Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Fall Garden Festival

A beautiful day in Philly and lovely for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Fall Garden Festival at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. I have a tan from the sun it was brutal. This was my first year going. It was okay. It was much warmer than I expected and I should have worn lighter clothing and a hat to shield the sun. The festival ran from 10:00 am-7:00 pm. We arrived at 10:30 it was already packed. A much favored attraction of the event is the plant give away for members of the Society. I believe that each member can pick up to 3 free plants while they last. When I saw the line, I knew I wouldn't be taking any free plants home. My sister had other plans and insisted that I stand in line when she saw the plants that people were coming form the tent with. No, I didn't stand in line. The plants were beautiful and "big." No member left the tent empty handed during the 2 hours we were there. When we left the event the line was still long and the tent was still filled with plants.

The Harvest and reasonably priced.

Peppers, Pansies, Kale.

Lots of displays.

Wouldn't be complete without grasses.

Bog gardens with picture plants.

There were many plant societies.

Lots of crafts and a section just for children.

It wouldn't be a Fall Festival without a competition. The arrangements had to be from the participants harvest for this year.

Just beautiful!

Dinner Plate Dahlias, beautiful.

Look at the carrots.

Sage, simple and lovely.

I could do this. No thinking involved. Collards in a vase. Simple but what a statement.

50 Years Young

I taught my daughter well. She set the table and prepared dinner. I didn't know she knew where the table cloths were.

They are beautiful.

Death by chocolate! I only have this once a year.

From my mom and daughter.

This is one of 2 cards my daughter gave me.

Lets look at this again! My daughter's humor. It explains how I feel some days.

Dinner prepared by my daughter. Steak with onions and peppers, fresh broccoli and potatoes with fresh garlic, yum and diet orange Sunkist, yes orange Sunkist.

My daughter and I play checkers. I have to develop a better strategy. Lately we have been tied with no winner.

My daughter asked when I would post this and I told her, "first I have to add some words of wisdom." She laughed. First of all I plan to celebrate my birthday all year. Have you heard of the saying, "live every day as if it were your last." It would be nice to do this. Living each day as if it were my last would mean that I wouldn't be working and that's not going to happen yet. I have learned a lot in 50 years. I have learned that I don't know as much as I think. Wisdom does come with age. Why do you have to be older to be wiser? Life has been good to me.

 If I could I would be financially wealthy. It would be nice not to worry about money and surviving. It would be nice if my parents and all my family members that I love could be eternally young and never die. Age has made me realize that I am getting older and my parents are getting older and one day they won't be here. What will life be like then? I have had them for so long and they are excellent and loving  parents. Why do some people garden and love plants and flowers and some aren't moved at all by them? I am glad that I am one that experiences joy when I see them and say to myself, "how magnificent, what will the garden's in heaven look like." Yes, I'm rambling and I don't think I shared any words of wisdom. Well I have the rest of my 50th year to share words of wisdom. I will say that I have learned that no matter how bad things seem or a situation is, it's not as bad as it seems. There are always worse situations. I have learned that many times the answer is within, if I quiet my thinking and just rest the answer is there. The rambling stops here. Here is my lovely daughter. She's beautiful. I took this in Jamaica last year.

Out Front Part II

Everything is still green and there are some blooms.

Balloon Flower

Black-eyed Susan vine. It took all Summer and in August it started to get a lot of blooms. Now I have to pick off the seeds. I didn't know where the seeds were but my sister showed me today.

Lambs Ear. One seedling.

I have to do better with this next Spring. I can't say it was the plants and I had good light potting soil. The soil may have been too light because once it dried out it was hard to get moist again. The vines didn't even do well. You garden and you learn.

This was my first year with lantana. It was hard to get started and bloom but judging from the woody stems I think they will be beautiful next Summer and maybe put on a show. I think lantana is perennial in my zone.

I think I've lost my foxglove that I've had for 2 years. It was grown from seed and doing well until now. It produced tons of seeds this year. I may sprinkle some down and see if I can get some new seedlings.

Out Front & Sweet Potato Vine

Today was the day and is it beautiful outside, time to plant something and pull up some things. Cool and crisp again. It's cool enough for a fire but I think I will wait. The container on the stoop outside my door did well but it's time to remove the sweet potato vine. My daughter complained all summer when it grew and started blocking the entrance to the front door. I became concerned when it started rubbing on my clothing every time I stood in the doorway to open the door and as a result transported a caterpillar from the plant onto me and into the house. I wasn't aware of it until I saw something on my shoulder out of the corner of my eye and it was a large white caterpillar. I kindly took it back outside and deposited it in the ivy. I didn't kill it. I have come a long way. Before I would have needed to be seen in the emergency department for a self inflicted neck injury from dancing around and screaming for someone to get it off me.

There were 2 types planted, "Blackie" and "Margarita." I thought that "Blackie" was the one that produced tubers but I guess they all do. I had "Blackie last Summer and it produced a tiny tuber which I accidentally threw out when cleaning out front. I haven't completely pulled up the vine yet. I will see if it produced anything when the weather starts to kill the foliage. I was ecstatic  to see a sweet potato in my sidewalk planter when I pulled up "Margarita." Here she is. Now how do I keep her viable until Spring?

 I think there are more because I couldn't pull out all of it and I didn't want to chop into it. If it lives do you think I can separate them?

Before

Cut back creeping Jenniy, sweet potato vine, phylox, pulled 2 coleus.

Cutting put in water. I hope they make it till Spring.

After. It will look better when mums, ornamental kale, pumpkins, and more pansies are added.

Sorry for the blurry picture. Some pansies added. I am going to remove the coleus and sweet potato vine when I get the other plants.

Alabama Sunset. She was hard to see with all the other plants in the container. She was trailing down in the back. I will take a cutting of her. If she survives it will be the 3rd year I have had her.

Side walk Planter Before

After, violas added.

Indian Summer

Today feels like Fall. The air is crisp with temperatures in the high sixties or low seventies. I'm not sure I haven't watched the news today yet. There is a cool breeze and the sky is a beautiful blue with cottony white clouds. For the past three day we were having what seem like Indian Summer with temperatures in the high 80's and 90's and 88 percent humidity. Last night the temperatures dropped down into the 50's in the city and 40's in the suburbs. I woke early and of course this being my birthday weekend, what better way to spend it  but plant shopping. There are many things I can do with birthday presents. My favorite, making plant purchases for next Spring. I am waiting patiently for the first sighting of a tree dressed for Fall in all it's glory. It's early yet.

Carex (ornamental grass) , another type of grass that did not have a tag, and a shrub caryapteris x clandonensis (bluebeard longwood blue). I don't know anything about this shrub. I wanted something that would grow tall near my fence. I hope I didn't make a bad purchase. I should have read up on it before I bought it. It's supposed to grow to a height of 2-4 feet and bloom July-September. The web says it requires full sun and the tag says at least 6 hours of sun. I will have to pick a sunny spot in the yard not one of the shadier areas and see what happens.

The carex I bought for my yard. I don't know where I am going to plant it yet. I love ornamental grass and variegated foliage. It's supposedly good for shade so it should do fine in my shady yard.

Violas. I had to have them. It's almost October. I would have liked fall colors like reds and dark colors but for now I have these. The few orange ones are the ones I like but there were no flats of oranges available. I think I will pull the sweet potato vine from the planters out front and some other plants I didn't like this Summer and put them there.

My favorite pansies are the blues. I also bought a pumpkin as you can see. A large wider one would be more to my taste but I couldn't get a bigger one from the bin. This will go outside on my step when October arrives.

I bought more tulips and hyacinths. Last year I didn't plant bulbs until February not the recommended October and November. The ground was still soft. I wonder what it will be like this year? I usually also put bulbs in pots on the porch. I had read that they might not bloom if planted too late but I guess mine didn't know and did well and were beautiful. Let have a look at what's going on in the yard.

Seeds, seeds, and more seeds from the maple tree.

Tomato still bearing fruit. I don't want to pull it until frost if it's still bearing tomatoes.

Peppers. I wonder if they will get larger? These are the only 2 I had. 

Black-eyed Susan, phlox, and a type of chrysanthemum in need of water. I bought these 2 week ago. I will plant them soon.

Is it Fall yet?

My small butterfly bush still in bloom on the right. It's supposed to be dwarf. I ordered it from Proven Winners last Fall and it shipped in the Spring.

Coleus starting to realize it's almost Fall.

The fig cutting from Georgia is surviving.

It appears some plants need to be told Fall is almost here.