HE IS RISEN !

Spring Has Sprung In Houston!

After the coldest winter since 1976 it seems that spring has finally arrived in Houston. During the winter weather I couldn't work on the plants outside so my friend April and I have been working on tiny plant arrangements for inside. Now that the weather is beautiful I am torn between inside plants and outside plants! What a wonderful predicament! Enjoy these two Tiny Shovels creations - spring has sprung - hallelujah for the sunshine!

Please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for more delicious pinkness!

I'm Back...And In The Pink!

I know that this has been an extended blog hiatus but, you know, these things happen from time to time. Lots of stuff happened, none of which is worth mentioning here - all that is important is that I'm back and glad to be here with you!

I'm still growing my pond plants but now everything is dormant, so what to do? How about opening a new etsy shop called Tiny Shovels and stocking it with tiny vintage containers filled with equally tiny succulents!

For this Pink Saturday I wanted to show you my very first listing on the new site, a beautiful Victorian cup with an equally beautiful pink blooming cactus in it. Yes, those little pink flowers are real! This has been a really fun thing to do during these cold winter days. Enjoy!

My thanks as always to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for hosting Pink Saturday.

Pink Saturday - A Plant That Will Leave You Feeling In The Pink!

I'm not going to show you a plant this Pink Saturday that has large, showy flowers like last Saturday's lotus. As a matter of fact, the flowers of this plant, although pretty, are not its main feature.

If you are not already familiar with scented geraniums let me introduce you to one of my favorites - the Lime Scented Geranium. Plant this beauty next to a path or in a pot close to where you sit in the garden and breath deep! The slightest brush of your hand produces the scent of fresh-cut limes...how relaxing...

I keep my scented geraniums in small pots spread around my front porch. When I water them their different scents waft up to tickle my nose. These pelargoniums have dainty, delicate flowers in a cool shade of lavender pink. Their leaves are a delicious deep green with a slightly blue cast and are only about an inch in diameter.

The leaves of lime scented geranium are edible and can be used in ice tea, layered in sugar to give it a delicious lime scent and unique flavor, potpourri and sachets. Come join in my obsession with the scented geranium!

Be sure to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for more delicious Pinkness!

Another Obsession - The Stately Iris

"Thou art the Iris, fair among the fairest,

Who, armed with golden rod

And winged with the celestial azure, bearest

The message of some God."


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)


shown: Louisiana Iris 'Black Gamecock'
suitable for garden, pond or bog.

A prolific, free flowering iris, the foliage provides
structure in a garden even when not in bloom.

Pink Saturday - The Lovely Lotus, Part Two

Last week for Pink Saturday I wrote about the spunky little lotus, Momo Batan. This week I want to show you the majestic Mrs. Perry D. Slocum. In my imagination this lotus is an elegant grande dame in a pink ballroom gown!

Dr. Slocum was a pioneer in the hybridization of water lilies and lotus and named this exquisite lotus in tribute to his wife. It will grow to 6 feet tall with the blooms being held at least a foot above the pads. The pads on the plants we grew this year were up to 18 inches across with blooms nearly as big! People would see it in the nursery yard, pull over to ask what it was, then promptly buy it so that they could have one of the these giant beauties for their very own.

Mrs. Slocum is the only "changeable" lotus, its flowers are vivid pink on the first day, pale pink on the second, creamy yellow on the third and creamy white on the fourth! The picture above was taken of three blooms on the same lotus plant, and - being bog plants - they are also grown in a 7 gallon feed pan which can be placed anywhere in your garden!

We will begin anew with tubers in early spring, come join me in my obsession with the sacred lotus...

Be sure to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for more delicious pinkness!

Accidental Tabletop Bog Garden

I am so overwhelmed and currently have too many things to do and absolutely no time to do them in. So I am going to ignore the madness and write a small post dedicated to my tabletop bog garden.

I keep this tub outside my backdoor on a table where I can contemplate its beauty. It is just so green, I just love that! What a blessing it has been - when I was too weak to walk outside I could look out the window at it and thank God for that little tub of greenery and for my life.

It was created when Hurricane Ike was barreling toward Galveston, and only 35 miles inland, our home. My husband put all my plants on the ground in our side yard, locked up and away from the windows. Some of these plants were bareroot, removed from a bog garden that I had in Arizona. I threw the bareroot plants into a 7 gallon feed tub and hoped for the best. I was in the middle of an intense round of radiation therapy and too weak and sick to worry about the plants. So, for the next few months I totally neglected this little tub other than to water it when I could, thinking that I would get around to dividing everything up into individual pots.

Obviously, that never happened and though I am healthy again I'm not going to touch this pot, it is just too cute! What a happy accident, no soil, no fertilizer, just water - no wonder I love these little wet wonders!!

The bog tub includes: Dwarf Cattail, Horsetail, Variegated Japanese Iris, Louisiana Iris 'Gamecock', White Rain Lily, Arrow Arum, Pennywort, Aquatic Four Leaf Clover. How fun!