ALL AMERICAN ROSE SELECTION

Rose lovers of the world, may we present the new All American Rose Selection of 2008,,"DREAM COME TRUE" Talk about a beauty. It is awesome. I just don't have what it takes to grow roses. If it can't survive on it's own, it can't come to my house. As pretty as they are, I will admire them from afar. They are high-maintenance flowers. But, I do love seeing them in other people's yards who have more grit than I do when it comes to maintenance and upkeep.

The old seven sisters was growing in my yard, and it decided to leave me without a word of farewell. The lady that gave it to me, said it would grow anywhere for anyone. It is supposed to grow like a weed. It didn't.

BLUE FLOWERS ARE A STAND OUT

You can not have too much blue in the garden in my opinion. I love blue. I always like the various blue salvias and, of course, the blue Wave petunias. But one little plant that is just a stand out is the "blue daze" evolvulus. This little flower reminds me so much of the Canterbury bells we had all over the place when I was a child. It thrives in hot summers like we have here on the Coast. It is in the morning glory family and is almost the same beautiuful blue as the "heavenly blue" morning glory.I have one on an earlier post. Since it is only 12 inches high,,it will look good in the front of your bed with let's say, ,the gold zinnias..Pictue this: The icy light blue flowers with olive colored leaves in front of the gold zinnias,,,oh wait..You don't have to picture it...that is what is in the picture. Now isn't that dramatic?

HANGING BASKETS

Hanging basket containing a display of purple and white flowers including Diascia, Phlox, Verbena, Lobelia, Reinwardtia and ivy-leaved Pelargonium.

I love hanging baskets. I like to use a big, big basket it gets more attention and you have to water it less. Right now I don't have any planted,,they just hang there, making me feel guilty. I want to get out this weekend and see what kind of flowers I can find. I fully intended to plant a few but I got so involved with the veggie garden, I just didn't take the time.

I really like the mesh type baskets best because when you think about it, most baskets are seen from below and this way, you can poke holes and plants all around the sides. You can buy the natural mesh liners to line your pot. It looks better from below. You will have to line it with plastic to keep it from getting dry so fast, that's the only problem. With the plastic types, you won't need to do this. Insert you plants through the slits cut in both the natural liner and the plastic. Make it stiffer so it is easier to insert by wrapping in a piece of stiff paper.

When it gets dry, take it down and let it soak in a pan of water for a few hours, overnight is better. That way it will get thoroughly and evenly wet. Use slow release fertilizer in your soil. Primp them while you're at it, get rid of dead flowers, trim up the dry or dead foliage..check for disease or insects before you hang it back up. And use a strong support. Plants get really heavy when wet and need the support. I have had a few fall so I know. I messed up one of my favorites in a pot once, broke to smitherins.... And after all your hard work on them,,don't forget to enjoy them.

GARDENS, TREES, PLANTS, ALL GONE

When we returned home to Gulfport MS in early September 2005 after evacuating to Alabama in advance of Hurricane Katrina’s Aug. 29 landfall, I didn't know what to expect.

I was anxious about what we would find after learning from television news that the storm had devastated the whole Coast from Bay St. Louis to Ocean Springs for the most part.

The first thing I saw on television about Harrison County was complete devastation, nothing left on the beach side, the Bay St. Louis bridge and Highway 90 bridge both gone. But we lived a little further back from the beach so I was hopeful. Billy went back home without me to see how things were. We had lost our home but unlike a lot of people, we were still able to get a few things we needed out. We were alive and so was all the family, so all was well. We have learned by now, to leave when a Hurricane threatens so most of the family had evacuated.

They came later and picked up the pieces, memories piled in big trucks. Funny, but my thought as I watched them taking things away was, "Now, I don't have the closet, where my sweet little cat, Alley, had her kittens"...I kept all of them. We have three cats. Alley got killed by some of those same trucks, after the Hurricane. Her babies had just turned one year old. I miss her still.

Nothing could prepare you for the devastation, even though we had seen the news. It was really bad in Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Waveland. As we drove around, there was road after road of nothing, like someone had just cleared the table. This meant all the huge Oak trees, the beautiful plants, flower gardens,,,everything gone in addition to all the homes destroyed.

But nature has a way of filling the gap and new trees and plants are springing up everywhere,,,people are replanting their gardens. There are many places that are still empty spaces, but I am sure in time, there will be trees and flowers and plants everywhere again. It will never look the same,,a lot of history got lost along the way,,,but future generations will see the Coast in bloom again. Hurricane Katrina will only be a memory but I will always miss those lovely trees we lost. It takes a long time to grow a tree.