Trying something new...

Wow, I finally have a moment to sit down and blog about my favorite subject, "Plants". I'm rather annoyed that some of my succulents didn't survive the intense California sun this year. The poor things got burnt to the point where they just melted. I finally got over it, so I decided to try something new. I love succulents, but I also want to add a little variety out on my balcony. I've been poking around at our local Lowe's and I finally got myself some Bougainvilleas. I've been admiring and making noise about getting them for over 2 years now and today, I finally got off my behind and got some.

This one is the Raspberry Ice Bougainvillea. I hope to train this one to grow along my balcony window.



This one is a Royal Purple Bougainvillea. I want this one to grow along the bars of my balcony.



Some flowers from my succulent 'Necklace Plant'. It's been blooming all summer and I've decided that I've procrastinated long enough and finally took a picture of it. They look like Cauliflower to me.

Pink Ghost Crest - Euphorbia Lactea

I received a beautiful gift in the mail today from my dear friend Colin. We had a conversation many months ago about succulents and euphorbias and how difficult some are to find. I was on a mission to find a pink crested euphorbia but despite all my efforts, I couldn't find one. When I was just about ready to give up the search, Colin secretly tracked one down for me all the way from Thailand. He warned me not to be too shocked if I found a surprise in the mail and I can say that I was indeed shocked by the beautiful specimen that I found hidden underneath all the packaging. Thank you Colin, for this beautiful gift and always encouraging me to enjoy my hobbies.

Flowers for me!

Well, it finally happened. My Graptopetalum paraguayense 'Ghost Plant' has finally decided to make flowers for me. It only took about 4 and a half years of patient waiting. I had convinced myself that the flowers would be pink. I don't really know why. Instead I got a burst of lovely yellow, star shaped flowers. They kind of look like the tiny yellow flowers of broccoli.



My Ghost Plant is blushing for me. It's getting the most pretty hint of pink all over, probably because it's been getting a daily dose of full California summer sun. I'm really enjoying the pink.



This is the flower stalk of my Echeveria nodulos 'Painted Lady'. This is the first time that it's put out a flower stalk. I love the pink and white tipped flowers. Apparently, Mr. Spider loves this flower stalk as well because he's been busy making webs all over my balcony, but mostly on this particular plant. If you look closely, you can see webs on the stalk.

You've been tagged

Julie from "A Succulent Life" was indirectly tagged upon visiting a blog and since I visited Julie's blog, I guess I've been tagged.

The rules:

Pick up the nearest book with 123 pages or more.
Find page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.

If you are reading this, you've been tagged!

Here's mine:

First, let me think how we're going to take care of this.
Okay? It won't be easy, but I'll figure out what to do, don't worry.
Five years ago, the same thing happened to me.

Hello to all my blogger friends!

Hi everyone! I've been going through a bit of a blogging dry spell as of late, but I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. Julie and Vickie, thanks for inquiring about me and my family. We are all doing great! Hope all of you are doing great as well.

The family and I decided to poke around Lowe's and Osh after what seems like weeks of not doing our usual plant shopping outings. I found some succulents that I don't have in my collection, which I will blog about in the days to come. I also picked up a few plants that aren't from the cacti family. I brought them home fully prepared with insecticidal soap in the event that I get an aphid breakout. I've been battling mealy bugs on some of my succulents but I think I finally have that under control.

My daughter Iris picked out this beautiful purple Dahlia. If hubby and I should ever decide to give our girls another sibling and the sibling happens to be a girl, I believe I will name her Dahlia.



I thought these Celosia were darling, so I made myself a mix with various colors.



I love red flowers. The Salvia plant was calling out to me, so I brought this one home as well.



I thought I'd give these Tricolor Geraniums a try. The leaves are gorgeous and they really stood out at Lowe's.



Hubby picked out this Perilla 'Magilla'. Purple is one of my favorite colors so I couldn't pass it up.

To all the wonderful mothers

Little garden frogs

My hubby found the cutest frog planter for my succulent habit. He's been showering me with gifts a day at a time, before Mother's Day. I think I need to run out and get a few more of the exact same planter and make up some succulent mixes, maybe a few Kalanchoe with different colored blooms as a gift for my MIL and my mother.



Hubby got me this cute little frog, with little turtle friends to go with the planter.



And lastly, a new dining set. I've been wanting a simple wooden dining set, so hubby went out today and surprised me with one.