CLOSED: 2015 July Birthday card swap

The DG birthday card club is a way to ensure a special day.

We welcome new members to the birthday thread. Our delightful obligation is to send a card to each birthday club member when his/her birthday occurs.

It's best to receive a pile of cards on or before your birthday so we do our best to send each card in a timely manner. This makes the card more meaningful to the recipient and to the sender. We don't have to send expensive or elaborate cards. We can make one or pick up one at nearly any store these days, or buy a whole box of cards at once and be prepared for the whole year!

It's a wonderful experience to receive cards in the mail.

Current Birthday Club Members:

Jokenna / Tina -- February 26
Dragonflys4me / Chris -- February 28
AmandaEsq / Amanda -- April 6
taters55 / Linda Kay -- June 13
Katgroves / Kathy -- October 25
GardenQuail / Michelle -- October 28


We cam from here.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1396638/




This message was edited Jul 5, 2015 9:07 AM

Hi, all.
LK, thanks for starting the new thread.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day! We went to a concert at a nearby ampitheater, and afterwards, we enjoyed a professional fireworks display. My dog stayed home and listened to a nice selection of soothing music and took a nap.
Have a great Monday!
Michelle

We stayed home and had our own fireworks display. All the neighbors enjoyed it.

Don't forget that Joy has the old, new borrowed and blue swap open.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1399051/

Hi, all.
LK, having a fireworks display at home sounds fun. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to have fireworks out here. People still do it, but they're not supposed to.
I hope Joy has a great turn-out for her swap. It is a fun one. Perhaps I'll be able to do it next year. But I won't be able to do it this year.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Michelle

Hi, all.
I hope all of you have been having a good July.
My guide dog recently had surgery to remove a tumor. The lab work came back to confirm our expectations that it was a soft tissue sarcoma. The good news is that it is a low grade tumor, so it is not likely to metastasize. He's recovering from surgery (getting bored since he's only allowed limited walking, no running or jumping until he is healed from the surgery). And, since the tumor was on his leg, he'll need follow-up treatments to take care of any remaining microscopic cancer cells. At this point, we think there's a good possibility that once he gets through his treatments, he will still be able to guide, but time will tell.
I've been enjoying my garden this summer. It's a bit smaller than I planned, but between older seeds not germinating and the snails getting a number of the seedlings that did come up, that's the way it worked out. At this point, I have moonflowers, Blue Lake green beans, scarlet runner beans, a Daydream cosmos, a Teddy Bear sunflower plant, a touch-of-scent salvia, a couple of basil plants, a volunteer cerinthe, and my calla lilies growing. Eventually, my amaryllis belladonnas will send up flower stalks, but probably not for another month or so. The moonflowers opened their first blooms this week. And my cosmos started blooming last week or so. My scarlet runner beans have flowers now, but the Blue Lake's don't yet.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my cosmos has fragrant flowers! And the color sounds lovely, too. My husband says their petals are pinkish lavender at the tips and reddish violet in the center of the petals, and the centers of the flowers themselves are yellow. We're waiting until more of the buds have opened to take a picture.
The moonflowers are large, white, fragrant flowers. I'm not too fond of the scent of the leaves when they are brushed, but I like the scent of the flowers.
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Michelle

Your garden may be small, but it sounds beautiful.

Sorry to hear about your guide dog having surgery.
Sending prayers for a speedy recovery.

Hi, all.
Thanks, LK. He's doing better with the bed rest than I expected. He was getting really wiggly earlier in the week, but he's settled down again. I think the trip to the vet's yesterday for the incission check and bandage change helped. He'd still rather be up and around, but he's tolerating his confinement.
Last evening, we had three moon flowers buds open at the same time :) My husband thinks he got a good picture of them. And, we got a picture of the cosmos in bloom, too. I'll see if we can get some pictures posted soon.
Have a great day!
Michelle

Both flowers are beautiful. I had moon flowers last year, but not this year.

My moon flowers have not started blooming yet.

Hi, all.
This is my first time growing moonflowers. From what I read about them, they can get quite tall, so I specifically planted them in a shadier location to slow them down :) I've actually had problems getting other plants to grow in this location because closer to the soil, it's quite shady, but once the plants get taller, they get more sun. But a lot of shade-loving plants don't like this location because it gets too hot for them. The moonflowers are doing nicely here. I have them growing against a 6 foot tall trellis and, although they aren't climbing it, it does seem to be giving them support. They're probably about half way up the trellis now. There are a bunch of smaller buds coming along at the top now. It will be quite a sight when they all bloom, especially if they all bloom at the same time!
Hope you all have a great week!
Michelle

Hi everyone :) Michelle, I've had moonflowers before and I thought they were so pretty. Glad yours are blooming for you!

Our flowers are doing ok, but with all the rain that we've had, we're still fighting powdery mildew, rust and fungus - it's just a never ending battle. AND fighting Japanese beetles - I hate those things! But the blooms are making up for it and I've got new plants that I'm trying out with a few new daylilies on their way :)

Does anyone have Blackberry Lilies? I just bought some from my local farmer's market guy and I love them! They're blooming quite nicely for me right now - but I did have an issue with one fan when a 50 mph wind came through and broke the fan off at ground level! I put some root hormone on the end and stuck it back in the ground. Think that will work?? I really want to save it as it was just starting to get buds on it.

Next month will be a little crazy as DH and I both have outpatient surgeries planned 5 days apart! His is for a hernia and mine is for skin cancer. I knew it was just a matter of time before I got skin cancer as both my parents and my sister have had it. The dermatologist says that it's basal cell carcinoma, which is the easiest to treat - basically they cut the bad spot out LOL.. He says when I leave the office, I'll be cancer free. So I'm not totally freaked out at this point anyway.

Better head to bed - good night all!

Sorry I can't help with your lilies. I don't know anything about them.

Sending prayers for both of you.

Hi, all.
Chris, so glad you could stop by :) I haven't grown lilies, so I don't know if they will reroot. But do let us know. Sounds like an interesting experiment. I do hope it works for you! I'll be keeping you and your husband in my prayers, too.
So sad... I was deadheading my moonflowers last evening, and accidentally removed a flower that was about to open! Sigh... Thankfully, there are still several more to come :)
Have a great day, everyone!
Michelle

Hi, all.
It's August already! My husband said he can help me start a new thread. We'll post the link when it's ready!
Michelle

Follow us to the August birthday thread:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1402114/