rooted coleus

Debbe Peck brought me a beautiful collection of coleus cuttings last week, and they have already rooted! This seems like a miracle to me, because now I can grow the plants myself. In fact, I've already potted them up. But I took this photo of the rooted cuttings on the windowsill first.

Mortgage Lifter tomato and basil

My first Mortgage Lifter of the year was so big and pretty I had to display it in the windowsill before eating it. Here it is posing with some vases of basil. I remembered doing this last year, too, and checked my blog (which now serves as a journal for me) to see what date that was. It was July 27, so this year I'm getting them earlier. Mortgage Lifter, BTW, was named by the guy who bred this  gigantic tomato and sold the plants he grew to pay off his mortgage. Supposedly, he raised $6,000 selling the plants for $1 each.

hydrangea snippet

Just a tiny snippet of oak-leaved hydrangea flowers in a small bottle. This is something I pruned off the lower part of a stem holding larger flowers.

coneflowers, purple basil, scented geranium

It's been rainy, but what a great day for gardening and flower arranging! Got to do both of these, my two favorite things, almost all day. Did some big arrangements for Fourth of July gathering tomorrow, but these two small ones got created from leftovers. Forgive the dirty windowsills; this looks like a "normal" windowsill, but it's really in the shed. The materials: coneflowers, purple basil, scented geranium foliage.

yellow wildflower

Love this beautiful little wildflower, which is blooming in CT, even in mowed areas, where it seems to pop back up after mowing. Flowers are pea-like and a really saturated, velvety yellow. With them in this plastic cupis some spearmint. I have, somewhere in the stuff I've been packing up from my mother-in-law's apartment, the perfect vase for them, but, at this point, I have no idea which box it is in!

linden in hard cider bottle

Beautiful linden trees blooming all over CT. Fragrance like honey. (Thought this had uploaded while in Connecticut, but evidently it hadn't. )