ABC Wednesday: "G": Glowing and Gelid With a Touch of Geography Thrown In

Gaillardia aristata 'Sunburst Scarlet Halo', Blanketflower.

"Each letter of the alphabet is a steadfast loyal soldier in a great army of words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories. One letter falls, and the entire language falters."
~ Vera Nazarian (The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration)

I can whole heartedly recommend this plant... Gaillardia or blanketflower. It is magnificent. I planted these in late April last year, already having blooms. Through the rest of Spring and Summer and on late into the Fall, they bloomed and bloomed and bloomed. All I had to do was deadhead the spent blossoms and more appeared. They finally faded in mid-November. Eights months of glorious, glowing color. And it will come back again this year, on its own with no additional planting... a true perennial. There are many varieties, most with varying amounts of crimson red and fiery yellow in the petals; but there are also those with flowers a gorgeous shade of garnet. Try them out... you won't be disappointed.

Groovy, garden gnome... with mushrooms!!
Enchanted Forest ~ Norfolk Botanical Gardens)

I wrote about this past Summer's display of wonderful children's playhouses in the Enchanted Forest section of Norfolk Botanical Gardens. Small clearings in the wooded area provided meeting places for the children to have short classes and explore the trees and to build gnome houses... yes, the Enchanted Forest is inhabited by groovy, garden gnomes. Look, under that bush or over there... beside that tree trunk... you never know where they will turn up. This one is adorable, but... what is that vine around him.... groundcover? Oh, I do hope it is Virginia creeper and not that nasty poison ivy stuff.

Green glass water globe.....

I learned a new word today... gelid...and adjective meaning... very cold; icy. Greens and blues are the cold or cool colors.. while reds and yellows are hot and glowing. You see where I was going with this now... right? Anyway, this is one of those contraptions that helps with watering the plants... it is filled with water, inserted in the soil and as the plant needs water it is absorbed and air replaces the water; or at least that is the general gist of it. It works well for the hanging baskets that are difficult to reach.

Gardenia...the flower meaning secret love, purity and joy.

This is my gardenia, variety Chuck Hayes... planted one year ago and bloomed deliciously this past Spring and early Summer. The scent was glorious and filled the yard with sweetness that could be sampled as soon as one walked through the back gate. Gardenias are one of my favorite flowers, in fact, they were the centerpiece of my bridal bouquet back in the dark ages. I love the deep and dark leaves and the pure white blooms and that fragrance... oh, my....indescribable!

A little touch of Geography.... Geneva, Switzerland.

Finally, aren't you glad I'm about to go? Just a little geography lesson... a little bit of the old world.... Geneva... no, not Illinois, Ohio, New York or the other six Geneva's in the United States... this Geneva is in Switzerland and this picture was taken by my globetrotting brother, Stephen Gould. This was a hard one... not the pictures... but the words. OK... I'm gone.

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ABC Wednesday ~ The Letter "G"