Pretty babies @MochaJoe Can we lure you into joining our swap

@ishareflowers - Thank you for the reminder ID on the Great Blue Lobelia. It seemed like a friend I should know. He used to live in our yard (likely descending from your seeds); but he left me for lack of watering If I try again, I'll give him a spot in a rain garden.

Here's a favorite: Pelargonium endlicherianum. Anyone else have any luck with this one lately? I have them scattered around the front and back yard. This year I discovered the one that's outside our font door is an "attractive nuisance." Dunno if the perp was trying to pick it or pull it, but what a sad scene I found when I came home for lunch that day


Cosmis bipinnatus - They're such generous souls. I love adding new genes to the mix and seeing what pops up in the following years.


Here's Alana's 'Grey Witch,' just opening up.


And @janinilulu here are your Asclepias fascicularis. Are yours a mix of green-tinged and pink-tinged blossoms, too? These survived a close encounter with an excavator last February (2019). I caught some seeds this fall but haven't cleaned them yet.


Lastly, this was laid out with the feast at our friend's garden party. She and her DH are geology enthusiasts, and this delectable-looking tidbit is none other than a rock

MrsBinWY said:Any guesses?

It looks like some kind of meat that's been smoked. Similar to the pastrami I just cooked but that looks more like some kind of chopped meat...

Lovely flowers.

Michele,
That reminds me of something called "souse" meat that my great grandfather had sometimes. Not sure how you spell it. I thought it was something uniquely Scottish.

Michelle, it looks.like a cold cut that my grandparents buses to make...maybe a salami?

Yep. I was fooled, too; but I stopped short of trying a taste. I really enjoy the couple's sense of garden-art humor, and I'm glad not to have broken a tooth over it

Michelle, what is it?

I'm sorry Lisa. It's a rock It's part of our friends' yard/garden art.

It does look quite delicious. How did they cut it so nice...

Michelle, I just went to look again. I didn't even see where you wrote it was a rock.😂

Hehehe! I wish I knew Christine (cuz I want to copy their cleverness ).

That's a rock?

Had me fooled!! Would never had guessed a rock!!

@mrsbinwy I love your Pelargonium! Just beautiful!
Asclepias fascicularis is yet another plant grown and not buried: I have a small plant business and am constantly forgetting to put things to the side for myself. All Asclepias species/varieties seem to disappear quickly. Yours is very pretty and I hope mine will be two shades, too.

janinilulu said:... grown and not buried ...

@MrsBinWY
Do you know if Pelargonium endlicherianum could survive as a houseplant?

I'm positive that it would melt in our summer heat & humidity outside.

So many cute alpines, soooo much heat & humidity.

@Danita - In fact, I keep one as a houseplant, too It lives on the south side of the south-west-north sunroom in winter, blooms in May/June, goes outside for the summer (east side of the house) -- and sometimes reblooms lightly in August/September before it comes back in -- compared to the August bloom for the ones that live outside year-round. The ones outside are evergreen here, or very nearly so. At first, I was hedging my bets against winter loss. Now, it's a hedge against theft! They're a bit tricky from seed, but I'm pretty sure I can set you up

Thanks for that info, Michelle!
Have I gone crazy? I'd have sworn that you had these listed but now I can find no record of it.

Are you sure that it was a human that tried to purloin your Pelargonium? Do you have voles (not moles) in your area? They like to cut plants down at the base like that and then slowly drag the pieces to their burrows. Hateful little creatures!

On another topic, the "meat" rock is hilarious!

You aren't the crazy one Danita. It's me! I did make a listing for the Pelargoniums. The seeds are in the fridge, though, so I missed them when I was making packets. You might have seen the listing via the "Check out everyone else's list" link. I'll see if there's anything else in the fridge that I missed...


We're lucky not to have voles downtown (no moles either, thank goodness). The bunnies (cottontail rabbits, thankfully no jack rabbits downtown either) clip things off sometimes, but those clean, diagonal cuts make for an easy ID/diagnosis. The mangling on the Pelargonium stems was a close match to how the iris bloom stems (and the big alliums, too, come to think of it) look after people try to pick flowers while walking by The lady who got an armload of tulips this spring did pretty well, though -- until she tried to pedal off on her get-away vehicle, that is. I probably could have followed the trail of dropped flowers and petals all the way back to her house, but I figured she was crackers; and I was better off staying away from her

After drooling over everyone's gorgeous flower photos I have a question. How many of these beauties seeds are included in our swap listing? I REALLY NEED to know. 😍 🌷 🌺 🌹 🤤