Plant Pick of the Month - May

Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) are one of my all time favorites. I quess they are one of my favorites because of story my grandmother told me. When she was little her grandmother had a playhouse that her and her cousins would play in, surrounding this house was Hollyhocks. So they would call thier playhouse Hollywood. I always thought that was such a cute story. I think most of the time we tend to like plants because of memories associated with them. Hollyhocks come in a variety of colors. They can be short lived and sometimes considered a biennial. They can be 4 to 8' tall and 2' wide. Growing in zones 3-7 they like rich, well-drained soil and full sun. They are pretty easy to grow from seed, which I decided to try this year. The same grandmother I mentioned in the story knows how much I love hollyhocks and gave my a couple of plants for mothers day.

A few more pictures

Wedding Flowers

My little cousin got married this last weekend and I was lucky enough to do her flowers for her. Here are some pictures of them, I will have some more to post later.

Beautiful Day

Today was a wonderful day in Boise. The temperature was around 75 degrees. You can't get any better than that. It was a perfect day for us to get out in the yard and get a few things done. Travis mowed the lawn, I cleaned up the garage, and we did BBQ for dinner. If only the temperature would stay this way all summer. When I am huge in August and the temperature is around 104 degrees I will be staying in the air conditioned house and soaking in the pool. Hope everyone else had a great day.

Long time no Post

Well it has been a while since I have posted anything. I am just starting the second trimester of my second pregnancy and have been having a hard time of it. So blogging has been the last thing on my mind. I finished a new painting and have attached pictures for everyone to see. Let me know what everyone thinks.

Plant Pick of the Month-January

Well lets kick of the year with some color. Plant pick for January is going to be Bee Balm, Monarda didyma. Bee Balm can range in color from lilac, pink to red, and white. The flowers come on in early summer and the plant itself gets to be from 3 to 6 feet tall to 2 to 4 feet wide. The like to have part sun to full sun and like a well drained soil . It is one of the best plants for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds. The are fast-growing but watch out that they don't take over. I have used them a few times in some of my designs and never have been disappointed. The flowers themselves are kinda of wild looking, maybe that hold some of the attration to them.

Blue Flowers

Well my younger cousin is getting married soon and recently asked me about blue flowers. Yes there are actullay some flowers in nature that are blue. I found a good site that had a big list of blue flowers. Go to http://www.rose-gardening-made-easy.com/types-of-blue-flowers.html to see some great pictures of some blue flowers. It is true though that some flowers that are called blue are actually a blue purple color, but not true for all of them. I think one of my favorite blue flowers is the Blue Mist Spirea, which I had as my plant pick of the month for September last year.