The prequel to Garden Bloggers Operation Christmas Child

Jo called on a warm afternoon and ask me what kind of  weather South Dakota had in December. I said freezing cold and no way your little almost freezing self could survive. Fast forward several months later and here sits several thousand boxes filled with even more shoeboxes sitting on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

And here is the little 5′1″ North Carolinian warm-blooded mammal who arrived with the boxes to deliver them to the little kids for Operation Christmas Child for the 2008 Christmas season. Isn’t she cute? Imagine if she hadn’t talked to her best friend who had spent 4 years in North Dakota  with her husband who was stationed at Minot, AFB. Just imagine? That best friend who she talked to would be me.

We garden bloggers are doing Operation Christmas Child because I was inspired by my best friend Jo. She went to South Dakota last year and handed out little shoeboxes to kids so they could have a Christmas. You can follow link 1 HERE to give. Link TWO HERE where we do part 1 of the shopping. And  the last giving day will be November 20th so as of today there is still time to give. The turn in date is November 23rd.

I told the fool little freezing thing that she was gong to see temps like she’d never imagined.

and to this she got off the plane and stared right at the Weather Channel bulletin. It was like about 70 degrees back home in NC.

She called me and thanked me profusely for the tip about long johns and that speech about scarves.

I did tell her that she would see some of the most beautifully painted landscapes she’d ever seen. Soon the 18 wheelers arrived and the big tent went up. It was filled to overflowing. The big boxes were filled with shoeboxes. The shoeboxes were filled with treasures that had been donated by folks just like you.

The boxes were all stored in the tent which is located on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The building on the left is where they cooked and had some bathrooms and a small storage area. They were suppose to sleep in the tent—but bitter cold was certainly not going to allow for that.

The schools and such where the shoeboxes were to be delivered for redistribution where scattered about the area. The boxes had to transported from this central location.

Jo had been putting boxes together for the better part of 19 years for the little kids. On many occasions she had taken her own kids on shopping trips to buy items that would be placed inside the boxes. They all loved this ritual and this year she had volunteered to go on a mission trip to deliver the boxes to the children. She didn’t know the frozen North would be her destination. I think she was hoping for Hawaii.

She didn’t know if she’d be spending the Operation Christmas Child gift giving week in Australia or some foreign land or here on the homeland. Looks like South Dakota is it and one of the stops was this sweet school. But it could just as easily been right in your backyard. Look around you—-there are so many in need. Operation Christmas Child does not pick religion or color—-they give to everyone. This happens to be on a reservations but it could be in the Appalachians or in the Amazons.

And here is Jo on the left below giving out a shoebox—-I was so happy for her.

And giving is the sweetest gift of all~~~~~ Please give to our Operation Christmas Child

——>>>>>>>GO HERE and read the first post and see how to give!!! Look at the link or at my sidebar for names of those who have already given. On the link above you can grab the widget and help me spread the word. I want to help the children. Won’t you help me too? Please?

Operation Christmas Child Garden Blogger half way report

Pictures from this weekend showing the cart is filled with fun treasures for the little kid’s boxes for our Garden Blogger’s Operation Christmas Child.<—–Follow the link and you can sign up like many of your friends who are listed on the link and on my sidebar under the widget for Garden Bloggers Operation Christmas Child ———>

(so sorry for some of the picture quality as I dropped my camera and damaged the shutter while shopping.)

Several weeks ago, Garden Bloggers Operation Christmas Child kicked off. Proven Winners Plants is our sponsor and they have graciously started us off with $300.  The money donated is being used to buy items that will fill a shoe box. The shoe boxes will be given to children all over the world through the Samaritan’s Purse Ministries.

 

My best friend, Jo, has been doing these boxes for 20 years.  This past weekend she came up to visit me and we took the first 500 dollars that you donated and went to Walmart. Everyone at Walmart got in the action. The workers were pointing us to all the sales wanting to know about the project.

The department heads were showing where the good deals were. I wish you all could of been there. Your dollars were multiplied. Plus Jo is like the queen of Walmart shoppers. She can turn a dollar in to 10.

The shoppers were eyeing our cart asking if we were shopping for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child–so I would hand them one of my business cards for my blog–and tell them about you garden bloggers–and then tell them about our mission. Operation Christmas Child is a big story in our part of the South so most people know about it.

We got each child a little Christmas stocking and it will be filled with candy and put in the little shoe box. Anyone want to just pull right up here and cry with me. Ya’ll figured out yet I’m an emotional mess by now shopping for all these precious kids? Anyone figure out to send your kid to my door for fundraisers?

Jo’s husband is the pastor of a Methodist church and the ladies of the church are helping to put the boxes together for us. The tops and bottoms of the boxes have to be wrapped individually so this will be a huge help. You all are still giving so there is no telling how many boxes this could be when all is said and done–thank you to the ladies of the church for your help!!!!

To give you the big picture—Each shoe box is pre-wrapped and stuffed with the items we are buying and marked boy or girl and the age of the items inside. We bought for all age groups so no one would be left out. Today–we bought enough stuff for approximately 20 boxes. Course—you all aren’t done giving right?

( oh gosh, so sorry that is bad–my sweet Kodak Z612 was so awesome. I’m gonna miss it. I met the nicest lady to take this picture. She’ll be disappointed it turned out like this. She was coming by to see the project.)

When we got to the check-out line…..we got in multiple conversations with people who just had to know the whole story about the garden bloggers. They were helping us look for items we particularly wanted such as Tinkerbell chapstick. I didn’t want the little girls to have regular old ugly chapstick. I wanted the kids all over the world to have what every little kid in every home wants.

We got miniture coloring books, crayons, stencils, bead kits, calculators, designer t-shirts( they roll up easily), socks, candy, match box cars, Rubix cubes, matrix puzzles, powder, toothbursh, hairbrush, dolls, toy motorcycles, Legos, plastic dress up dolls, Tyco push trucks, felt landscapes, Nerf balls, high bounce balls–and the list goes on.

We aren’t done giving folks!!!!!!!!!! Keep on giving till November 20th!!!!! I can keep on if you can!!!

We’ve raised $710 toward our $2,000 goal. The first annual Garden Blogger’s Operation Christmas Child will end on November 20th but shopping started this past Thursday and will go all the way to the 21st and we’ll turn the boxes in to Samaritan’s Purse ministries on November 23. There is still plenty of time to give

Tomorrow’s update is my friend’s trip to South Dakota where some of the Operation Christmas Child boxes where given out last year. That will help you visualize some of the giving process.

If you want to give right now and read the first post go HERE to OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD Donations with your credit card are taken at Flowergardengirl.org

 

Snow Princess™ Lobularia hybrid Sweet Alyssum, Must Have

Incredible is all you can say about ‘Snow Princess’ Lobularia hybrid sweet alyssum. I grew it in containers and in the ground this summer and watching the never ending display of fluffy white blooms was absolutely satisfying. I thought you might like to see the photos from the Proven Winners site. Please enjoy!

You’ve all seen my gardens so let’s go look at some others around the Proven Winners’ world. All photos are used with permission from PW. You may not use these pictures without written consent from Proven Winners Plants.

Unlike most alyssums that fizzle out in the southern heat, ‘Snow Princess’ held up beyond measure. She’s on my list now appearing on a page at the top of my blog—-called***FGG’s FAV Annuals which is under construction.

This is one of the most stunning landscapes I’ve seen don’t you think? Bravo Proven Winners. I can name all their NEW VARIETIES in there? Can you? I see—Yep, I’ve grown everything in the picture above and it will look like that–now if I could just remember to put it together in that order!!

We had a frost last night which certainly took out most of my surviving annuals but ‘Snow Princess’ lobularia greeted me this morning still going strong. I just had to tell you about it. Girlfriends gotta share you know. And as promised, I told you I’d get the word out about the 2010’s before the nurseries finished ordering them so you could put your request in. Go tell them you want ‘Snow Princess”

This plant is very thirsty and hungry. You might need to water it twice a day. It will recover from a dry spell but I’d keep it on the moist side. I’d feed it once a week and give it plenty of pot room. I’m betting the one in the head above got a weak feeding every time it was watered and was probably watered at least twice a day if not hooked up to a slow drip system.

Good luck with your ‘Snow Princess’ . She sure looks worth it huh?

Meet ‘Pretty Much Picasso’, the new 2010 outrageous annual

Take a look at the new 2010 outrageous annual that is going to take seasonal gardeners to another level. Lots a wow coming at you with ‘Pretty Much Picasso’. He’s a Proven Winners Plants variety of course. Don’t be shocked when I tell you that my order totals 40! That’s right…..

I ask The Briar Patch last week how many they were ordering and they said–oh about 100. I said well I’m taking 40 of them for my clients and so Candy said—-well ok!….I guess we better get more—I said well I’m guessing you best cause it’s gonna sell like hot cakes—do you hear private nursery owners!!! I’m going to promote the socks off this one. I love it!!!!!!

I’m going to use it in pots with other taller plants that I’ll introduce over the coming days which are also new 2010 varieties. Two are new Ipomoes and one is a new papyrus. Such exciting things going on. So much to tell about that I might not get it all in before Spring planting. Goodness!

And in my garden one of the most important features would be that DEER do not eat them! I did not recieve one of these to trial in my garden this year but I’ve trialed so many PW petunias that it’s just a no brainer on this. I’m sold on the color. I’m guessing they will cost around $5 each for a 5″ pot which some people stroke over but out of that I get a healthy 3+ foot plant from May-November with proper soil prep and feeding schedule. You don’t have to removed spent blooms. I can’t find a better deal than that. My six packs won’t do that.

Proven Winner Cultivars are super athlete plants. They must be planted in good soil and they are heavy feeders needing weekly or bi-monthly liquid food and slow release is what I recommend. That was very evident this summer when my neighbor didn’t follow my instructions and the exact same plants as were in my garden grew to half the height and width.

Also, I’ve sold him on the idea of adopting my garden soil prep habits which you can read about HERE. <——If you follow my soil routine…..you’ll rarely have pest and disease problems and you’ll have beautiful plants. It’s that mushroom compost that’s the best ingredient.

Flowergardengirl on Garden World Report

In the picture above is the ‘Invincibelle Spirit’ hydrangea cultivar by Proven Winners Plants. I am obsessive about hydrangea cultivars. This hydrangea will grow in zones 3-9 and keeps this color all summer long. It will take one summer for the stems to gain the strength needed to hold blooms if purchased in the small 5″ containers that I received—but that is how I get them from Proven Winners. They are a gift and then of course—I rave about them.

I was growing Proven Winners in my gardens 5 years before Proven Winners contacted me so don’t go saying she only grows them cause they give them to her. I actually started growing Proven Winners plants because I worked at this—> nursery

The above photo is from a commercial I did for them and shows you some of my work from my podcasting services. I worked for this nursery from 1999 to last year off and on. Fantastic hard working people and they grow Proven Winners Plants from plugs to retail size. So I became a fan and knowledge guru of the product long before PW found my blog.

These are my old gardens. Mr D and I layed that stonework. Wish I had it now. Loved this house to pieces. But do not miss 3 stories! This is at Christmastime Now you didn’t think I was going to get through a post without humor did you?

Now PW and I are glad to call each other friends and I’m nuts about their hydrangea cultivars. Man do they do well in my gardens. I drive by my former home that I just moved from last year— cry at those I left behind. But hey—I’m starting over at the new place and have just as many but they are babies so you’ll have to see the little ones for now—and oh, ahh–at the blooms.

I never get tired of taking pictures of the ‘Limelight’ hydrangea. This was taken a month ago I think. Ok ya’ll , watch Shirley’s video and at the end of the video is one of my signature container pieces that I rarely show people online. I’ve also put it on my About page if you want to see it close up.

See Flowergardengirl on GWR or go to my sidebar and it’s the first video of the day.

About the Show
Hi Friends, recently my friend Shirley Bovshow of Garden World Report and Eden Makers Blog ask me what plant or plants I have an obsession about and clearly—— it was hydrangea cultivars. You can see some of my choices and you’ll recognize our other gardening friends as you watch the show—Plantanistas! Thank you Shirley and I had a blast working with you!

Two different shots of the arrangement I did for Garden World Report:

The digital random thoughts of Flowergardengirl for Copper Top Cottage

When Flowergardengirl was considering the colors for Copper Top Cottage she thought of her favorite colors of fall and paired them~~~with ~~ this of all things–

~~ a rotating egg~~The above image actually spins on her computer and was created in Gimp using photos from the scenes from her back yard but WordPress will not allow that application and too bad for you~~~~Autumn is her favorite time of year. The image above allows her to look at the colors against the teal from every angle. Teal is the color of her Copper Top Cottage.

Soon the lace curtains will go up and all the treasures she’s been gathering for 50 years will purposefully be placed in every nook and cranny of her little shed. As I’m reading this back to her she’s saying this is getting way too quaint like and intense so and I should lighten the mood a bit. She says that although there’s a cute quiet side to her , she’s also a riot and that sometimes she wears her Tuesday underwear on Friday.

Copper Top Cottage will be filled with hopes of rows to hoe and gardeners to know. There will be a comfy reading chair by the stained glass window that was purchased at a salvage yard and always a red geranium in one of the windows which has nothing at all to do with the colors she has carefully planned for the space. But red  geraniums were her grandmother’s favorite and so it shall be.

The paint selection for the outside is in the  Natural Splendor line called Biltmore Estate: She’s loving the name  which is~~~‘Hidden Spring’  by Olympic Paint and is talked about in an article she wrote about HERE. One of her favorite color palettes is that of teal, deep peachy orange, and deep golden burnt umber. You can only find that in her back yard during Autumn . Right! Or does this happen in your yard too?

And she never buys a plant without considering it’s aged beauty. And she would never marry a man without considering his retirement plan.

Alaska nasturtiums are considered a bit hard to grow but they do well  in her front beds as there has never been any grown in her back beds. They love this time of year. They like the cool weather  unlike most nasturtiums which would rather see long hot sunny days I suppose~~ do you suppose?. Flowergardengirl likes the speckled leaves of the Alaska variety. She likes any speckled leaves.

Today is the first day of November and it’s so gloriously chilly. Flowergardengirl’s home is filled with biscuit breezes and the aroma of a roast in the oven. Would you like to see the leaves that have fallen and her roast in the oven? And will you please watch her later on tonight at Garden World Report. She’d appreciate it. Here she is now just before the show at her home in NC~~~~

Meet a delightful local NC artist, Gail Morris

I fist met Gail while I was trespassing on her front lawn and taking pictures of her flaming red tulips. You may remember that I wrote about it HERE. She caught me on her way out to check her mail and I’m so very glad she did. Now we’ve struck up a friendship.  She has one of those personalities that you want to hold dear to your heart and not let go.

( You do not have permission to copy these pictures for any use.)

As you can see, Gail Morris is an incredibly talented lady. Sometimes, she likes to paint my flowers( those aren’t mine above) and often uses them as models for some of her paintings. I love that she does. Big hugs Gail.

Gail  is a native North Carolinian just like myself and I’d like to take you with me to her canvas where she colors North Carolina from her home located just across the street from mine. I’m the lucky one. It turns out Gail is a very gifted painter. And….her husband’s parents were long time friends with my family for as long as the smoke trails from chimney peak to chimney peak.

Gail has two sons and two grandchildren. She has always loved art and at the age of six she painted porcelain pieces under the tutelage of an aunt. Her parents encouraged her artistic talent and enrolled her in art classes at the Reynolda House and the Arts Council.

Her First juried piece was in the first grade…She won first place with a drawing of a little pig-tailed girl in a swing.

Gail attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro ,majoring in business. Her job was wife and mother until she began working at Wake Forest University Health Sciences in the Departmento fo Neurosurgery and retired in December of 2007 after 28 years of service.

Shortly before retirement, she enrolled in art classes at Salem College and studied with Vicky Verano and has continued to study with other local artist such as Judy Meyler, Molly Davis, Sean Dye, Patty Bailey Sheets, Sharon Grubbs, Frank Rowland and many more. ( webpages added by flowergardengirl.wordpress.com and not the responsibility of Gail Morris. should there be a need for adjustments or any corrections please contact me via the information provided on this website. Thank you~ Anna~ and a warm welcome to my website if you have arrived by one of these links!)

Gail Morris is a member of the Muddy River Art Association and the Associated Artists of Winston Salem. She paints landscapes, figures, still life, home and pet portraits.

GAIL M. MORRIS
ARTIST STATEMENT

Simply stated, I LOVE to paint! Art is a pure joy for me. To express myself in color, light and shadow, brightness and contrast, brings me a deep sense of satisfaction. Capturing special memories of place, person, or a beloved pet brings a unique pleasure to others and is very rewarding to me.

Each time I begin a new canvas is an adventure – from the initial sketch to the finished painting. It begins as an empty canvas, a puzzle beckoning to be solved – the brush in my hand, feeling the flow of the paint and seeing colors mingle, observing light and shadows forming on the canvas make my paintings personal. Becoming totally immersed in my painting with no sense of time passing by makes me feel that part of my soul is being expressed in my paintings. This is deeply satisfying.

~~~~~~~~If you would like to contact Gail, please use the contact button at the top of my blog, your comment will not appear publicly. It will go directly to my inbox. I will forward the message to her. ~~~~~~

The Seed Pods Of Gymphocarpus Physocarpus

This is a riot of activity. I’ve done many a post about this Monkey Balls or Fur Balls plant that continues to drive curious folks to my blog. Some have even emailed me for seeds. At first, I was sending them over to Thompson and Morgan where I had purchased them but after reading a bit about them I’m hesitant.

I have reported they are poisonous to humans and animals. And in the same report I’ve given links to the medicinal value. But more recently it’s been brought to my attention that they are not welcome in our plains region because the range animals will eat them. So I have chosen to gather the seed pods and discontinue their lineage. Farewell my friends. I enjoyed the journey.

And what have I been up to——–!!!!!! The fans of Flowergardengirl can****** Watch me Sunday night on a show called ‘The Plantanista’—at  Garden World Report It always airs West Coast Time on Sunday evening around 9ish  so I usually watch it on Monday. Ya’ll tune in November 1st with Shirley Bovshow the host.  I’m talking about a certain garden thing I have an obsession about. Shirley Bovshow from Eden Makers Blog is the host and she’s always been my buddy. She’s really making a go of this online TV and ironing out the technical details. Last week was an interesting show about the Gen Y’ers.

( It is looking—hopefully—like we are on our way to reaching goal for our Operation Christmas Child for Garden Bloggers so please head over and give!!!! Thank you to everyone who is posting the widget! )