A Passion for Purple

I have a fondness for alliteration, so originally I was going to title this post simply "Purple Passion" until I realized someone might reach this blog by googling and expect something quite different. Just in case there is still some confusion, this post is about purple flowers.


Last week I did a post about the surprising number of yellow flowers in my garden this year, but as I said then, pink and purple make up the main color scheme here. When I started gardening in earnest, I thought purple would make a nice complement to the coneflowers (which, of course, aren't really purple, but pink) and other pink blooms. Looking through garden catalogs and nursery websites, I was amazed by the number of plants which do have purple blooms. I have just a few purple perennials, but their size makes up for their small numbers.


If you have a little time, let's take a stroll around my garden and yard to look for signs of purple. But we'll make it quick--it's been typical July weather in Illinois this week, which means hot and muggy, and it's threatening rain at the moment. Please ignore any weeds that might peek through; the weather has made me a bit lethargic this week.

I included a photo of this Russian Sage on my bloom day post, but here's a larger view of it. This is at the back of my main flowerbed, which is where it should be, as it's threatening to engulf the Knockout roses in front of it. The sage makes a nice backdrop for purple coneflowers; you can see a few peeking through here, which are actually at the front of the flowerbed.

I read somewhere that bees are attracted to purple; that's certainly the case in my garden. The Russian Sage has been attracting all kind of honeybees, or some type of bee that looks like a honeybee. The bumblebees, however, seem to prefer this Walker's Low Nepeta.




This plant is only a year old and has grown to gigantic proportions this year. I'm not sure what I did right. The May Night salvia below is not in full bloom right now, so I had to struggle to capture this lonely little purple bloom. Unfortunately, in the sun the true color doesn't show up--it's actually a much darker purple. I also have two East Friesland salvia; these three plants are by far the bumblebees' favorite haunts. I haven't deadheaded these plants all summer, which probably accounts for the lack of purple blooms right now.

Even in the shade garden, there a few touches of purple, even though I didn't plan this. The hostas have shot up blooms this past week, including these lavender beauties. Some people have said they don't care for hosta blooms, but I like them. To me, they're an added bonus, a surprise, during the long, hot days of July.

I know everyone plants heuchera for their foliage, but I like their blooms as well. I'm stretching the purple idea a bit with this photo, but the foliage is much darker than it appears here, and the stems of the blooms are definitely purple. Besides, it's called "Plum Pudding," so I think that qualifies as purple.

Purple is such a dramatic color that it is surprising how well it goes with other colors. Besides pink, it also looks good paired with yellow. The sun really washed out this photo below because the verbena next to the yellow coreopsis is actually a much darker hue. This is an annual, "Purple Homestead," but I wonder if it might survive as a perennial in a southern garden.

Purple also pairs well with blue and even red. However, I just realized that I don't have any red in my garden other than the Knockout roses, which prefer not to be photographed at the moment. That's too bad; that's a color combination that appeals to me . . ."I will wear purple with a red hat . . ." Hmm, there's an idea for another flowerbed.

Moving on to my containers, the pink and purple theme continues. I've shown you this accent plant before--the purple-leaved Persian Shield.

And another favorite, heliotrope...

Purple comes in so many shades--try matching an accessory to a new purple sweater--from the delicate pastels of lavender and lilac to bright violets to the richness of dark purple. You can really see this in the different petunias growing in pots around my garden. There is the double dark blue supertunia growing in the porch planter, which is actually a medium shade of purple.

For a true dark purple, though, check out this "Royal Velvet" supertunia. Again, the sun is making it appear lighter than it really is, but it contrasts beautifully against the frothy "Diamond Frost" euphorbia in this planter.

But here is one of my favorites--the supertunia "Priscilla," a variegated double petunia that shows the varying shades of purple.

The best purple accent in my garden, though, is one I've shown you before, but only as a baby. The "Victoria Blue" salvia has just started to bloom. This is truly my favorite annual, and I have it scattered in many places--behind Stella d'Oro daylilies, in front of the coneflowers in my roadside garden, and here tucked in behind the rocks fronted with the coreopsis and verbena pictured above. I even stuck a few leftover Victorias in planters this year. We'll check on these in a couple weeks again so I can show you just why I like them so much.

Oh dear, it's really starting to rain now, and we didn't even see the Roxanne geranium blooming. Well, that will have to wait for another day. But do you mind if we grab an umbrella? I'd really like to show you a few more things other than my purple plants before we leave.

I didn't get to show these pictures of a couple daylilies for Bloom Day because I was too focused on my coneflowers. These are both passalong plants from my aunt who also gave me my irises, so I don't know their names. Like the irises, these lilies did not bloom last year, and I really thought they were goners. But they have been a pleasant surprise this summer.

Now that I know how beautiful they are, I'd really like to move them to a more prominent place to show them off. I'm worried, though, a move might cause them to wait another two years to bloom. What's your advice?

Well, here's another surprise! Where did this caladium come from all of a sudden? Apparently the bulbs I planted in late May weren't all drowned out after all. This is the only one I see, though.

The sun is peeking out again, and here's a little butterfly hiding out in a sweet potato vine.

He won't unfurl his wings so we can identify him. Could it be a monarch? I saw my first Monarch butterfly arrive on my coneflowers yesterday, so maybe if you come back next week we'll be able to see a real butterfly show.

I know it's time for you to go. Thanks for spending some time with me viewing my purple "majesties." I hope you didn't get too wet!

GB Bloom Day: The Common Coneflower Takes Center Stage

A convocation
Of coneflowers thrust skyward
Calling bees to feast

With all the rain we have had recently, there are blooms “busting out all over” here in the Heartland. The star of the show this time of year, though, is the purple coneflower, and I wanted to give her center stage today.

When I started my first small perennial flowerbed 6 or 7 years ago, the one flower I knew I wanted to plant was the purple coneflower. I had seen them in gardens all around the area and thought they were “pretty.” In my near-total state of ignorance about flower gardening, I didn’t realize what an excellent choice I had made. I didn’t know that they were native to this area and that they attracted bees and butterflies.

The coneflowers have never failed me, and I’ve grown to love them more each year. They are definitely my favorite perennial.

In the past month Gail at Clay and Limestone has written a few posts about the purple coneflower. In an early one she identified a native species called Echinacea Tennesseensis. This intrigued me; if Tennessee has its own coneflower, then surely Illinois has its own, too! I did a little research and found that, sadly, Illinois does not have a species named after it, so the Tennesseans have their own claim to fame. But I did find some other interesting information about the plant in Illinois.

I found a very informative website about the Illinois prairie written by a botanist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, which is located near me. “The Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois,” written by Ken Robertson, is an excellent resource for information about the prairie habitat, including indigenous plants. He identifies two major species of the coneflower native to Illinois: Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea pallida. The purpurea is the common coneflower that most of us grow. According to Robertson, it is not a prairie plant, but rather is “found mostly in savannas and along the edges of woods.” The pallida, or “pale coneflower,” is a native found mainly in southern Illinois. The photos he included of the pallida look somewhat like this one in my garden, although this one is actually just a young Echinacea purpurea. Check out his site for photos of the real thing.

Little of the original prairie still exists in Illinois. Because of the rich soil in our area, the “Grand Prairie,” most of the soil has been converted to agricultural uses. However, there are still a few remnants of original prairie left, and Robertson includes sites where one can see the original landscape of this area. Not surprisingly, many of them are located in cemeteries. He also lists sites that have developed Prairie Restoration projects, including the Chicago Botanic Garden, Morton Arboretum, and Meadowbrook Park, a popular park not far from where I live. I had hoped to visit one of the cemeteries to get a photo for this post, but time and gas prices kept me from going.

My great-great-grandparents settled in this area in the 1870’s, buying land (for $2 an acre!) that had never been tilled. I wonder if they saw any seas of coneflowers when they arrived.

Besides its lovely, long-lasting blooms, the Echinacea is drought-resistant, will grow in many different soil types, and has few disease or insect problems. What is there not to like about this plant?!

The center globes attract butterflies . . .

...and bees are drawn to them as well.

In the winter the seed cones attract birds in search of food. ( This does bring up a question: what do you do when the flower has stopped blooming and the stems begin to dry up? I have left mine to stand all winter, but for aesthetic purposes, I wish I could break them off as soon as they have dried up. I would love to hear your comments on this.) And, of course, they do self-seed sometimes. I showed a photo of all my echinacea seedlings in a post earlier this spring; I must have had a couple dozen little babies. I transplanted some, pulled others, and left a few to fend for themselves. They're pretty tough plants.

There are many new varieties of the coneflower, including those in the “Big Sky” series, and I do hope to plant a few of those soon. But they are definitely pricier than the common Echinacea purpurea, and have not proven to be as hardy.

Anthony Kahtz, author of Perennials for Midwestern Gardens, suggests planting coneflowers with companions like Russian sage, liatris, or daylilies. I have Russian sage near one stand of coneflower; it’s definitely a bee magnet,too.

I do have many other blooms in my garden right now, including some surprise daylilies and my poor knockout roses struggling to survive the Japanese beetle attacks, but I think I’ll save them for another post. I don’t want anything to take attention away from today’s star.

“If you are a new gardener or just want a plant that is reliable, purple coneflower will leave you feeling like an expert.” ( Kahtz ) Ah, no wonder I like them!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is sponsored on the 15th of each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Visit her to see other posts today.

Beware of Menopausal Woman

Thursday was just one of those days. I definitely had the blues. By the evening I was in a full-blown ready to cry, don’t talk to me, don’t want to do anything meltdown. Why? Who knows—certainly nothing major or tragic happened to me that day, and I feel like a whiner even bringing it up.

You would think I would have been in a good mood; I’d just spent several hours with Beckie including some shopping for plant bargains. But apparently it wasn’t enough. Just a combination of little things added up –my computer was acting up all day Wednesday just when I had a free afternoon to work on a photo project for my parents’ anniversary coming up soon. There were some financial paperwork issues to deal with. A minor family squabble. The Japanese beetles were eating my roses and hollyhocks faster than I could catch the little #@!*. The weeds were taking over my vegetable garden, and it was too darned hot during the day and too mosquito-infested at night to work in it. My son and daughter-in-law asked me to go with them to Disney World—fun, huh? It should be, except I worried I would wind up being the full-time babysitter, plus I didn’t think I could take a whole week off at that time. Then I felt guilty for turning them down.

I told you I was whining! But probably the worst thing of all was that I ran out of my HRT meds, and my prescription apparently got lost. So for three days I warned my family that they’d better watch out—they were living with a severely estrogen-deprived (depraved??) woman!

Whatever the reason (and I’m betting on the lack of estrogen), Thursday night was a bust, and I couldn’t even bring myself to reading blogs. That tells you how bad things were!

I tried various forms of therapy Thursday night to get over it. Sleep didn’t come, so I finally started going through the family pictures for my project. This is one of my favorite childhood pictures of my Dad reading me a story.

I tried my favorite form of therapy. . . chocolate.

These Hershey’s dark chocolate nuggets with truffle filling are to die for! Each piece has only 50 calories, but of course, my mood required a several-hundred-calorie dose. Finally, I thought sleep might come, so I watched an old episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” and finally drifted off to sleep.

Friday morning was a little better; at least I had the desire once again to read some blogs, and that always cheers me up. I went outside with my coffee and found the hated Japanese beetles. Not having a jug of soapy water handy, I tried an alternate eradication method. Grabbing them and throwing them quickly to the ground, then stomping on the little buggers works quite well, I've discovered. I decided, too, some little accomplishment would help, so I planted a bleeding heart and some coleus that I had purchased the day before.

Beckie and I vowed on Thursday we would buy no more plants this year . . .then amended that to “no more annuals this year.” Ok, that should work, especially since we spent part of our lunch time drooling over the spring bulbs in a new catalog.

While I was planting, a baby toad hopped away from his nearby hiding place. Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me, but he did give me a few words of encouragement, and I felt so much better.

I had my yearly physical scheduled for Friday, as well, and I wasn’t looking forward to that. The doctor didn’t give me a lecture about my weight, thank goodness; I’m sure the extra 10 pounds I’ve put on since last year is just water weight from all the water I’ve been drinking. All in all, I’m in pretty good shape she said.

With a clean bill of health and fresh hormones now flowing through my bloodstream, I was definitely in a better mood. I ran a few errands and bought a chocolate milkshake as a treat for being such a good girl at the doctor’s. (And I wonder where those ten pounds came from!) My final stop was at the bookstore, a favorite shopping haunt, where I purchased a new book.

I don’t buy many gardening books, but this one was featured in our local paper last week and looked very helpful. I’ll write a review of it for you when I’ve finished reading it.

By the time I got home, life was looking much brighter. I reminded myself of the people starving in the world, those whose homes and fields have been flooded out this summer, the soldiers in Iraq, and those who have lost loved ones recently. I scolded myself for letting little things get to me: “Chin up, Rose!”

Thanks for putting up with my pitiful venting.

Life is good once again.

ABC Wednesday: Y is for Yellow

Yellow has never been one of my favorite colors. Until I was forty, I don't think I owned an article of yellow clothing. Tastes change, though, and now I have several yellow shirts and blouses, but that may be because yellow brightens rather--ahem--tired-looking skin and hair.

I'm the same way in the garden. Pink and purple are my preferred colors--so peaceful and soothing. But yellow flowers have been slowly creeping into the garden, and not just as an accent.

There are the borders of bright orangey-yellow Stella d'Oro daylilies, of course. But I planted them primarily for their foliage, low maintenance, and rapid growth, not their bright blossoms. I actually prefer this more lemony yellow of a stray/mutant daylily in the clump of Stellas.

The delicate flowers of a "Moonbeam" coreopsis add a splash of lemon yellow to a grouping of boulders near the driveway.

This year, though, I went much brighter in my roadside flower bed. When I saw these "Oranges and Lemons" ("Say the bells of St. Clement's") gaillardia in a catalog, I was smitten by them and created a new space just for them. The florets are a brighter orange than they appear here, but they have yellow tips with yellow centers.

Yellow has even crept into my containers. Lantana has become a new favorite accent plant of mine. Its delicate flowers belie its tough nature--it is one annual that thrives in the heat and humidity of an Illinois summer.

There's nothing subtle about this yellow! The plumes of celosia add a vertical element here in two containers of "hot" colors--orange and yellow.

Yellow can be soothing, too, as seen in these pale yellow supertunias.

Or in these Fusion impatiens.

There are also some yellow superbells (calibrachoa) in this container, but they didn't want to cooperate with me by blooming today. Neither did the yellow gazanias in another container. But my favorite annual purchase this year was more than willing to pose for a photo:

A begonia called simply "Illumination." When I saw this beauty in a local plant center, I knew I had to have it. It has bloomed consistently since the day I bought it six weeks ago. This is one tag I am definitely going to save, so that I can buy it again next year. Or, if someone can tell me how to propagate it to save it over the winter, I would love to know how.

Yellow is the color of sunshine and happiness. It makes my garden smile.

For more ABC Wednesday posts, go to Mrs. Nesbitts Place.

The Element of Surprise

My roadside flowerbed at the very front of our yard is the most neglected of all my garden areas. You would think I would spend more time here, making sure it is weed-free and neatly trimmed since this is the one flowerbed that many people see as they drive by. But here's the problem: according to my pedometer, the lane to our house is 1/8 of a mile long. In the morning when the sun is already high in the sky by 8 AM and the air is thick with humidity, the thought of walking a quarter of a mile with my basket of gardening tools to work in the hot sun doesn't sound very appealing. I think to myself, "This evening would be a much better time to work." Of course, when evening rolls around, all too often I am too tired to do much of anything.

You can understand then why one day, as I drove out of the lane on an errand, I was so surprised to see this. A rogue lily in the middle of all my Stellas!

I have no idea what type of lily this is; it blooms much like other hemerocallis, but it is much taller than the Stellas and is a reddish brown in color. Where could it have come from? This is not a case of Beckie's DIPT ("Did I Plant This?") nor could a bird have scattered a random seed. I've finally concluded that what must have happened is that this plant was mistakenly put in a six-pack of small Stellas that my son gave me two years ago.

The more I think about it, I vaguely remember seeing this last year, but it was much smaller then and I promptly forgot about it. This year I'm going to mark its spot and transplant it to a different area.

Seeing the lily prompted me to look around my flowerbeds more carefully. Sure enough, there were other surprises awaiting me. In the main bed next to the house, I had been watching the coneflower buds for a few weeks. This one showed a lot of promise for the next Garden Bloom Day. I had never noticed before the striking way in which a coneflower develops its petals. It looks like a starburst, doesn't it?

But while these coneflowers were still in the pre-blossom stages, I was surprised again to see that the coneflowers in the roadside bed were already in full bloom. They're both the same variety and both in full sun; I wonder why the difference in bloom time?

Strolling around the shade garden, I wasn't too surprised to see these pink hydrangea blooms. As I said on my "green" post last week, I never think to add some acidic fertilizer to them until after they've started blooming. I prefer blue blooms, but frankly, I'm just glad they're blooming at all.

But here's the real surprise--a baby fern. I know this wasn't here a few days ago; it must have been hiding underneath the Japanese painted fern next to it. I had ordered some inexpensive bare-root ferns from a mail-order company last fall--the kind that look like dirt with some roots--but none of them appeared this spring. I even asked for replacements--looks like I should have been a little more patient.

Moving to the back yard, I was surprised to see the Shasta daisy, "Becky," that I had planted in a pet memorial already had one bloom. I've never had much luck with daisies before, even though they are supposed to thrive in this area, but this one looks as if it is going to do well.

As I've mentioned before, yarrow is something I don't have a problem growing. But sometimes it can be a little finicky about being transplanted. I had to thin out the area where the yarrow originally was and plopped this division in an uncultivated area in the back yard. Last week it looked as though it wasn't going to make it, but now it's covered with blooms! Maybe it will spread and choke out some of the weeds nearby.

While I was in the back yard, I looked up to see the old apple trees loaded with small green apples. We don't do anything to these trees, and last year they didn't produce much fruit. It looks like this year will be a bumper crop, however.

Other than the green beans, my small vegetable garden is doing well, too. I haven't had any luck with summer squash the last two years, but I found this yellow blossom hiding under the leaves.

Now I'm regretting not planting zucchini as well. My family, though, said they needed a break after the bumper crop I had two years ago, when we had zucchini disguised in some form at nearly every meal.

No, these are not space aliens that landed on my front porch to surprise me--they're kohlrabi. If you're not familiar with kohlrabi, they are similar in taste to turnips. Neither of those vegetables appeal to me, but my husband has asked for these every year I've had a vegetable garden. So when I saw a four-pack of kohlrabi while shopping for tomato plants, I picked them up. Husband likes to eat them raw, somewhat like an apple, but he decided after the first two he ate that they needed to get a little bigger. I pulled these two up last night and asked him, "Are these big enough??" Of course, they're like radishes--the bigger they are, the stronger the flavor. He ate part of one today to avoid any more sarcastic comments from me.

The back yard is also where the hollyhocks grow freely. These are not surprise plants at all. Some of you may remember my post about planting some passalongs from my mother this spring. What surprised me at the time were all the comments I received about these hollyhocks. They are all heirloom, single-blossom plants: the transplants originating from my grandmother's plants, and the others planted by my husband's grandfather. This year the tall ones are obviously the originals on the farm, but in time the passalongs may catch up to them.

My mother had no idea what color the ones she gave me would be, and some of those are not blooming yet. But so far all the plants are pink or dark pink, like this one that is about 7 feet tall.

There are also a few shorter ones that are a deep dark red. I'm hoping there might be a white hollyhock in the plants yet to bloom.

Little surprises like these are one of the joys of gardening. Walking around the garden each day, you never know what you might find. Of course, there can be unpleasant surprises as well. In my new-found eagerness to take some good photos of bees, I noticed some flying around my shrubs. Quickly retrieving my camera, I moved in for a closer shot. They weren't bees...

Aack!! The Japanese beetles had arrived! The innocent might look at this photo and think what beautiful insects, but the rest of us know this regal-looking iridescent body hides a destructive devil! This is the only time of year I don't envy those of you with beautiful rose gardens.

One final, and much more pleasant, surprise: last weekend a neighbor we seldom see stopped in and asked if I'd like some cherries from his trees. I picked a couple quarts and while I was pitting them, images of cherry pie kept floating through my mind. Since I never did make that strawberry pie a few weeks ago, I decided this time I would follow through. I haven't baked a pie in probably 5 years, and now I remember why--it takes so long! But the end result was worth it--it wouldn't have won a blue ribbon for appearance, but it was delicious.

I think my roadside garden might get more attention now. . . I'm going to have to visit it several times a day to walk off all the pie I've eaten!

Post Script: After reading the first few paragraphs of this last night, I thought how lazy I sound! So I stopped writing and went down to weed that flowerbed. Good thing, too: it's storming here this morning with a predicted rainfall of 3-5 inches. I hope some of this rain is reaching those of you who really need it.

Later this afternoon...

This is an addition to my post of this morning (despite the time Blogger says) in response to Cheryl, a good UK friend who asked about Japanese beetles. I went out to try to get rid of some this afternoon and took a few pictures to show her the destruction these creatures cause. There are different suggestions for getting rid of Japanese beetles, but none of them work very well and some are harmful to other insects. The best method is to simply shake them off the leaves into a can of soapy water or other liquid. They can fly, so you have to be quick!

I simply couldn't get a good picture of the rose leaves--my hands must have been shaking in fury--but you can see that they turn the leaves into confetti and destroy the budding roses. There were dozens on this one plant alone.

And for Joyce, who lives just a few miles away, I have to make a big retraction! She was complaining that the beetles attack her hollyhocks, and I smugly replied they didn't bother mine. Wrong!!

When I went to check the hollyhocks, there they were. I don't even want to think about what they were doing here.

You can also see the disgusting trail they leave behind, in addition to destroying the plant. By the way, Joyce, if you are still hanging out clothes on the line, be careful--they like to land on clothes and leave little mementos that are next to impossible to get out!

I also saw some beetles on a poison ivy plant I've been trying to get rid of. For obvious reasons, I didn't want to touch the plant, so I left them alone. Who knows--either they'll get rid of the poison ivy for me, or they'll die from the Round-up residue I sprayed on the plant.

Cheryl, and all my UK friends, be thankful you don't have these awful imports!

"Sharing the Love"

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!

(No, this is not my photo--I downloaded it from Google images.) We had a quiet day yesterday, although we did have a cookout with my sons and family, which we enjoyed very much--all five grandkids running around and having a good time. Second Son and his wife invited me to go with them to the fireworks afterwards, but frankly, I was too tired and spent the rest of the evening watching a great Cubs game. Husband and I are becoming couch potatoes, I'm afraid.

Last week I received an award from my Welsh friend Liz at Finding Life Hard. Before I explain the award, I just wanted to share a few of my feelings about awards in general. A few months ago I received an "E" award, and I felt a little sheepish accepting it. My blog was new, my photography is not the greatest, and, as I've freely admitted, I am no expert on gardening. Then I felt even more humbled when I tried to pass it on to others, as I realized that most of the blogs I read had already received it! Does the fact that nearly everyone else is recognized as a special blog make the award meaningless?

This time, though, I thought more about the meaning of this award and had a revelation. These are not the Pulitzers or the Academy Awards or any other award where there is only one "winner." That is not the intent of most of the blogging awards you'll see on most people's sidebars. Granted, there are probably a few--the Mouse and Trowel awards come to mind--where people actually vote and choose the best blog, the best post, and so on. But most of the other awards are a way of honoring people whose blogs we enjoy for one reason or another and who often we consider to be good blogging friends. They are a way of saying, "I always enjoy reading your blog, and I appreciate your coming to visit me and sharing your thoughts on what I have written." Looking at it from this perspective, I realized it doesn't matter how many people receive a particular "award," because a person can never have too many friends.

I don't remember how I stumbled upon Liz' blog, but I do remember I was taken in by her photos and stories of George, her Golden Retriever puppy, whose antics reminded me of dogs I've had (and have). She writes witty posts about all kinds of things, including just recently problems all women "of a certain age" can relate to, like mustache-lightening cream and anti-aging creams. But there's a serious side to Liz, too, when she writes about the plight of the elderly or the homeless. I have certainly enjoyed getting to know her and feel honored to have been included in her choices for this award.

This award was created by Crystal at Memoirs of a Mommy in honor of the heart donor who saved the life of Crystal's young son Noah. (After reading Noah's story, I made a mental note to make sure my organ donor card is up to date.)

Crystal says: The rules of this award are: SHARE THE LOVE!!! Share this award with all those blogs out there that you love. All the people who make you smile. All those that make you laugh. All those that make your day. All those that leave uplifting comments on your blog. **All I ask, is that you include a link to this post with the award and ask your recipient to do the same**

It's difficult to narrow down my choices to five when there are so many wonderful blogs I like to read, but I've finally decided on the following five, in no particular order:

1. Beckie of Dragonfly Corner. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that Beckie and I are more than blogging friends. We have been lifelong friends who have shared many ups and downs in life. Beckie is a great friend who will always give you a shoulder to cry on, listen to your venting without judgment, or laugh with you at life's little misadventures. Her blog shares scenes from her own garden and from her family life as well as some of the gardening adventures we've shared the last few months.

2. Lisa at Greenbow. Lisa's was the first blog I ever read, so Lisa, I blame you for this addiction! (Lisa has a good sense of humor, so I know she understands I'm only kidding...) Lisa is an avid birdwatcher and shows many photos of birds, including some unusual sightings, as well as scenes from her garden.

3. Cheryl at My Wildlife Sanctuary. Cheryl was my first UK blogging friend, and I feel as if I've known her for ages. Her blog title says it all: Cheryl has created a haven for wildlife in her back yard and shares her love of all of nature, particularly the bees, through her photographs and thoughtful narrative.


4. Gail at Clay and Limestone. Gail shares her vast knowledge of gardening, particularly native wildflowers, in an interesting and informative way. I think Gail should win an award for blogging etiquette: she faithfully replies to every comment on her post and leaves encouraging and helpful comments on all the other blogs she reads.

5. Mary at Mary's View. Mary writes about many topics, including the "Licker Sisters," but her main passion is for the birds who are pictured so beautifully on her blog. I know many of you are regular readers of Mary's posts and share my appreciation of her sense of humor. If you have read her last post, you also know that Mary and her family could use some extra love and prayers right now.


Ladies, thank you for making me smile and sharing your thoughts with me. Now it is your turn to do as you wish with this award: share it with 5 other bloggers who make your day, simply display your award, or quietly accept it without any fanfare.


And a final, personal note--another blogger I would have honored with this award, had she not already received it, is "Suburbia" from Moments from Suburbia. She writes about her everyday life in a usually funny, sometimes poignant way. Suburbia, since I have no other way of getting this to you, I wanted to share this ad I ran across the other day in a magazine with you. It's not an award, but the moment I saw it, I thought of you. Apparently, you have to come to Illinois to escape from the suburbs (but we have them, too!).

Wishing everyone a wonderful rest of the weekend. Back to the garden next week!