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!!!

It’s that time for the year… and I’ve got quite a few irises blooming in my front yard. Such a great childhood throwback… especially the traditional iris scent. I just wish the blooms lasted longer. At least we get the cool “sword-like” leaves all summer long!

I’m getting ready to “spring” right into art fair mode… starting this weekend with a fun pop-up in Central Illinois. I’ll be spending the weekend with my very first art fair friends… yes, they were right across the aisle from me many years ago! They were the seasoned veterans, and I was the unknowing newbie. They took me under their wings & we’ve been friends ever since! But I digress… they will be selling many of their own homegrown plants, and I’ll have an assortment of pottery! If you live in Central Illinois, this is the closest show you’ll find me at… so I hope you can stop by!!!

If not, my next three weekends are also booked with art fairs… with Schaumburg, Hinsdale & Sandwich for the Northern Illinois Pottery Tour… chronologically in that order. Mark your calendars!

Thanks to my cousin Kim for bringing the bulbs & for helping with planting all of them last Fall… so excited to see an explosion of color getting ready to burst in my front yard!