Pinks or Dianthus

Years ago, a friend of mine offered me a start off of her pinks, and of course, with me being the flower lover that I am, I said I'd take it.When I stopped by her home that evening to get the flower starts,I was shocked to see that she had a bushel basket full of the flowers for me. When I got home with the flowers, I dumped the basket out, with the intention of planting them,and you will not believe the flowers that were in that basket. They were rolled up like a roll of carpet,and packed tightly in the basket.If I had planted them in a row, in tact, the way they were, I would have had a 25 foot row.I  never dreamed of getting that many flower starts.It took me awhile, but I divided the flowers,gave several away to other friends, and planted the rest around the yard in different locations.That has been nearly 20 years or so ago, so with all the digging,transplanting,and rearranging I have done in my flower beds ,not to mention transplanting over the top of things,they have decreased in number quite a bit, but a few have survived.They are a hardy plant, but they prefer to be left alone to their own devices,and then they will fill out and make a wonderful ground cover,but that has not happened in my yard.

Morning Glory

I,like Nancy, of A Rural Journal,planted these from a seed packet. I have morning glories galore, coming up from the soil everywhere, but they are the common weed type morning glory, that we spend so much time in the garden,chopping down. I suppose they would do as well if I put them in a good rich spot and poured the fertilizer to them, but the ones you buy in a packet are so big and beautiful, I simply could not resist purchasing a pack.I struggle ever since, to pull the enormous vines down before they go to seed. Just this year, I wrote a post on my main blog about thinking they surely must be a cousin to Kudzu.The blooms are large and brightly colored which is great. They make a beautiful display each year, but get rid of the vines as quickly as possible, before they go to seed. Either that, or be ready to pull,pull,pull, young seedlings in the spring. If not, they will engulf you entire home with vines.(a slight exaggeration,but close)You may be like me, and need to learn the hard way.

They would make a great privacy fence, if they have something to climb on.Now that's a thought.I may take the pile of vines,which I had planned to burn, to my property line and hope for the best.I'll bet the neighbor  will be spraying his fence row with Round Up,next season,unless the cows eat morning glories.I'll check to see if they are harmful to animals first. I know some plants are.

Snow on the Mountain

I don't grow a lot of this flower, and I think the reason being, it is not a very pretty flower in my opinion, until it blooms. It sits there all summer, looking like a weed, then when the Fall season begins, if it survives the weed pullings,there it is, in full bloom and worth every minute of the time it took to get to that point.I need to plan better, where I pitch the seed each year, and possibly it would be a more welcome addition to my flower beds. I will work on that this year, as it goes to seed.

Moon Flower

The Moon Flower is fascinating to watch as it unfolds it's big trumpet like blooms each evening around 8 or 9 o'clock, and it does emit a lovely fragrance. I have had this flower for a short time before, but lost it when the house burned in 2007. Shortly after that, I got another start from a past co-worker who has swapped flowers with me for now onto 40 years. I brought the starter plant home and have been fascinated with it ever since.I have and will share it with any and everyone who'd care to have a start.Just be fore-warned. It is one of those flowers that will take over,not only the flower bed, but your yard.It get huge, and has a gazillion seed pods.And the seed pods are enormous and very prickly.Even when they are young and green, they can hurt you.I use heavy leather type gloves when I work with the plant in the late summer, removing it completely. If not, you won't need grass. It will grow so many plants from the seeds,it will smother out your grass.I have pitched a few of the seed pods around when I don't want grass to grow,so we'll see how that plan goes next season. I may be sorry for spreading the seeds even there.

Hibiscus

One day this summer,when we visited the Amish Produce Auction, they had a cart of these lovely Hibiscus flowers. On the cart were two beautiful Red Hibiscus, which I did not have, so of course, I wanted one.In order to get the red ones though, I had to take the entire cart. There were six pink and two red Hibiscus on this particular cart.I liked the pink, but it was so similar some I already had,it was not my main interest at this time.My goal was to bid until I got the entire cart,no matter how much.Pop was agreeable to that, this one time.To my surprise, I got the bid at $2. per plant. Even the auctioneer knew that was a steal. He said he hated to see them go so cheap, but no one else was bidding against me, so I got the cart of 8 hibiscus.I kept four and gave the other four to my step daughter.Now that was a real deal.