100_4476 For some reason, I am addicted to taking pictures of my flowers.  I take picture after picture, trying to perfect the color and the depth of field and the lighting and the angle.

This picture is of some plants in a large worn terra-cotta pot on our back patio.  The blue flowers are called lobelia and are perhaps my favorite garden flower.  They are very dainty but so true blue.  It is really hard to find another blue flower that matches its intensity.  The yellow flowers are called dahlberg daisies and I love them!  They have beautiful, feathery leaves and these bright, bright golden faces.  They will bloom all summer long if you are vigilant at dead-heading.  (picking off the spent flowers to keep the flower from producing seed heads – if you do this, it "tricks" the plant into producing more flowers!)  The silvery foliage in the lower right is helichrysum and is a great accent foliage plant – best because it has a great trailing habit and a nice soft, velvety texture.  The pink/orange flowers in the very background are called calibrochoa or million bells and are basically a miniature version of a petunia.

I always think that if I could do anything in the world that is different from anything I do now, I would be a horticulturist.  I love to plant and feel my fingers in the earth, and water the ground and wait for the seeds to push up to the sky.  There is a quote I love:

There is no unbelief; Whoever plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see it push away the clod.  He trusts in God.

~Kate Douglas Wiggin