Tag: Ragtag Challenge

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.

Phlowers – Dancing with the Daffodils

On By TimelessladyIn Phlowers11 Comments

The yard is dreary beneath rainy March skies, but the gardens are ablaze with the captured sunshine of daffodils.

I couldn’t leave so many of them to droop beneath the raindrops, so I cut them to create a bouquet to enjoy in the house. A break in the clouds enabled sunshine to pour through the window, backlighting the daffodils perfectly for their portrait.

“Daffodils with sunlit petals all ablaze,
Will ever create in me words of praise.”

Forgive me, my amateur poetical nod to William Wordsworth’s beautiful poem about daffodils. You can find his excellent poem below.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 

By WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770 – 1850)

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

**************************************

Daffodils are a part of Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge.

Definitely the daffodils are my “Whatsoever is Lovely” moment for Xingfu Mama’s Challenge.

The daffodils are definitely the dancers of Springtime. They move to the rain, the wind, and face the sunshine, dwelling in the music of nature.

Perspective & Plants – Updates

On By TimelessladyIn Perspective, Plants2 Comments

I’ve been in a bit of limbo for two months. We had more than half of the interior of the house painted. It began mid-February and ended last Thursday. TOO LONG! I will think very hard before I ever begin major home improvements again. No matter how nice a stranger is, they are a stranger, and I am ashamed to say even an attempt at chit-chat and pleasantries began to grate as the time began to drag on and on. I really began to feel a bit wacky due to my routines being disrupted for so long. The job was well done though, and the walls are bright and clean.

We had a break in the two months of painting and went on vacation in Jamaica. The weather was wonderful. We came home to very cold weather in New Jersey. Brrrr….better now though. It is very warm today.

The praying mantis pods I gathered a few months ago, after spending the winter on the porch, are now velcroed to my rose bushes. I am hoping they will keep the sawfly invasion down this year. I also bought some alyssum seeds to sow. Sixteen packs from the dollar store only cost $4.00. I read alyssum helps keep pests that rise from the ground at bay. I am hoping to have a carpet of alyssum beneath the roses this year. Of course, now that I am searching for a link, I can’t find it again. Bah!

Placing a plastic grid from an old market tray over my pots of bulbs worked great. Pots without the grid were dug through by squirrels all winter long. The grid was a perfect shield and easily removed when the bulbs had sprouted.

I started over 200 seeds indoors this Winter. I always start weeks earlier than the seed packets recommend. If grown with heat mats and under light, the plants do not get leggy, well at least most of them did not get leggy. My biggest surprise, the dahlias. They thrived under the indoor conditions.

I have managed to root the tips of geraniums that had become hopelessly overgrown. I was inspired to try this gain after watching Gardener’s World on Britbox. This has become a favorite and it kept me sane through the weeks of painting.

Plant – Colossal Lily

On By TimelessladyIn Plants4 Comments

Lilies, yes, they are colossal. A perfect fit for the Monday Ragtag Community Challenge. The flowers are eye level to me, and I am of average height. The petals are a blazing yellow-gold with beautiful rust speckles and pretty anthers. They seemed perfect for Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge. My lilies also fit right in with City Sonnet’s Colors and Letters challenge for June 20th, which is the letter L.

I love taking part in challenges, though at times, try as I might I come up dry. Today the creative juices were flowing and the challenges fit what is blooming in my garden. A big thank you to the Ragtag Community, Cee, and CitySonnet for their daily challenges.