THE POWER OF THE PLANT

As summer moves along I find myself getting excited to feel the chill in the air, to smell the damp falling leaves and of course eat all the delicious foods we consider seasonally appropriate. We as in past years, I started baking autumn foods early. Just a little head start into the season. Below is my favorite cake. It's a chocolate pumpkin buttermilk cake with orange cream cheese frosting. Heavenly.

Last year's mums would have been a giant, leggy budded mess had I not diligently pruned each and every stem throughout the summer growing season. As the mums get larger and rounder the task becomes a bit more time consuming but the autumn show will be worth it. Here are 3 mums right before the third summer pruning today August 16th. I'll repost when they are in full bloom.

The cone flower is nice for a week or two but then gets very leggy and dried out. I do love the prominent center with its deep orange color. After the flowers began to fade I cut the entire plant back.  New growth shot up from the dirt.

Before we purchased a bed or remodeled the kitchen or even refinished the hardwoods, I spotted this little gem of a chandelier at Illuminations in Rockville Center. The moment I saw it I knew I had to have it! It reminds me of a chandelier I saw at Le Fanion ,   299 West 4th Street,  but more affordable. So here it is, the first of anything really that was purchased for our new home. We may have used sheets as doors and made coffee in the bathroom sink for a few months but you can't say our guest bedroom lighting was off kilter, can you?

I asked my sister to select a plant for the front garden. She chose this beautiful lambs ear because she loves the soft, fuzzy texture of the leaf. She's vegan and an animal lover so she put her personality into her choice. I love this plant. The leaf color is a soft blue green which contrasts nicely with the darker colored greens it surrounds.

The storm over Long Island was suppose to be unrelenting. It rained for an hour and the sun is now shining. So much for a day locked indoors. Took some photos during the storm.

This past weekend I held my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary at my house. We kept the adornments minimal. These beautiful soft lilac spider mums floated in fish bowls for an elegant table centerpiece. Read more about spider mums on ProFlowers flower glossary .

These are last year's chrysanthemums. All summer long I have been pinching the tops to keep them from flowering. The did my last pruning a week ago and will now let them take off for autumn flowering. The plants have become round and full and will hopefully produce many new buds for my autumn garden. Will post a pic when they bloom.