This week's Armstrong coupon was for roses regularly priced at $29.99, only $16.99.  The offers are only good Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  So guess where I went Tuesday?  Yeah... I couldn't resist.  I LOVE that garden center.  I now have 4 rose bushes.  Does that make me a rosarian???  I have become obsessed with roses.  The only thing stopping me from starting an entire rose garden is the fact that I don't have room.  This new addition is called, "Ketchup and Mustard".  I was reading some rose gardening forums and it appears some people hate the name.  Whatever.  I think its unique color combination is lovely.

After I placed Ketchup and Mustard in the garden, the winds picked up and became very heavy.  There wasn't much I could do about it, so I decided not to worry.  The next morning when I took a look around, there were petals everywhere, the orchids were laying on their side and most of the pots were very dry but for the most part, everything seemed okay.  Then I saw the Snapdragons.  I have a rocky history with Snapdragons.  Long story short, they hate me.  But this time, when I purchased them, I was determined I could make them work.  Nevertheless, they had wilted.  I gave them some water and hoped for the best.  Thankfully, by morning they had perked back up like nothing had ever happened.  Okay, I thought, Cool.  All is well with the world and I went about my merry way.  Well, today, guess what... Wilted!  Fine.  I gave them another good watering and now I'll wait and see what happens tomorrow.  So much drama with these flowers!  I know other people can grow Snapdragons with ease, but for me, they are high maintenance.  In addition to the wilty Snapdragons, I noticed the Sugar Moon rose that was beginning to bloom wasn't looking so great.  I was thoroughly disappointed and it ruined my mood for a few hours until I decided to just get over it for the time being.  It amazes me how the garden can affect my mood.  One minute I'm happy, birds are singing, flowers are happily blooming and then BAM!  Wilted Snapdragons bring the party down.  I guess this is part of being a gardner.  

Here's what's happening this week in the garden:

The first Sugar Moon rose is opening up.  It's amazing how fast they open once they start.  It's Sunday morning as I type this and it's opened up even more since yesterday morning.  

The Moon Flower has grown a little more this week.  I also noticed a few of the other Moon Flower seeds are about to start popping out of the soil soon too.

Both the Angel Trumpets are coming along little by little.  Here's one of them.  And I have a white Hydrangea as well that's still growing.  I hope they all keep going this well.  

Here is the first Strawberry to show up.  Strawberries grow like crazy on my front porch so I should see a lot of them this year.

My two hanging plants on the front porch were looking a little tired so I moved them to the side and refreshed the front with two baskets of blooming Petunia.

And the vegetable bed is growing and growing.  I know eventually these tomato plants will become huge.

Some Lilies.

I had these Impatiens in the front of the house but they weren't very happy there.  I moved them 2 weeks ago to the side of the house by the vegetable bed and now they keep blooming and blooming.

Some Alyssum I dug up from the front and saved by putting them in a pot.  The front is so dry and my hose doesn't really reach where they were planted.  Neither did the sprinklers so I took them in the back and potted them for a nice display.

More Lilies.  They seem really happy here.

A new Foxglove that I added to the front next to the Delphinium to get more of that "cottage garden" feeling along with my roses.

I've never had much luck with Snapdragon.  I figured they hated me.  But I love them so I am trying again.  I've never had this particular color before.  It's called Arrow Deep Red.  We'll see what happens.

Now that I have roses I can't stop.  And besides, I live in Pasadena where they hold the Rose Parade so how can I NOT have roses!  I went back to Armstrong yesterday.  Their selection is huge and the roses are so healthy and perfect.  Every one there is so helpful.  It took me forever to decided but I went with a Floribunda called Sparkle and Shine.  I love the color.

Picked up some Nemesia.  I've never had this before in the garden.  I'm tempted to go back and get the pink and purple as well but I chose white because I do still have a little moon garden going on in the front.

And here is the complete view of the work I did this weekend.

I'm so happy here, and as I write this I am enjoying the view.  I did all the work yesterday so I could enjoy a peaceful and quiet morning before the rest of the world wakes up.

Some butterfly images I shot in the Lilac Garden at Descanso last Tuesday afternoon.  It's really hard to get a butterfly to stand still!

Today I went to Descanso Gardens in LaCanada.  I have been a member here for the past several years.  It's one of my favorite places to relax and take photos.  I have so many pictures from this enchanted place and I have another blog with just nature photography here:  http://gardenofearth.tumblr.com/  

It was such a lovely day.  I will post more photos from today in a future update when I have some time to edit.

Don't ever sign up for a rewards program that sends coupons.  I didn't plan on going back to Armstrong today, but yesterday I signed up for their rewards program which sends out coupons every Monday night.  Well, being I was off today and the coupon was for herbs at $2.99 each, I had to go.  I went to get just one, and I already knew I wanted Catmint.  Well, as usual there was something else there that caught my eye, so I ended up coming home with Horehound as well.  Not bad.  Just two. I spent less then $6.  I have so may herbs already.  I don't even know how many I have by now but Armstrong has quite a few that they don't sell at commercial garden centers like Home Depot or Lowes.  So I guess I will be adding to the collection over time.  One of these days I should take an inventory to see what all I have growing, but off the top of my head here's a quick list:  Sweet Mint (2), Peppermint (2), Spearmint, Chocolate Mint, Apple Mint, Orange Mint, Garden Sage, Pineapple Sage, Rosemary (4), Basil (2), Cilantro (2), Oregano, Bee Balm, Lemon Balm, Catnip (2 - one for the neighborhood cats to eat and one for mine who stays indoors), Chamomile, German Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Lavender (3), English Lavender and now Catmint and Horehound.  It's never enough, really.

Catmint

Horehound

I was off again today so, of course, where do I go??  The Garden Center.  This time I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday dreaming about Chamomile and Lemon Balm.  Friday I went to pick up my second rose bush.  That's when I saw the Chamomile, which I've been wanting for about the past 6 months, but most places I'd go never had it.  I found a few online stores that sold it, but I hadn't gotten around to ordering it.  Well low and behold, Armstrong (my new favorite place) had it.  There was also ONE Lemon Balm left hiding underneath the mints.  But, since I only came to get the roses (and walked out with a pot of 3' Foxgoves, I thought it wise to forego the herbs.  I don't know why I did this.  I should know better by now that I'm just going to go back eventually.  So, after the holiday weekend, again, my car drove me in the direction of the Garden Center.  I'd imagined after the lovely weekend we had, all the Chamomile had been sold out and that one tiny Lemon Balm had been discovered and bought by someone else.    But no... there it was and there was still plenty of Chamomile!  I picked up my two little plants and took a little walk around before checking out.  So many plants.  So hard to get just two.  I have not yet mentioned that when I first walked into the Garden Center, I was greeted by rows of pots of Delphinium.  Well, alas, these ended up in the back of my car just the same way the Foxgloves did.  Now they are on my front porch in a nice big container with plenty of room to grow.  I guess they won't be leaving either.

I have a Moon Flower seedling!  I planted six of them on March 17th in this nursery pot and kept them on the front porch steps where it gets the most sun.  This is the first one to come up.  I did some light poking around in 3 of the others and and it looks like there is at least one other seed that is starting to germinate.  The weather has been cool and cloudy so hopefully, once the sun starts warming things up  the rest will follow.  I'm very excited, but it's so hard to be patient!