My garden at the end of June..... Where has this month gone??

Here are some photo's of the flowers in my garden at the end of June.  I can't believe that the month has flown by.  I have learned some cool things about flowers and plants this month.  One thing I have learned is that the color of flowers also brings meaning to your garden.  Lighter shade of colors have a more positive meaning while darker shade of colors have a more negative meaning.  I'm not sure what this little blue flower is.  But it is really pretty.  A light blue in the garden is connected with spirituality, love and religiosity.

Here is one of the beautiful lilies in my garden.  It's color meaning is most likely connected to attraction or friendship.  I love these lilies!

One of my favorite flowers Rudbeckia (aka Black eye-susan).

Here is another Black Eyed-Susan.  The Black Eyed-Susan Vine.  I talked with a customer about this plant at the garden center so much she decided to buy two instead of one.   It's a very cool plant.

Here are my Blanket Flowers.  They are so pretty.  You have a mix of red and yellow with these .  I'm not sure of what the meaning could be.  The darker red could be a sign of desire and the lighter yellow is insight or intellectuality.

My petunias are getting huge.  At some point I will do a whole page on their growth.  From tiny little plants to covering the whole front corner of the garden.  Next year I'll have to get more creative with the colors.

Here is one of the Day Lilies.  Light orange is associated with wisdom and justice, but dark brings about pride and selfishness.  I've come to think part of the problem with negativity in my garden is I have dark shade's of color in it.  It is still beautiful. 

Here are my Hen's and Chickens and my Ice Plant.  I hope the Ice Plant flowers soon.  The Hen's and Chickens are very happy as they are starting to grow babies.  I'm so happy for that.

Here is a view of the garden from a distance.  I think it looks really nice.  I have started a new project.  I'm going through all my photo's and editing them and preparing them to make up cards and prints to put into frames.  I have hundreds of photo's.  I'm also adding the name of the flower to each photo.  I wonder how many different flower photo's I have?  It is going to take a long time to finish.

My garden and blog helper.  She is always near to where I am.  Definitely the queen of the house.  We are currently teaching her cat agility tricks.  So far we can get her to jump through a hula-hoop for treats.
My family is doing really well.  We are all trying to stay cool right now.  I have a few projects and ideas brewing.  I'm researching my next family history blog on cousin marriage.  I've found some cool articles.  I had a great inspiration come to me today on that.  I'm also thinking of writing a chapter a week on my blog of my book I've been trying to write.  Perhaps someone will read it and help me edit it and make it into something great.  I also want to begin to plan my trip to Scotland.  Perhaps if I love and desire it enough the universe will send me on it.  I'll explain all that later. 
Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you for reading this blog.  I hope you have enjoyed the flower photo's and it has made you want to learn more about gardens and plants.
Related sites:
Aura Color Charts
Meaning of Lilies
Flowers Meanings
Black-eyed Susan (This is a really cool link!)
Blanket Flower

Stages of my garden part 2..... early June 2013

Here is a corner of my garden from early in June.  I bought a four pack of petunias to try.  I had never grown petunias before.  It has been fun to watch them grow and to learn about this plant.  Behind the Petunias are the now huge Day Lily plants.

The back half of my garden has become a mass of Day Lilies.  I have decided in the fall to dig these out.  Don't think, like I did that by cutting them back that they will die and be gone.  That just doesn't happen.  One tip I've been given is if you plant Day Lilies, plant them in the ground in their container so that can't spread.

Here is the front edge of the garden.  I have Hens and chicken's and some Treasure flower's and Lobelia, and mass amounts of Day Lilies. I've had to cut them back as they almost killed my Mum plants.

I also planted 3 Blanket flower Plants, two that look like this and a Yellow one.  One of the plants did not take well.  It looked pretty dead, but I've kept it in the garden and have been telling it that it will live.  I'll show you some photo's in a later blog.  I love these plants because they bloom all season.

This is an Osteospermum plant.  I wish I had gotten the pretty white and purple one also.   I put some Zinnia seeds in front of this plant, can't wait for them to bloom.

I also plated some Lobelia as an edging to the front of the garden.  So I have lots of colors in my garden which my husband likes. 
Hope you enjoyed seeing the beginning of my garden.  I'll post some more photo's soon.  As many of my plants have matured and I've added some other plants since the beginning of June.
G.G.

The stages of my garden..... Fall of 2012, Spring of 2013

I thought it would be fun to show you the stages of my garden.  I wish that I had some photo's of the garden from when I moved in last year.  But I was very stressed at the time and I did not take photo's of it.  Above is a photo of my garden taken last fall.  I love Mum's so I cleaned out (actually I thought I cleaned out this spot.  I'll explain that later.) the top half of the garden and planted Mum plants.

Here is another view.  It looks pretty empty doesn't it.

I also made this glass bead frog pond. I love putting colored beads in my garden it adds a little magic.

This is a photo of the garden this spring.  There are lots of wild Purple Violets, and lots of Day Lilies. and the soil needs lots of help.

This is the top of the garden.  My Mum's are starting to grow back and the Day Lilies are coming in at an overwhelming rate.  They have taken over the frog pond.  I hope to find it again this fall.

Here is the bottom half of the garden after I have pulled out all the Purple violets and other unknown plants.  The previous owner had thrown in wild flower seeds.   So I decided to start fresh. In the back half I have those Day Lilies.  Such innocent looking plants, but they take over and become huge.  I'll dedicate a blog to them sometime soon.

Here are the first plants to go in the garden.  My Hens and Chickens.  They needed to get out of the house as the cat had decided they tasted good.  They are my traveling Hens and Chickens.  They started in Vermont, moved to New Jersey and now are in Utah.

Here is my helper.  Telling me what I should do from the window.  Also checking to see if there are any birds in the yard.   She loves to watch me garden.

 

 

My Garden is filled with flowers that mean bad things..........

I have fun learning about plants and their meanings.  But one thing I've learned is many of the plants in my garden have meanings that are not so nice.  I don't know why such pretty plants have unkind meanings.  Here is the Lobelia plant that is in my garden.  This plant looks so pretty from a distance.  But it does not have a good meaning. It means malevolence or arrogance.  So if you are thinking of giving a friend this flower you might think again.

Here is the Columbine that is growing in my garden.  I actually have two colors in the garden this pretty pink one and a purple one.  I hope next year they are bigger.  I think they are very pretty.  But again they have a sad meaning.  They mean deserted love....

Here is a photo of a blooming Ice plant.  Mine have not started to bloom yet, these are from the garden center.  Can you guess it's bad meaning?  It means: rejection or "you freeze me".  My neighbor had them in her garden and I thought they looked really pretty so I bought some.  How is it that I have so much negativity out in my garden?

I have tons of these orange Day Lillie's in my garden.  They were planted by the previous owner.  They mean: disdain, hatred and pride.  They are also toxic to cats.  I wouldn't mind a few of these, but the garden is filled with them and they take over fast, so this fall they are coming out.

I love Carnations, but again you have to watch out for the meaning.  I bought these purple ones for my garden.  Guess what they mean: unpredictable, changeable. With Carnations it is the color that determines the meaning, so check out what each color means before giving to someone.

My pink petunias, and yes as I've told you before they also have a not so good meaning.  They mean: resentment and anger.

My latest buy was two pots with Geranium plants in them.  Again another bad meaning.  They mean: Stupidity.  Oh well at least they are pretty and easy to care for. Maybe that is why they have the meaning of stupidity you don't have to be too smart to keep these plants alive.  I learned some other interesting facts about Geraniums while searching out their meanings which I will blog about later.
Well I hope you have enjoyed reading and learning a little about some of the flowers in my garden and what they mean.  I still have plenty more to learn about.
I am grateful for my garden and all the learning that comes with it.

How my search for Magic in my life has been changing it day by day......

I few weeks ago I finished reading a book that I read every year before summer begins.  The book is called "Garden Spells".  I love the characters in the book because most of them have some type of magical ability.  Not huge witch like magic, but something that they just do better than anyone else. I also like the idea that a garden can have magical properties.

One night while working, I was pondering on the fact that this world seems to lack Magic.  I thought to myself that I would like something magical to happen in my life.  Something unexplainable to occur.  At that moment the computer printer behind me printed out a ticket.  This is something that never happens.  The printer only prints out tickets when you press certain buttons.  The other magical thing was that the ticket that printed out was not from what was on the computer screen.  I had thought I wanted an unexplainable thing to happen and it did.

I kept that ticket because to me it is a reminder that magic happens.  This search did not end though.  I continued to think and ponder about my life and felt as though something special was missing.  A friend from work suggested I read a certain book.  The books name is called "The Magic".
You would think this book would be about witches and strange happenings.  But it wasn't.

This book was about how being Grateful can bring magic to your life.  How the more thankful you are for what you have, the more you will be blessed.  So I've started a month of thinking of all the things I can to be thankful for.  The book actually gives you daily thankful tasks.  Which I really like, and talks about why it is important to be thankful for all that you have. 

As I have read and begun this journey into being thankful, the first thing I realized was how much I was taking things for granted, how much I was focusing on the negative instead of the positive.  I am changing each day the way I view life.  I am choosing each day to see all my blessings and be thankful for them, and each day I find even more blessings.  It is amazing.  My husband said thinking of things to be thankful for, for two days would be a lot.  But you have to think even more than that, you have to think in detail.  Not just I'm thankful for my health, but I'm thankful for my fingers because they do so much work all day long and don't ache.  Or as you are driving your car be thankful for every part of the car that works, the people who built it.  And for me the person who gave it to me for free.

So I tried this thankful business at work.  My night job can be stressful.  It's not that I'm a rocket scientist, but I work customer service and my whole job is to make the customer feel happy and still make sure the company is not losing money.  People can become very angry when they are feel they are having something taken from them.  For months I've gone to work saying " I'm off to Hell."  But now I say.  "I'm off to Heaven."  And I think in my mind "Thank-you"  Every time I have a good customer.  I think all evening of all the things at my work that I can be thankful for.  And work has become better.  I am actually noticing that many of the customers actually say thank you to me after I finish their transaction.  The managers I work for have begun to say thank you to me for the work I do.  It has been wonderful.  Almost magical.  I am learning how to really change my view of life for the better.  If you are interested in reading the books that I have read.  Let me know.  I challenge you to start being more grateful for the things in your life.  Study scriptures on gratitude and see what the promises are.  I have to say I'm so thankful for all that I'm learning.

Today I went to the Temple, and I thanked God for so many things about the Temple, from the money collected to build them, to those who helped build the Temples, to those who serve in the Temple, and for the fact that I'm worthy to attend.  It made the day just so wonderful.

"....Be faithful, Brethren and sisters, and persevering; come to the temple and do your work there, and you will enjoy yourselves, and be better prepared to resist the unpleasantness's of the world."  Lorenzo Snow.

I have to say also that I'm so thankful for my flower garden, and my camera.  I love taking photo's of flowers.  I hope you have enjoyed looking at them.

G.G.

Murders,Prostitutes and Theives OH MY!...... Coming to terms with the dark side of your family tree.....

If you dig deep enough in your family history you may find that not all of your ancestors have been good people.  They most likely are not all Knights in Shining armor rescuing damsels in distress.
At some point you are going to find the skeletons of your family tree.  Those people who for whatever reason chose to do things that were not considered good.

Many people would like to be related to Royalty.  Here is King Charles the Second of England, Scotland, and Ireland.  And being related to him to some might be wonderful, but King Charles the Second had many mistresses, and so many who are related to him were actually related by being from the wrong side of the sheets so to speak.  And that is where I've found some very interesting family  history the past few weeks. One of my husbands ancestors was related to King Charles the Second through his son from a mistress.  In fact I have recently found a whole line of women who were the mistresses of nobility.

Here is a picture his illegitimate son the Duke of Lennox.  He also had mistresses.  I think it was very common back in their time for the royalty to have affairs. A good friend said its very much like the rich and famous of our time.  I used to like to read regency romance novels, and it seems that time period was full of men with more than one woman. I always wonder why it's OK for the men, but not for the women. There are a lot of interesting articles about The Duke of Lennox. .With all my romance novel reading, I've always wanted to meet a duke or be related to one so this find in our family history has been fun. For me it's like reading a romance novel that has gone wild.

Here is the notorious mistress Renee de  Penacort de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth. I have found many articles about these women.  And one interesting thing is that their daughters would also take up the trade of being a mistress. Some of them were opera singers too... (So like the romance novels, all the mistresses were opera singers.)  I think being a woman back in her time would have been hard.  There wasn't much women were allowed to do so you either got married, worked as a servant, or like these women used their bodies to obtain money and security.
As you trace your family history you may also find that someone in your family has murdered someone else.  I have found a few in my line.  I found out about one such murder because the persons grandchildren were living with them while their mother served time for killing their father.
You may also find a few thieves in your family tree too. While it has never been proved, or even speculated by others, I believe my husbands ancestor "Thomas Bowlby" who was the first known Bowlby to come to America took the lands of his deceased father in law.  It ended up good for him, but not so good for the niece who was supposed to be in control of the land.  Again woman didn't have as many rights back in the 1700's.
So should you be embarrassed by these skeletons in your family tree?  Should you do their temple work?  That was the question I had when I found this line of ancestors.  My new friend who is serving a mission at the Family History library helped me out.  She said that we should not judge our ancestors.  We do not know all the situations that led up to their short comings.  She said that as long as we know that the information on them is accurate we should submit their names.  Leave the judgment up to Heavenly Father.  I have to say that all the Murders, Prostitution, and theft found in my family tree makes it interesting, allows me to learn about others and their lives and makes me grateful that despite it all I'm here and choosing a good path.

" I am satisfied that when persons go into these temples, they do not [leave] without feeling better and with a determination in their minds to do a little better than they have done.  That is the feeling we want the Saints to get..." Lorenzo Snow.
My family is doing well.  My daughter is off to camp for the week, my hours have been cut at the garden center to two days a week.  Which is good.  It was getting to be a bit too much.  And I was lamenting the fact that I wanted to spend more time with my children.  So I still get my garden center fix, but more time with the children.  Plus I have projects I want to work on.
I have read a few books lately about the power of positive thought and Gratitude.  I will be sharing more on them and my new out look on life soon.  One thing that I'm going to start with my blog is a vision section.  Like a vision board.  I have a few things I want to put on it,  First a trip to Scotland, second finishing the book I've been trying to write, and third figuring out what my dream job is.  One thing I have been focusing on over the last week has been being thankful.  It has really been interesting to find things everyday to be thankful for.  What I have found is that I'm noticing how much people thank me for things I do.  I hadn't noticed that before.  It has made my night job a bit more pleasant to be at.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post.  Let me know if you have any interesting skeletons in your family tree.
G.G.

The Treasure Flower.....

This week I am learning about the Gazania.  They are also called The Treasure Flower.
Gazania's are native to Southern Africa.
They are from the Asteraceae plant family.

The have large, daisy-like composit flowers.  They will flower throughout the summer.
They are often planted as drought tolerant ground cover.
The flowers do not open on wet or cloudy days.
Removing dead blossoms will increase the number of flowers produced.

The only thing I could find on why they are called The Treasure Flower was one article that said they are a treasure no matter where you plant them.
The Victorian flower dictionary does not have any meaning for this flower.  So I'll give it a meaning.
If you give this flower to someone then you can think that you are saying "You are a treasure to me."

Here is a photo of what they look like when they are just opening up.  I planted 3 of these plants in my garden.  I look forward to watching them bloom.

 

" Temples are unique among buildings.... They are places of covenants and promises.  At their altars we kneel before God our creator and are given promise of his everlasting blessings."  Gordon B. Hinckley.
"The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead"  Joseph Smith.

Petunia's.. From soothing to anger.....

Here are the Petunia plants that I bought from the garden center.  I hope to show you photo's of them through out the summer.  This photo was taken when I first planted them.  I would like to see how big they get by fall.  The name for these Petunias is "Summer Madness."

Petunia's are Annual plants.  That means that they only live for one season.
They should bloom from late spring into autumn.
They grow in all zones except the coldest.

Petunias come in a variety of colors.
They like full sun light.
They will bloom repeatedly with minimal care.
They are a low maintenance plant.

Petunias that are kept in hanging pots, or petunias that spread need more water than other types.
When the flower of the petunia is fading you need to pluck it off which will increase the amount of blooms the flower produces.

If your petunias are in containers feed them with a high phosphorous liquid fertilizer, such as a 5-10-5 NPK formula, once every two weeks through out the spring and summer.  I've also been told that when you make your pot you should add a fertilizer in with the soil to help the roots stay healthy.

Petunias also have two meanings attached to them.  What I find interesting is that the meanings are totally opposite.

One meaning is " Your presence soothes me."

I like this meaning, and looking at petunias feels soothing to me.

The second meaning is " Haughty resentment mixed with anger at something the receiver has inadvertently done."  I wonder though if the receiver will know which meaning the flower has for them.  I guess if I was going to send the anger one I might send black petunias or red.  So if you get Petunias from someone that isn't usually nice to you, then perhaps it is their way of showing you they are angry at you.

My Temple Quote of the week : " I should not like to contemplate an existence, especially one that is going to continue forever, if I could not enjoy that existence with those whom I love.  And so we build Temples in the name of the Lord."  I can't tell you who did this quote as I forgot to write the name down.  I'll have to find it and tell you later.

This month I have started a program of 28 days of being grateful.  I'm on day two, but it has so far been very eye opening.  I will tell you more about it after I've done more days.

Today I am thankful for a quiet morning at the Temple, time to spend with my children and the jobs my husband and I have.  Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you Heavenly Father for these blessings!

Hope to share with you photos and information on one of the plants in my garden next week.  Have not picked which one yet.

G.G.