, so good!

Well of course I had to know how this flower got its name. Which Queen Anne is it named for:

Is it the FIRST Stuart Queen Anne, who at the age of fourteen became queen to King James?

Or was it the LAST Queen Anne, daughter of William and Mary, and last monarch in the Stuart line?

Legend has it that the queen was tatting using white lace and pricked her finger. The single drop of blood formed the purple center of some of the flowers. 

Rainy Days and Sundays.....

Here it is a gloomy Sunday, with what appears to be an all day rain in store.  I need to do some housework, and in between stops at the computer I am slowly getting some things done inside.

Even my outdoor kitties seem grumpy because of the rain. Doesn't Baby Nanners look peaved?

Dahlia and Jimmie -- "when will the rain stop?"

Time for a new back door mat!

The Biggest Water Bowl Evah!!!!

Baby Nanners getting a drink of water.

It's interesting to watch my cats drink water from the bird bath, when there is a perfectly good water bowl next to their food. Maybe it's because they like to jump, or maybe the water tastes better, or perhaps they secretly hope that a bird will stop by for quick bath while they are drinking.

It's Getting Crowded in Here!

When I planted the alyssum in my strawberry jars, I naturally assumed that the bitter cold of January had killed the strawberry plants that had dried up and virtually disappeared.  So I had the brilliant idea of planting cascading sweet pea seeds in the jars to go along with the alyssum.

Well, all three are fat and happy together in the jars, and although there are no buds yet on the little sweet peas, they are growing among the strawberries and alyssum.  Now if I can just get one bloom before it gets too hot!

The alyssum had me worried when I first planted them; their little root systems practically came right out of the dirt when I transplanted to the strawberry jars.  Thank goodness for the nice cool spring, because they have really been a welcome sight right outside my back door.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

No, I'm not going all philosophical. I'm talking about the sweet plant that my daughter gave me a few years ago.  This woody shrub is kept in a pot on my front porch. It didn't bloom the first year. Last year it bloomed beautifully. This past winter I put it in my greenhouse because of the extreme cold.....I thought for sure it was doomed, even with the protection of the greenhouse. But, it came back!

It gets its name from the variation in colors from lavender, to pale blue, to white as the blossoms mature.  If it wasn't in a pot, it may reach a height of 8 feet, but I honestly don't know where I would put it, so there it will stay. Also known as the morning-noon-night or Brazil raintree, its a member of the nightshade family (Solanacae).

Here it is after a full cycle of blooming. It should rest for a while and then start over again.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms. I hope you have a wonderful day

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

"And honeysuckle loved to crawl up the low crag and ruin'd wall."

This is a quote from Marmion, the epic poem by Sir Walter Scott, about the Battle of Flodden Field (1513).

Isn't it amazing how flowers find their way into great works of literature?  Well, I have two honeysuckle vines, which are crawling all over my picket fence. They love their little spot which gets sun virtually all day.

They started putting out new growth in early March. I have two types of the twining honeysuckle--yellow and red.  The name of the yellow escapes me, but the red is called "Alabama Crimson." They are the non-fragrant kind of honeysuckle, with long tubular flowers.

The foliage turned from a brownish color to bright green within a few weeks.

These plants have totally entwined themelves around my fence. Is the fence holding them up, or are they holding up the fence?

"Alabama Crimson"

View from my neighbor's yard.