Are you a photographer, writer, or person of the media and live anywhere close to Schley, North Carolina? The Sunshine Lavender Farm is having their 7th Harvest Celebration! An announcement from Annie Baggett to remember these dates–June 5th and 6th, 2010. Annie Baggett at the Sunshine Lavender Farm ( opens to other articles I’ve written [...]

I love many different varieties of hydrangeas but the Nikko Blue is faithful and old fashioned. Everybody who sees it thinks of Grandma and her  old fashioned garden plots. There is a new hydrangea on the market that calls Nikko its parent. The new variety is called ‘Nantuck Blue’ I’m growing it in my garden [...]

Awww, the bees and butterflies dine on Verbena bonariensis. I grow it every year for them. They crawl over and don’t pay one bit of attention to me standing a foot away. This is the tall Verbena and is presently about 6 feet tall in my garden. It sways in the breeze and looks so [...]

Wow, bloom your fools heads off why don’t you? This is ‘Arizona Sun’ and blazing strong in my back gardens. Mr D and I got married in a July sunrise service in Arizona. We rode off in the sunset to San Diego, California for our honeymoon. They probably named this flower in our honor. We were [...]

The incredible ‘Incrediball’ hydrangea by Proven Winners Plants was a mere 5″ potted shrub the summer of 2009. Now look what it is accomplishing and the blooms are yet to be fully open. That is ‘Pink Chablis’ lamium by PW that is growing just in front. I have the ‘Incrediball’ growing in 3 different light [...]

This almost didn’t happen. After collecting some of my favorite books on the subject and going gung ho for months about it, there almost wasn’t a vegetable garden at Flowergardengirl’s house. The Potager at Copper Top Cottage as you see here is in the first phase and I got reenergized about it today. Two things [...]

This is an ‘Incrediball’ hydrangea bud and it is going to burst open with a 12 inch bloom. I know because it did! Now if you want to come back tomorrow–I’ll show you more! And here it was in an earlier stage. Later this week—I expect all 3 of my ‘Incrediball’ hydrangeas–to be covered in [...]

Look who came to the feeder. Well–actually–at one time there were six. Some were purple finches and there was one female bunting. I’ve never had a male Painted bunting–that would be so cool. We have loads of cardinals. The males are going nuts protecting their territory. The nigella seed pods are just as pretty as [...]

Being graceful according to the Sweet Shrub means dancing lightly on the limbs. Here we see three sweet ladies with their petticoats flowing gracefully no matter the age of the lady. Each is smelling her best and showing her feminine side quite eagerly. They have come to the big spring event at the barn and [...]

Birding is colorful and rewarding and made so much easier with the help of the folks at Wild Birds Unlimited in Winston Salem, NC.  John and Diane Bell are the owners of this fun store where your opportunities to dream up a bird paradise are endless. Diane has owned this store for 14 years. She [...]

I missed church on this particular Sunday, but I didn’t miss the message. I took this photo on a vacation last summer in Staunton, Virginia. It was early on a Sunday morning and as I passed this church the doors opened and out came the pastor or minister you see to the left. He was [...]

I wrote a post–well several–about the River Birch ‘Heritage’ in my front beds. Well along the way and all the while bragging on this tree, it never occured to me that someone might question my sanity. This tree will get huge. It has a potential of 30ish + feet. On a previous post, someone questioned [...]

This photo of mine ( white rhododendron) is being used to advertise vim and vigor in the anatomy of a man. Well, I would just like to say that equality is the new thing and I don’t see why it can’t be used just as well to promote vitality in women too. I mean look [...]

It took about 2 years before I fell in love with my ‘Snow Storm‘ spirea. I couldn’t find the perfect spot for it until last year. Actually, I gave up on it and buried it hap hazzardly in this location. This is a spot that gets hot mid day sun but is shaded in the [...]

The center on this Verbascum which I think is ‘Southern Charm’ ( thanks to Cameron for the name) sure goes well the catmint don’t you think? And blooming at the same time is my viburnum ‘Blue Muffin’.