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!

Looks like this might be my final dahlia in the garden, but it sure is a STUNNER… well worth the wait!!! And another great opportunity for a natural TEXTURE TUESDAY!

Looks like I have a couple final soldiers working their way through my garden. I thought the dahlias were done blooming… but then this little guy came out to say hello!

Memo to self… plant more dahlias next year!

So Kate thought it as time to give her aloe vera plant a little more room to grow. She separated the “babies” from the mother plant and gave them each their own stamped & soda-fired flower pot. After a long afternoon of re-potting… it’s good to see that Kate is also kicking back and enjoying the new mug she picked up at ART IN THE GARDEN.

Sure, my purple hyacinth bean vines have nice flowers & seed pods. But the also have great leaves with some very striking veining. Perfect for another “natural” Texture Tuesday!

You’ve seen snippets of my little back porch from the other side… but here’s the “front” side as seen from my kitchen window. Sure, I might have a bit of a rusty metal addiction… but the climbing purple hyacinth bean vine sure seems to be happy with it. Loving the colors & textures of the coleus plants… and a little bit of a gourd plant working its way through!