Beautiful Flowers

I have never had the knack of growing things. I blame my skin for this. Since I burn so easily, I never was assigned yard or garden duty but spent those hours in the house. (My parents are both fabulous gardeners but I didn't get that gene.) I can't keep anything alive that's not silk. With my track record, it's hard to invest in plants and even harder to know what to do with them once I've invested. (Let's not go into my hundreds of dollars wasted on ivy plants in New Mexico. Who can kill ivy except me?)

The Relief Society held a gardening class and a master gardener from another ward came to teach it but he requested that the ward purchase the plants and then find homes for them because he had enough. My lovely friend, Ann, who has the gift of making everything beautiful, had some leftover plants and, since I couldn't go to the class, she brought them to me AND (this is the important part) helped me plant them. She said the key to a beautiful potted collection is "thrill, fill and spill." Thrill is for the tall showy plant that anchors the whole thing, fill is for the plants that complement it and are lower in height and spill is for the plants around the edge of the pot that spill over and bloom. It only took about five minutes for Ann to make these two beautiful pots.

There were still plants left but I was out of pots so later I went to buy another pot and look what I did all by myself! (I even picked out two of these plants! WOW!)

My favorite plant is one that reminds me of New Mexico. Isn't it adorable?

I now have three beautiful pots on my balcony and have added some plants to my boring chrysanthemums in the front. (Even I can't kill chrysanthemums!) We're ready for a summer party!