When I was a little girl, I fell in love with Black Eyed Susans. They weren’t flowers in my mother’s garden, but rather they grew wild in the park by our house. I was intrigued by how alike and how different they were from daisies, another favorite. Once I had a garden of my own, I filled it with Black Eyed Susans. Who knew I would spend the next 3 decades in a love/hate relationship with the flower! I still love them, but I’m always battling them to keep them under control (They can be so pushy 🙂
Anyway… this year, like all of my plants, my poor Black Eyed Susans are looking a bit frumpy from the heat. It got me to thinking, and before long, I decided to make some playful Black Eyed Susans for inside. I have visions of surrounding the gnome house with flowers!
Of course, who wants flowers around your gnome house unless they have personality? So, you simply push the petals down and…
tah dah… meet our newest little flower fairy. We will be sharing the pattern later in the week, hopefully with some variations to chose from!
What flower is a “must have” in your garden?
a sunflower is a must in my garden….
I love sunflowers almost as much as our birds do. I plant the mammoths every year in hopes of harvesting, but it seems the birds always beat me to them. But I bear them no ill will since we put sunflower seeds in our bird feeders and we get to enjoy their beauty until harvest time. I do have some perennial sunflowers too, but they can't compare to a true sunflower in your garden!
My favorite is the peony…beautiful plant and fowers that smell like a rose without the thorns.
We have peonies in the yard. My only complaint is the flowers just don't last long, and one good rain shower and they are over. But peonies and my poppies always reminded of these few lines from poet Edna St. Vincent Millay…
"My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends –
It gives a lovely light."
Zinnias are my faves! I need to pick some this morning and bring in. We have black-eyed susans too and they certainly are a “pushy” flower. LOL
Zinnia's have always been my mom's favorite flower, so I always add them to our garden. They always prove to me that a living thing can be sturdy and beautiful at the same time 🙂
Right now I’m loving the Chicory, Red Clover, some sort of purple spikey flower, and Princess Anne’s Lace by the roadsides. All my bulbs and flowers are done blooming early but those just keep on blooming. 🙂 This little flower gnome is so cute!
I adore chicory. I love how brave it is, growing so close to the street, ignoring the intense heat of the blacktop and gravel. It brings beauty to an otherwise bleak environment. Also, we live on 2 acres, and we keep a natural green belt around 3 sides. Despite the intense heat, our Queen Ann's Lace is thriving, adding long lasting beauty to our naturalized area.
This is a wonderful project. Black-eyed susans are one of nature’s summer gifts. I would love to make a little dramatic play flower shop with these, or maybe adapt them as poinsettas for Christmas!
When I post the pattern, it will have several petal shapes, making it easy to adapt to most flowers. I'll be sure to include a poinsettia shape 🙂
Love it! My favorite flower is ranunculus.
Ranunculus is beautiful (doesn't it sound like a Harry Potter spell?) but, unfortunately, our winters in Michigan aren't temperate enough to grow them. I have an old fashioned, heritage rose that has that same paper thin layering look to them, but they are missing the hardier stem. Back in the late 60s, we made flowers out of bright colored tissue paper that had that same kind of look. Perhaps that's the flower they were modeled after.
oh my!!! you’ve out-done even yourself in cuteness!!
“must have”? peonies…now lets see what you can make of that 🙂