Such cool leaves with great cuts, lobes & holes through the leaves…
and they’re HUGE! These leaves are almost three feet long!!!

Enjoying some more of nature’s beauty, colors & textures inside the Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier again today. Such a nice escape during these freezing cold winter days!

Might have been cold & blustery outside today… but warm & tropical inside. Just enjoying a little more time inside The Crystal Gardens at Chicago’s landmark Navy Pier.

Very excited to see the basement “greenhouse” in full swing last week when I visited my friends in Bartonville. Last year, their “pandemic project” was to grow colorful coleus plants in the basement and then sell them in the Spring. We had a great “Plants & Pottery Pop-Up” last May on their driveway. So much fun. So pretty. So colorful!!!

Well, since Covid is still going, Rosene has hunkered down for another Winter with her coleus garden in the basement… and we’re already planning another “Plants & Pottery Sale” for this Spring. She already has HUNDREDS of coleus plants… can’t imagine how many she’ll have come May for the pop-up sale!

So I’ve been trying to grow some of my own bittersweet over the past few years. First on a trellis in my back yard…. err, cement courtyard in a large pot. A few years later I moved it to my front yard garden to grow up a street lamp. I’ve always gotten pretty good leaves… but this year was the first time I’ve ever found the flowers & berries on my plant! Very exciting… as it’s completely growing up & taking over the lamp post!!!

Morning sunrise through the palm trees of Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier. Not quite a tropical getaway… but if you imagine really hard…

The last of the coleus on my back porch in the morning sun. Long flower spikes enjoying the sunshine. Yet with freezing temps coming soon in the forecast, I think today is the day to cut them back, start more cuttings & move them down to the basement to see if I can remember to keep them alive all Winter??? I doubt it… but that’s why we take cuttings, right?!

Sadly, I think this is the finally blossom off my dahlia plant. You can tell by the number of posts I’ve done about these dahlias, that I’m kind of enamored by them. I love how the petals start yellow and turn to this coral red color as they mature. It was my first summer growing dahlias… methinks I need to plant more colors & more varieties next summer!!! More is more!!!

GOTTA LOVE THE GOURD!
I’ve always been a huge fan of gourds… even more than pumpkins! I love the colors, the curves, the warts and the colorful fun of a bowl full of gourds!!! Especially when the bowl is made of rusty tools, right?!

With the sudden cold-spell coming through, plus a threat of frost in the next day or so… I thought it was time to take some cuttings from my coleus plants to start propagating for next year! Okay, so I might have gotten a little carried away… but once I started cutting I just couldn’t stop myself!

More is more… even with plants!