As I was cleaning out the garden today, I chopped down the old summer growth from my favorite globe thistle plant. But as I was cutting it down… I found all of this new growth inside… and a NEW FLOWER!!! I just couldn’t… so it’s still there living its best life!!!

It was a beautiful Fall day with a chance of rain tomorrow. With my bike at the shop… and coincidentally, my car at the shop too… what was I to do?! So this afternoon I tackled my front yard gardens. Trying to clean them up a bit before the bad weather sets in. My cousin Kim suggested I chop it all down… but some are still growing & a few dahlias are still blooming!!! Couldn’t cut them down… hoping for just a few more dahlia blossoms before the first hard freeze! Only got the side garden done… off to pick-up my car and then to the studio tonight!!!

It’s another Floral Friday! And I’m still loving the dahlias currently blooming in my garden. They took their own sweet time growing with no blooms… but the flowers are finally here. And it was worth the wait!!! Now I just hope we don’t get a “hard frost” any time soon so I might be lucky enough to get a few more flowers this year

With some much-welcomed sun streaming through, I was enamored by these little pink berries I had never noticed before?! I believe the plant is an invasive vine/bush called “Spindle”???… at least according to my phone’s plant app!!! Still cute though!

So you know I love a good “roadkill”… but I’ve never seen one like this?!

A big chunk of monstera just randomly sitting on the lakefront just south of Hollywood Beach. I’m sure I was quite a sight to see pedaling home with this huge plant wedged into my aero-bars!!! Ha!!! So now I just need to figure out the best way to propagate a monstera to get it growing again. Any suggestions???

With another day of drizzly rain, my outdoor plants are very happy to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. They’ve had a rough go of it during the past few weeks of dry droughtness!

After several years of trying & failing, I’m so excited to FINALLY have a black-eyed susan plant come back for a second year… and have its very first flower in my garden!!! One of my favorite flowers that everyone says is the easiest of plants to grow… but not for me. So many variables, varieties & garden locations… thrilled that I might have FINALLY succeeded!!!

Just noticed this morning that my favorite plant is blooming already!

It’s a crazy-cool plant that I got a few years ago as a cutting from my plant pals in Peoria. They call it Bear’s Breeches… but I think the real name is Acanthus Spinosus. It’s got really cool leaves… but the flower spikes are AMAZING!!! So excited that it has really taken off & grown so much over the years. I love it!!!

I’ve been nurturing this little peony bush for a couple years starting with a little sapling in my garden. So excited that this year it FINALLY bloomed!!! Okay, so it’s only two blooms… but I’ll take it. And hope for more next year!!!