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Wednesday 27 July 2011

A hit of colour and contentment

A week or two ago I "snuck" in one more plant order from Gardens Plus .. a nursery in Peterborough about 2.5 hours from Kingston.
I needed ? another pop of gold with some extra zip so I thought "Electra" would be a good one .. then my fascination for Redstone Falls and Peach Flambe got the best of me and those two were repeated ..
Can you see how big and healthy there were coming out of the box ? .. and they seem to have taken to the garden even in this extreme weather .. phew !
Now just some random plants that struck me .. one way or another .. old fashioned white echinacea truly seem to glow in a dark patch : )
A mystery .. if this has happened to anyone else I would love to hear from you ...
My funny petunias .. I bought them as plain black .. in fact they were called Black velvet I think.
Then they suddenly grew yellow stripes and the name was something else some one left a comment here about it ...
Now they have lost their stripes and are plain black again ... what gives ????
The "horns" are even redder now than when this picture was taken ... and, it is way darker in the morning at 5 AM ... and ... the sun's position is shifting ... things are happening faster !!!
Even the kale I have pictured here .. some have been re-potted in another container because of crowding .. I sure hope they colour up more for Autumn !
Now for the girls and their contented life style .......
Snoring ???
I should come back as my own cat ???

15 comments:

Rebecca said...

I don't know "what gives", but I DO know that those black petunias are strikingly beautiful!

Plowing Through Life (Martha) said...

Har har har... Joy, I just love the pictures of your furry girls. What a life, eh? My own two have the same luxury lifestyle. Let's make a pact to come back as our cats in the next lifetime...with people like you and me doing the care, of course.

Your garden flowers are so lovely. How anything managed to hang on -- and look so great -- in the heat wave we had is quite impressive. As for the petunia. I read on another blog that under certain stressful conditions these petunias revert to black with yellow stripes. And then back to black when the stress is gone. Just thought I'd share that with you.

Anonymous said...

They are happy kitties. Mine do not sunbath together ever.

Lola said...

I have no clue as to what is going on but it is a beauty. Do let us know if you find out.
Things here are on the down side. My persimmons are starting to get ripe but birds a eating them as fast as they get ripe. Guess I must put a netting over the tree. I do have a CD {not good} hanging to try to keep birds away.

NotSoAngryRedHead said...

Plants are mysterious and weird. No idea what's up with the petunia.

My cats also like to lie in the sun like that. They force me to bother them when they do it. BOTHER BOTHER BOTHER!! :P

VW said...

Oh, I'm sure your kale will be really pretty for autumn. Love those curly leaves. And enjoy the new additions - very fance leaves on those plants.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Are you trying to cool off by posting the snow picture? Your new plants look fine. The cats look like I feel...ready for a nap.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Rebecca it just struck me so funny that I buy it as an original plain black petunia, which I thought was beautiful .. then it "grew" yellow stripes for a while and I thought .. "ok .. do what you want" .. now plain black again .. is she menopausal??!!

Hey Martha girl : )
Yup .. we have to come back as our own cats ! hehehe
It was almost cold this morning it was so nice .. I will be happy to wave good bye to the heat and humidity for good soon! I think I read that, some where too .. it happens to variegated plants as well .. hormones and stress !! LOL

Donna girl half the fun of sunbathing is sharing it with a sista' kitty .. so you can annoy her every few minutes !! hahaha

Lola we had bad luck with our serviceberry tree .. terrible rust .. in fact so bad that we are taking it out .. any fruiting tree in our garden seems to be cursed with rust and what not .. netting your tree should help ! Do it before the birds clean it off completely girl ! haha

You are a very bad redhead girl !
But all of us redheads are bad girls anyways ! LOL .. as soon as my girls get too comfortable .. hell breaks loose here *GIGGLE*

Hey there VW .. I whizzed by your place (got distracted and forgot to leave a comment) your front view of that garden bed is so pretty ! I love how you designed it with the rock ;-) .. yup, I am counting on my kale to look very Autumny ? LOL

Lisa you are the only one that has commented on my header picture joke! i thought it was funny .. and COOL .. now go have a nap !! LOL

Marguerite said...

I definitely want to come back as a cat in my next life. Mine has taken to napping in the rocking chair all day. what a life. I haven't made any plant orders but like you couldn't resist squeezing in just a few more plants from a local nursery. You can never have enough colour.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Marguerite girl !
Yes our cats have quite the life .. but they do make us smile more times than not .. and out right laugh a lot of times as well ;-)
Temptation .. well .. I am just not good at resisting it and I like having company ! haha

Gatsbys Gardens said...

Hi Joy,

Mr. Brown Thumb Blog has identified this problem with the Black Cat petunia growing the stripes that are in Phantom petunia. They must have been used together in the hybridization process. I think Burpee markets the seeds.

Eileen

Pat said...

Great looking coralbells,cool planters also.
This is a grand time for gardeners.


Eric and Sooky...can't wait...hot hot hot !!!!

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

When I die and head off to the sweet hereafter.... can I come back as one of your cats?? Now, THAT would be an okay deal. A toast to the kitties! Live. Laugh. And, Loaf! :D

Barry said...

Joy:
So very interesting to see the morphing of the Petunia. I was curious to see if the pinstriped one, Petunia 'Phantom' would be reliable in its patterning..... now I have doubts! As for the new garden additons, I am glad to see I am not the only one bringing home more plants than I logically need, but the temptations get stronger as the season wanes. Be strong my friend.... we still have August, September and October to get through!

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Eileen girl thank you for the info! It has been interesting watching what goes on .. I love the black no matter the stripes or not ! : )

Patsi girl thank you ! .. yes : ) it is going to be really interesting to see what Bill does when he sees Sooky and Eric .. I say go for it Eric!LOL

Kate girl I think there is a line up with that reincarnation for being my cat ? hehehehe .. they are beautiful girls and we love them to bits ;-)

OMG ! BARRY !! ... I can only focus on August sneaking up on me ! once I hit September I am in Total Halloween mode .. the garden is rather .. hum .. let go for a bit ? LOL .. I love your plant picks sweetie ! hehehe