My Blog List

Friday, April 8, 2011

HOW I LOVE SURPRISES

Who doesn't love a surprise? Today I had three. Lucky me.

The first came in the mail from my friends at Gardeners Supply. It was a thank you for letting them film in my garden last fall. I thought they had thanked me already! The frogs were one of the items they were filming and I fell in love with them. A must have. I waited and waited for them to show up in the catalogue and in the meantime used my gift card to buy hedgehogs, (an absolute must for an English garden) and tomato trellises, gloves, boots. All manner of things including some items to encourage my son and his family to try raised bed gardening. (It's all installed with tomatoes, peppers and herbs and trellises). I never did get the frogs.
Then two boxes arrived this morning, and there they were. I need to find them the perfect spot to sit and have a chin wag.

And another surprise. This is the cactus arm I brought back from Phoenix. It was languishing on the ground under a huge group of the same. It had clearly been there a while judging by the scar on its underside. I brought it home and potted it up in some pumice. A few weeks ago I noticed two little bumps on the side. New arms? flowers? Yesterday I was pointing them out to visitors and this morning a flower opened. The arm till hasn't rooted. I hope this isn't a swan song.
Surprise number three was when yellow iris opened. I hope it will be able to cope with 90 degrees and a fearsome wind.

12 comments:

  1. Love it when the cactus bloom!!! Very pretty and hopefully first of many more to come. Love the frogs. Too cute!
    K

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the cactus flower, but even more I appreciate you showing the unopened bud. I think it's probably the first one I've ever seen!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, I love the clear yellow of that iris! And the frogs are really cute. They look like they're doing yoga. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fingers crossed for your Cactus ... what a lovely flower and it's great to see the bud as well. Love your sunny Iris, but those frogs are just drop dead gorgeous! Great surprises!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jenny, they hadn't forgotten about your gorgeous garden at all, had they? I love that they sent you those frogs that I can remember you talking about last year. They're so cute, lounging around. That Iris is stunning - what a bright yellow for an Iris. Great pic.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, I just love that yellow iris. A neighbor down the block has some lighter yellow ones blooming in their front bed and I so want to knock on their door and ask for a bulb.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ♥ your frogs. I am always looking at garage sales for cute items for the garden. Yesterday I spent a whole $4 for 3 things: A cute little plant stand (now on our lanai), an unused Welcome sign (ceramic with butterflies) and a cute little ceramic bird house (now hanging from one of the oaks out back)

    Enjoy your blog even though my southwest Florida climate is quite the opposite of yours.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kacky-There is nothing prettier, but don't you find you need to keep and eye on them for fear of missing that bloom. SOme last only one day.
    Alan- Strange little growth. I had no idea if it was an arm or a flower. I would never have expected it to flower the next day. Who knows what today will bring.
    Jean-How I love passalong plants. The yellow iris was one.
    Bernie- I have always had success with rooting in the pumice so I was surprised this one hadn't formed a root.
    Get grounded-I was beginning to think that they had spent 2 days here and were not going to use any of the photos.
    Lynn- It seems to me that iris need dividing often so maybe you'll be lucky. This one isn't such a rampant grower which is a good thing for my garden.
    Siesta sister. I love to look for things in garage sales too. DO you have a blog because when I look at your profile there is no link to a blog. I feel you must have one.

    ReplyDelete
  9. oh I love those frogs - I wish I could get them here in Australia - anybody know of any?

    ReplyDelete
  10. No, I don't have a blog. Sure have a lot of gardening blogs bookmarked. Love reading them. I do post a lot of plant pictures to my FaceBook page.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What delightful surprisess! I love Gardener's Supply. Your little frogs are cute. I've been contemplating purchasing the Flowerpot Men statues they have that remind me of Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot Men on TV when I was a child.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Elle0- thanks for visiting. I am sure you could get Gardener's supply to send them to you! Might be expensive though.
    Siesta Sister- Glad that you visit my garden. It is really addictive- reading people's blogs.
    Jayne- That is so funny. i watched the flowerpot men too. Ba Ba little weed-baba.

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments unless they are spam comments which will always be removed in comment moderation.