Cleome

An old favorite Cleome.

One of my all time favorites is Cleome. I like the way it looks and I like the way it smells but it is also sticky like tobacco is when tobacco is being cut in the field; and I don't like that very much. It is also a prolific seeder and each stem produces hundreds of flowers and pea-pod-like pods filled with seeds. If you allow the pod to fill and grow old it will split open and drop the contents on the ground. Most of the seed will not survive birds and insects but they are tiny and fall into cracks and some will sprout the following year. 

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

A very attractive flower but grows here as an annual. It doesn't attract a lot of hungry feeders but it sure is beautiful in all its colors and shapes.

Zinnia

Zinnia came up this year from seed that sprouted in the area where old flowers from previous years had been planted.

I really wish I could get some of my old Cleome to come up and bloom so I could get some new seed.

The seeds I save are often forgotten about until a few years later and then I end up dumping all of them in the same general area.

Cleaned Up Backyard

Pepper Jax was outside almost all day watching Patty and I work in the yard pulling up Dark-eyed Susans. What a mess they had gotten to be. When they go to see they must drop a million new seeds so we got them up and out before the seed dropped. At least we hope we did. They will be taken in paper bags that we buy from the city for this purpose and stacked one or more next to the big trailer they use to haul all the green stuff in the bags to the proper dump.

Morning Glory Seeds

Morning Glory seeds ready for another year of growing pretty flowers on the pole at the end of our patio.

I think the seeds are as interesting as the actual flowers.

If you keep planting the same flowers that formed from the same seed then you will see the flower itself go back to it's original color and shape.

That is why it is a good idea to collect seeds from flowers that are annuals and come up each year from seed.

Beating the Heat

In the summer when it is hot and muggy, the animals try to stay cool by dozing in any spot of shade they happen to find. This little rabbit is sprawled-out and cooling himself off with his hot belly on the cool ground. 

I was sitting on the swing about five feet from him and he knew I was there but trusted me enough to lay down, sprawl out and cool off. His mother was here to give birth to the baby rabbits and as soon as they began eating some of the clover in our yard, she took off and left them on their own.

They soon ate any tender plants that were coming up and that is OK with me. They are learning what to eat and what not to eat. It just happened that this flower is one of their favorites and eating the tops is a great way to propagate them.

I thought it was neat how they can stand up to get their favorite parts of the flowers.