Happy Belated Birthday Shirley

A day late, but still hope you had a very special day yesterday.

Here's a flower portrait of my favorite winter-sowing subject: poppies. The source website doesn't mind its images, which are now open-domain, being shared as long as it is credited: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/index.php

In my files, I label this as: Fantin_Latour_Poppies_1883
click on: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/index.php
then scroll down the left column to: View Artworks
then, use the Edit/Find feature to find Fantin-Latour,
and click on the name of the painting opposite his name.
Click on All Artworks by Henri Fantin-Latour
Scroll down to Flowers: Poppies and click on that
Next, click on the thumbnail that comes up and you can save to your hard drive

These are great flower scans and show up beautifully as wallpaper on your monitor screen and make fabulous slide shows.

Thanks so much, Karen!

Here's is WS Salvia coccinea, 'Coral Nymph' blooming this year.

Happy birthday from another Karen

I hope you put that one in PlantFiles, Shirley - my favorite PF images include some context with the subject, not to mention this one's dramatic contrast between the murky purple buds and the sparkly pinks of the open flowers.

To others who may be just starting out to garden around here, let me say that Shirley has singled out one of the toughest, prettiest and most-adored-by-hummingbird annuals for our area. In our garden, S. coccinea is: 1) one of those sun-lovers that will flower up to frost in spite of only getting 5 or 6 hours of sun a day; 2) survives a few slug bites during infancy to make an overall attractive plant with no pest, disease or humidity issues here and 3) self-sows over winter - so it should be a great candidate for wintersowing. It comes in red, white and pink, so works in different color schemes, stays approximately at a bushy 18 - 24" and like much of the rest of its genus is essential to that late summer triumvirate of dahlias, morning glories and sages. Our woodchucks and rabbits seem not to like it.

(Before I pack up my soap box, there is one more group of sages that does all of the above. In order of increasing shade tolerance these sages are: Salvia guarnitica and a few of its hybrids: the Brazilian 'Black and Blue' sage (makes a self-supporting bush at about 30"), S. 'Purple Majesty' (to 5' - 6' needs staking) and S. 'Indigo Spires' (floppiest of all,needs staking - gets to 6'+))

Shirley can testify we're too shady for cosmos in much of our garden, so that should give you an idea what a gift this flower is to shade-challenged flower lovers.

Shirley, I hope your birthday was fabulous!

Given the grey, rainy day we had (again) here, I thought you might need a photo to make you "Think Spring!"

Shirley~ Bouquets on a Happy Belated Birthday!!

Thanks so much for all the very kind & wonderful birthday wishes! They are very much appreciated!!

Critter: I love the contrast of the Spring ephemeral flowers against the richly textured wood. Very striking!

Yes, I promise to post a picture in PlantFiles of Salvia coccinea, 'Coral Nymph' . Thanks for the reminder.