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!

[pubmom]

Why is Frank hiding behind that folding screen?

[mountaineer]

heh heh heh

[Carolina]

Well, I don't have Ole Blue Eyes, but here's Vile Leahy:

[mountaineer]

Are you sure that's not the Pillsbury Dough Boy in a flight suit?

[mountaineer]

America's sweetheart has been virtually invisible lately, but yours truly has tracked her down:

TOP design house Versace agreed to provide a dress for former president Bill Clinton’s toothy daughter Chelsea at a fundraising dinner she was hosting in London in aid of the British Red Cross last week. Chelsea, a Versace press release said, would be wearing a fetching "black, round-necked trouser suit with fitted zip-up jacket and black round-necked top from the Versace house’s spring/summer 2003 collection". [A black pantsuit - how original!]

Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have told Versace, according to the British Red Cross announcement, that it was a "private" function and the press were not invited. Versace’s generosity, therefore, went largely unnoticed. source

Has anyone else ever heard of a private, no-press-allowed Red Cross fundraiser?

[Carolina]

Hmmmmm. Very sharp eyes, M!

[xsmommy]

WOW, a gardening thread! i love it!!!

[Carolina]

...Bill Clinton's toothy daughter Chelsea...black, round-necked trouser suit...

Crusty Jr. steppin' out in haute couture.

[mountaineer]

More on Chelsea:

Chelsea Clinton will be hosting a fundraising dinner on Thursday 8 May at Sartoria, 20 Savile Row, W1, in aid of the British Red Cross. 10 of Chelsea’s friends will be attending the event which, together with other fundraising activities, aims to raise £15,000 [In other words, a 1500 pound per plate dinner. Yikes!] to help fund Red Cross HIV/AIDS work in Africa. ...

Speaking about the event. Chelsea said: "I am grateful of the opportunity to support the British Red Cross’ vital HIV/AIDS work in Africa. That work, like this event tonight, helps combat the medical, political, economic and social crisis that HIV/AIDS is in Africa and increasingly, around the world."

David Alexander, Director of International, British Red Cross, said, ‘We are delighted that Chelsea Clinton is supporting the vital work of the Red Cross. Money raised on the night will make a huge difference to our work in Africa. We are also very grateful to Conran Restaurants for generously donating a delicious meal, private room and staff for the evening at Sartoria.’ British Red Cross

[mountaineer]

Photos here (I can't post pix from this website).

[lodwick]

Excellent "lazy man's garden" there.

I need much more concrete and brick here.

Cheers.

[lodwick]

Rat Pack sampler tunes - good stuff

[lodwick]

Of course, it's a black pantsuit for bucky.

[Teacup]

HMMM? I've been wondering where Chelsea has gone lately. Wasn't she suppose to start working for that magazine?

I wonder if Miss Chelsea isn't preggers?

[Teacup]

"JFK's intern girlfriend"

According to the local news out here, she was good at answering the phone.

[mountaineer]

We'll have to find out when her "studies" (LOL!) at Oxford will end. If they have some sort of graduation ceremony, I suppose Billy Jeff and the Beaste will zip over to London. Then Miss Chelz is supposed to start at the consulting firm in NYC for $100000+ per year. No word of Ian, though I heard somewhere they may be on the outs.

[Carolina]

What influence are these consulting people buying by hiring Bucky?

Here's Ian waiting for Bucky March 3rd this year.

If the picture doesn't show up, here's the link.

Methinks the poor sot's face speaks a thousand words, eh?

[pubmom]

He's shaped like a hand grenade.

[Carolina]

LOLOL!

[mountaineer]

strike cripples France (aw, that's a shame).