Dear Reader:

It’s time to start sprucing up the garden to make way for the Easter Bunny! I still have a lot to do… first thing…I need to get an electrician out to help me check the fountain and see why it isn’t working….why the water isn’t flowing these days and the lights aren’t on at night?

Then I need to remind the two oldest grandchildren that they must do good deeds for their parents if the Easter Bunny is going to help their seeds grow a lollipop by Easter Sunday. This has become an annual tradition.

(By next Easter I think all four grandchildren can plant sprouts for kind deeds …however, this spring both Jakie and Lachlan are two years old…need I say more? Everything out of their mouths is “NO!!!!!!” )

I looked today for little boy fairy figurines for the fairy garden and found one at Flowertown Garden and Nursery….it is too cute! A little boy holding a frog…now I need to find two more for Jake and Lachlan.

Continuing on my less is best theory for the garden…I checked to see how many flower basket hangers were in the garden and then found some beautiful baskets at Bi-Lo in the Galleria. Great prices everyone! Picked up two hanging baskets…(Dahlia and petunia) plus one pot of Gerber daisies. (I am addicted to them.)

I moved lawn chairs around one of the Japanese maples…hoping the leaves are in by Easter to provide shade.

I replaced last year’s faded Easter flag…you want everything bright for Easter!

I am leaving three of last year’s flowering baskets under the tree house to have as much time as needed to strengthen their spindley stems!

 Can anyone identify this gorgeous plant? I took a photo of it out of curiosity so I could look it up when I got home from the nursery? A Dutchman’s Pipe?

The name alludes to the shape of pipes once common in the Netherlands…This variety is protected in Hong Kong. *It is sometimes called the “Calico Plant” for its blooming design.

An evergreen woody, sun loving climber known for the pipe shaped flowers it produces. Twining smooth stems wind and curl around each other accented by flowers that form on the axis of the leaf. This variety produces a longer, more slender, pipe than other varieties.  Grow as a tropical or tender perennial. Attractive to butterflies and some birds.This plant is host to two rare butterflies the Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) and Common Rose (Pachliopto cristolo-chiae asteris)

So until tomorrow…No matter the weather or temperature Easter Sunday, April 16…we will have fun because it is so hard to get all the family together but this is one holiday we will be, along with jelly beans, eggs, chocolate bunnies and crosses with beautiful flowers…if it rains…the gardener in me will smile…a little rain has never stopped an egg hunt.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh