I Heart Faces---Sepia

Self Portrait

Favorite Portrait

This week's contest is "Sepia Tones" which is one of my favorite things in photography, so I decided to enter.

A different contest every week, with some cool givaways, so if you like photography feel free to jump in! Just go to the website I ♥ Faces and all the information you'll need is right there.

Wildflower

I love Queen Anne's Lace. It's simple and complicated, all at the same time. It also makes a GREAT filler in arrangements. It's hard to find in domestic versions, although it used to be a common garden flower. It does grow along the side of the road en masse around here though.

The Official Start of Summer

Some people will argue that it's the Memorial Day Week-end, but Southerners know it's when the thistle blooms...this year we can all agree since it's all happening at once!

I Heart Faces

One of the many things I have discovered about myself over the last year or two is that I love photography. It has only been recently that I have committed to getting better at it. For some reason I felt it was beyond my scope of capability. But I have taken some pretty good pictures by accident, and so I felt I should try to improve on this. It is a passion I share with my older son. And of course blogging has given me a huge opportunity to play, practice, improve. In a way it's like beading for me: it is an art form that can yield some pretty satisfying results almost immediately, unlike alot of other creative arts which require patience, perseverance, and TIME. A big frustration I've had in the past is feeling the creative urge and trying to nurture it everyday, but running short on that time commodity. It has been important and freeing to find other art forms that allow expression and sometimes quickly. I'm not implying skill is not required. It is, and often I fail miserably there, but once in awhile I get it right. And yes, I am dying for a new camera. I've got my eye on a digital Nikkon, but can't exactly spare the $600.00 right now. Ah well. In time.

I have also become interested in other people's photography. Here is a really fun site, and they have a cool give-away going on right now from allpopart.com

Click on the icon to check it out, and scroll down to their give-away entry. They also run a photography contest every week.

Good News at Camp Osceola

Looks like the most boring picture of the bunch. But, it's really the most exciting...because those are buds on my Nikko Blue Hydrangea that I pruned in March.

THEY ARE GOING TO BLOOM THIS YEAR!!!

And now, on to the rest of what's blooming right now...

Clematis


Iris

(mine do not usually bloom, and this one never has!)

Knock-Out Roses

They were in 1 gallon pots last year when I planted them, can you believe it?

Sorry I have been away so long. If you follow my other blog, you know my daughters finally came home from Haiti after an almost 2 year adoption process.

Finding time to blog is difficult, but we are starting to get in our groove.

God is Good!

Hallelujah!

Propagating Nikko Blue

It so happens I love hydrangea, and here in the Southeast it does very well. Of course, as always it depends on your species. This mop head classic "Nikko Blue" is one you are going to see in alot of yards. It's the granddaddy of mop head hydrangea, the graft of all those fantastic newcomers like "Endless Summer" , "Blushing Bride", and possibly even "Dooley".

I have two established in my front border, that have done very well except for last year. The plant did OK, but did not bloom. And it is generally a prolific bloomer. I cut it back too hard, I think, and I have no idea what is going to happen this year. We'll see. However, I have been propagating them for several years and my off-shoots DID bloom! I had put one in another border, and the others were still in their containers.

I get so many off the mother shrubs, I end up giving them away. Sometimes around these parts, people will set up a table and sell plants, and I may do that someday, I've got plenty!

So, in case you don't know, here is how I do it. This method works best on mature plants.

Here is a nice healthy specimen that I layered last fall. If you look to the left you will see a light colored branch coming off the mother shrub and going into the dirt, resulting in a new plant! Sometimes I can hit branch with a spade and it cuts cleanly, but yesterday I had to get the pruners. The roots are growing straight down into the soil and supporting the new growth. The plant is tough enough to take all the manhandling (or womenhandling in this case) and after I cut the "cord" and dig up the new growth I divided it into two plants. Hydrangea is dependent on moisture, so I don't leave them laying around for two long with out the support of some nice damp soil in a container. I have several of these that I rooted last fall, and by the time it's all said and done I got 7 new plants, and 6 of them are very healthy. Only time will tellabout the weakling, but I will give it a shot and see how it goes.

But, I'm not done. If you look at the picture you will see several long branches grazing the ground. A few weeks ago when I was pruning these back, I left those long low branches there on purpose. I knew they were going to be my new "propagants".

I take these branches and lay them flat as possible and cover them with dirt except where there is already new growth, particularly at the tip. I have to use bricks on some of them to get them to stay down, and I don't have to bury them too deeply. Just enough soil for those new roots to grab on and go! The bricks will soon be hidden by all the new growth on the mother shrub. Nikko Blue are prolific and they will take over this bed by mid-summer. At some point I will have to trim them from the top so they don't take over my house.

The new offshoots, for the most part will also be covered, which is good, that will serve as a protection from the hot summer sun.

There they are, plus the ones left over from last fall. I usually do this twice a year, spring and early fall. I'm contemplating a "hydrangea garden", so that may be another place to put them.

And then, nothing to do with hydrangea, but I noticed these things while I was ratting around out there....

My clematis is getting ready to bloom.

I love the way new growth on a fern presents! One of nature's fascinations.

Funny Spring

We're having a cool, wet spring here in the Southeast, in fact, they are talking about snow tomorrow night! A couple of clear days, and yesterday was almost hot, which was making these tulips want to melt. They are supposed to be pink, marketed from the pink ribbon people, but as you can see, they are red~lol, That's what I get for buying my bulbs from Wally World!

Tulips are annuals in this region, BTW. And I need to weed.