The Guild 5-13-2003 Try some new Annuals in your garden

Better Homes and Gardens ^

[BigWaveBetty]

It's fun and challenging to grow new or exotic plants, but it's also nice to have some solid favorites to fall back on, too.

Mexican Sunflower
Include the late-blooming Mexican sunflower to shift the garden from summer through autumn in grand style. The bold plants, available in many nurseries and home and garden centers, grow almost 6 feet tall. Fiery orange, 2-inch blossoms seem to illuminate everything around them.

Heliotrope
Growing only about 18 inches tall, heliotrope is perfect for the front of the garden and grows best in full sun and well-drained soil. Consider growing heliotrope in a container or window box where it will be closer to your nose.

Snow on the Mountain
Like the closely-related poinsettia, snow on the mountain has "flowers" that actually are specialized leaves or bracts. The true flower is inconspicuous at the center of the variegated green-and-white bracts. Growing to 4 feet tall, snow on the mountain is well-suited to the middle of the garden.

Four o'clocks
If you have little time in your day to enjoy your garden, you will appreciate night bloomers such as four o'clocks. The bushy 3- to 4-foot-high plant will open its tubular 2-inch flowers in late afternoon to early evening, and fill the garden with sweet perfume. Each flower lasts but one night, but the plant blooms constantly from midsummer to frost. Flowers come in magenta, yellow, or white and in striped combinations.

Mexican Zinnia
The bushy Mexican zinnia is a welcome change from the typical zinnia that is gangly and prone to powdery mildew. Two outstanding varieties are "Orange Star" and "Star White." They grow about 10 inches high and spread to 12 inches wide. Their mounds of fine, almost needle-like leaves give rise to single, daisy-like blooms that resemble a demure coreopsis more than their larger double-flowered zinnia cousins.

Love-lies-bleeding
Also known as tassel flower, this is a guaranteed showstopper in any garden. No shrinking violet, it grows 3 x 5 feet tall, spreads up to 2 feet across, and bears long, red-to-crimson-purple flower tassels. If the size of the plant doesn't grab your attention, the 2-foot-long panicles of flowers that resemble chenille will.

More at the link. Happy digging!

[Teacup]

Geraldo is getting married for the 5th time. This time, it's for keeps, he says.

[lodwick]

TRU LUV 4 EVUR

At least the dims provide us with daily chuckles.

Cheers back there.

[Teacup]

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to be nominated to the board of the New York Stock Exchange.

OMG!!!

[lodwick]

omg & wtf is correct.

And Michael's qualifications are...?

[mountaineer]

HEY GIBBIE, MAYBE YOU OUGHT TO SIT DOWN AND HAVE A LONG TALK WITH YOUR DAUGHTER!

I share your sentiments on the topic!

[lodwick]

A lady walks into the drug store and asks the druggist for some arsenic.

The druggist asks "Ma'am, what do you want with arsenic?"

The lady say's, "To kill my husband."

"I can't sell you any for that reason" says the druggist.

The lady then reaches into her purse and pulls out a photo of a man and a women in a compromising position, the man is her husband and the lady is the druggist's wife,
and shows it to the druggist..

He looks at the photo and says, "Oh I didn't know you had a prescription!"

[mountaineer]

Since the Palestinians want a homeland and it doesn't seem like a good idea to chop Israel up even smaller than it already is, here is a satisfactory solution: Let's give France to the Palestinians! The French have already stated that nothing is worth fighting for.

Besides, France has better irrigation and soil than the West Bank and Gaza strip. It's perfect. The French won't even fight back. And how about a new name for this Franco-Palestine?

How about Frankenstine?

Send this to all of your friends. Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with the French.

[mountaineer]

More on the story I posted at #92, above:

Friday's Toronto edition of the National Post filled in the details:

"Belinda's friendship with Bill Clinton is well-documented, but people are asking: Is the Magna First Daughter more than just pals with the former leader of the First World? (Magna is a Canadian auto parts giant.)

"They say the two of them talk regularly on the phone. They say he has come up to our parts to play golf with her. They say they've been to the fabulous Bymark restaurant together. ... They say Belinda sorta looks like a young Hillary, and that 'Bill and Belinda' rolls off the tongue almost as easily as 'Bill and Hill.' They say a lot."

In fact, Ms. Stronach managed to place second in last year's Fortune magazine survey of the world's most powerful businesswomen. NewsMax.

[lodwick]

The pali's must be a truly sorry lot for Jordan to have kicked them out, however many years ago.

Where are their muslim brothers who will take them into their country, or everyone hate them?

This Bill & Bel story has gone on quite a while now...didn't I dig up a pic of the world's second most influential woman at least a year ago?

I hope Bel is aware of STD's and how they can really mess up the rest of your life.

Cheers.

[Endeavor]

Lod - I was wondering how Belinda would feel about Bill's philandering, but if it's gone on for a year, I guess she's more like the 'beaste than we knew. Go figure.

[lodwick]

The mind truly boggles at the lives of the "rich and famous."

We need to contact Bel, et al, and learn if blubba has learned how to properly finish - or is he still the Sink Emperor? I'm having a tough time imagining any woman that would wish that sort of an encounter - cigar or no.

Amazing stuff for a legacy.

[Carolina]

They say Belinda sorta looks like a young Hillary, and that 'Bill and Belinda' rolls off the tongue almost as easily as 'Bill and Hill.'

Gag, gag, gag! I cannot imagine how women find Wee Willy Wanker desirable. That body is enough to make me retch.

A young Hillary, huh? Triple retch.

[MaeWest]

Geraldo is getting married for the 5th time. This time, it's for keeps, he says.

Keeps? I thought her name was Levy.

[BigWaveBetty]

Gak, why in the world would bill... oh nevermind...

Belinda Stronach

[lodwick]

Did you finally get the 'puter back under your control?

One day, while walking to the store, I passed by a Nursing Home. On the front lawn were 6 old ladies laying naked on the grass. I thought this was a bit unusual, but continued on my way to the store.

On my return trip, I passed the same Nursing Home with the same 6 old ladies laying naked on the lawn. This time my curiosity got the best of me and I went inside to talk to the manager. "Do you know there are 6 ladies laying naked on your front lawn?"

"Yes," he said. "They are retired prostitutes and they're having a yard sale."

[BigWaveBetty]

OMG, look who is a very bad boy. Way to raise your boy Cretin, er Chretien.

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories - A son of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was found innocent of three counts of sexual assault.

Michel Charles Chretien, 34, showed no emotion as the verdict was announced late Thursday, court officials said.

Chretien was arrested in July when a 19-year-old woman alleged that he assaulted her after a night of heavy drinking. The woman said Chretien had also assaulted her years ago when she was 10 or 11.

A publication ban imposed by the court prohibits reporting on any details of the third charge.

The six men and six women on the jury made their decision after five hours of deliberation. Chretien's accuser was not in court for the verdict, nor were his parents.

Chretien was sentenced to three years in prison in 1992 for sexually assaulting a woman he met in a Montreal bar. In February 1998, he received a nine-month suspended sentence for assaulting his former girlfriend's 6-year-old son and was ordered to perform 60 hours of community service.

The Chretiens, who have two other children, adopted Michel from an orphanage of the native Inuvik tribe in the 1970s. At the time, Jean Chretien was minister of Indian affairs.

The family has largely avoided discussing Michel's legal troubles in public. Link

[BigWaveBetty]

Did you finally get the 'puter back under your control?

Yes, more car problems, which means only two cars, so Mr. B stayed home to do work so I could use the car. Once he gets going writing a report there's no stopping. I think it's amazing that in two days he can write 300 pages of info. Plus I'm jealous that he types faster than I do. :-)

I have worked my magic on the weather and y'all should have lots o' sunshine, unpack the umbrella.

[lodwick]

Sink & Spawn

[mountaineer]

That photo of Chels always reminds me of Alice in Wonderland:

Curiouser and curiouser!

[Endeavor]

This is a fascinating, quick read: http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=ses

It's so funny to watch Dims eat their own.