Celebrating a fun & natural Texture Tuesday with these great globe thistle “flowers.” Thanks to my Cousin Kim, I now have a patch of these thistles growing right there on my city street corner!

Tiny little white flowers… so delicately perched on top of tall stems. Dramatic white heliotrope flowers with such an intoxicating aroma. A beautiful accent to any garden!

Loving the larkspur that just started blooming in my garden this week! That beautiful purple color floating above feathery stems. And it looks like there are still a lot of blooms to come!!! The way these things have spread all over my garden… I’m sure they would be considered a “weed” if the flowers weren’t so pretty! HA!!!

It’s apparently IRIS SEASON… at least by looking in my garden! I’m totally enamored by all of the different iris colors, textures & aromas that are blooming along my garden this week. The smell of a good iris is totally a childhood flashback. Some people love the scent, some people don’t… I love it!!! Unfortunately, the flowers are short-lived… so enjoy them while you can!

I always love when this little guy pops-up in my front garden!
A fun Jack-In-The-Pulpit flower blooming on a graceful stem.

For anyone who might be in the Central Illinois area this weekend… a quick POP-UP SALE near Peoria! I will bringing some pottery down to share with my “first art fair friends ever” as they host their Annual Plant Sale! Their gardens are AMAZING… and they have been splitting, dividing, propagating & germinating just to have LOTS of plants to sell. Lots of homegrown perennials, annuals, succulents, garden accents… and some of my POTTERY too!!! If you’re in the area, be sure to swing by!!!

2314 Skyway Road, Bartonville, Illinois 61607… 9:00am-4:00pm…
right by the Peoria International Airport!

Celebrating EARTH DAY with a bunch of little green sprouts in my dining room window! Lots of zinnia seedlings… looks like I might need to do some thinning out before they get too big?! And some dahlia sprouts in the larger containers. Can’t wait for warmer weather & warmer nights so I can get these planted outside so they can really start to flourish! Hoping for some great flowers in the front yard gardens this summer!

Morning light on fresh clematis sprouts in the back courtyard. Spring has sprung!

While I haven’t started my new “zinnia seed project” yet… my cousin Kim reminded me that it was also time to start my dahlia tubers indoors. Since I didn’t do a good job of digging out & saving the ones from last summer… I had to buy some new ones. So here are the three varieties I’m trying this time around. Can’t wait for them to start growing… can’t wait for warmer days… can’t wait for Summer Blooms!!!

So every year I see lots of zinnias in other people’s gardens… admiring from afar… and wishing that I had planted some sooner! Well this year, I’m going to go for it. First I bought some seed packets. But then a wonderful care package showed up in my mail!!! My best gardening buddy Rosene has set me up with these wonderful little packets of zinnia seeds. So many varieties, so many possibilities! Now I just need to figure out when to plant them inside… so they’re growing well when it’s time to finally transplant them outside! And then to keep my fingers crossed!