Tag: plants

Phlowers – Echinacea

On By TimelessladyIn Phlowers4 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this week is a Single Flower. I chose this beautiful white Echinacea that grows in full sun near my patio. The identity of the seed source is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Since I planted the seeds indoors sometime in Spring of 2022, it took two years for the plant to flower outside. As soon as I finish writing this post, I will follow the link to Baker Creek and purchase another packet. I plan to start the echinacea seeds now, in late summer, and grow them to blooming size by Spring.

I had many unusual colors grow from this variety: peach, deep coral, the typical pink, and this white flower. If you love the sturdy stems and reliable bloom of Echinacea plants, try growing this unique mixture.

Echinacea Paradiso Mix

Paradiso Echinacea loaded down with blooms in late July.

(Later) I did purchase the seeds and they are already shipped. At this slower time of the growing season Baker Creek Seed company is very fast with order fulfillment. Baker Creek is definitely in the upper echelon of best heirloom seed companies.

The Farmer’s Almanac has an excellent article on how to grow echinacea.

Plant & Perspective – Milkweed Fluff & My Year of the Dandelion

On By TimelessladyIn Perspective, Plants6 Comments

One of my first memories of outdoor fun is chasing fairy wishes. I associate my parents and Mom’s cousin, whom I called Aunt Norma, with my first recollection of fairy wishes. The premise behind catching one was the fulfillment of a wish. Upon capturing the wish in your hand, you whispered your hope or dream, and then, and this was important, you had to let it go again.

The beautiful fairy wishes in the photograph were captured as they unfurled from a milkweed pod in my back garden. Anyone, who has read my blog for any length of time, knows I am a bit obsessed with helping butterflies thrive in my garden. I grow common milkweed as a host plant for Monarchs, fennel, dill, parsley, and rue for Black Swallowtails.

My prayer is that God helps me ride the winds of the written word, just like a milkweed wish, to spread the Good News of Salvation and His Love far and wide.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:6

Plants and Photo Challenge – Cosmic Photo Challenge/What’s Flowering

On By TimelessladyIn photo challenges, Plants14 Comments

The beautiful moss spores are my choice for The Cosmic Photo Challenge/What’s Flowering Where You Are? Before the recent snowstorm, I grabbed my camera and took a woodland walk. I was amazed at the vivid green of the mosses and lichens. In places where the sun shone through the branches, I noticed some of the mosses had already sent up spore capsules. I’m going to stretch and say these are a type of bloom.

If I had to rate these moss spores for beauty between 1-10, they would receive a 10+ from me.

Skunk cabbage has also emerged in the dead of winter. Here are some of the ‘knobs’ before the snow covered them. I read an amazing fact on the PFEIFFER NATURE CENTER site: some skunk cabbage plants can be over 100 years old. Wow, I will feel a bit more awe over them when I take my next woods walk.

Next time when I become a bit winter-worn and weary over the cold weather, I’ll remind myself of those skunk cabbages never giving up.

As always, lichen on fallen branches are a welcome touch of green.

Whatsoever is Lovely? Definitely the small and delicate bits of green I found in the woods. I wish I could have a large garden plot filled with mosses and lichens in the winter.

Phavorite – Coleus/Raspberry Swizzle

On By TimelessladyIn Phavorites1 Comment

035

I am a believer in pinching the tips of my coleus to facilitate a bushier plant. Yet, about mid-August I stop my constant nipping of the leaves. Why, you may ask. The reason is at this point I let my plants begin to bloom. Although coleus blooms are not very attractive, I covet the new crop of seeds they will leave behind. I’ve named the coleus above Raspberry Swizzle. I’ve grown it for years, first from a seed collected from my plants, and afterwards from cuttings I take every winter from the plants I’ve saved. Allowing my coleus cross-pollinate for years has resulted in some interesting plants. Tomorrow I’ll post a selection of my favorites of this year.

Peace – The Cardinal

On By TimelessladyIn PeaceLeave a comment

cardinal 001

On a gorgeous sunny morning last week I noticed there was a nest in my vitex tree. Can you see the lady cardinal incubating her eggs? What is it about a nest that fills our hearts with joy? Perhaps it is the promise of new life waiting to burst out into the world.  For me, it is also a reminder of how very much the Lord God loves us all.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Matthew 6:25-34

I’ve included a link to information on Cardinal egg incubation. I think I can expect to hear the peeping of babies next week. Cardinal Incubation Period and Hatching

Cardinal 007