About Me

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Delta, British Columbia, Canada
I took very early retirement from teaching in '06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring. As a voracious reader, I have many books waiting in line for me to read. Tell me I shouldn't read something, and I will. I'm a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience. I'm looking forward to traveling more some day. I enjoy walking, cycling, water aerobics & and sports like tennis, volleyball, and fastpitch/baseball. I'm just getting into photography as a hobby and I'm enjoying learning all the bits and bobs of my digital camera. My family is everything to me and I'm delighted to be the mother of two girls and the Gramma of a boy and a girl. I may be a Gramma, but I'm at heart just a girl who wants to have fun.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

P is for Purple Pots on the Patio


About a week ago, we went browsing at the local nursery to get ideas for decorating the patio. There was so much to choose from, but we were mostly interested in fuschias for hanging planters, tomatoes to grow from pots situated along the sunny side of the house, and other colourful flowers for the garden beds. At one point, I pointed to some flowers and said, "Oh, those are so pretty. I love the colour!" The response was a sort of "Uh huh." That day we only bought 4 humungous bags of outside potting soil and some black pots. It was still a bit early for planting...

The next day, upon arriving home from an appointment, what did I see on the front porch area? Two large, gorgeous pots full of those beautiful purple flowers I had seen at the nursery! I've since discovered that these flowers are called osteospermum, also known as the African Daisy, South African Daisy, Cape Daisy and Blue-eyed Daisy. They come in all sorts of colours and are considered semi-perennials - they don't tolerate wintery conditions. They might survive here if we have a reasonably temperate winter.

Anyway, the pots aren't really purple (as my title suggests) but the flowers range from pale to deep purple and are absolutely magnificent. They're growing and thriving and I've already had to do a bit of deadheading.







The fuschias were planted yesterday - four pots in all, so far, and hung along the overhang of the patio at the back. Also, there's a new HUGE pot of cosmos on the patio and another pot of white osteospermum joining the purple ones.. Pretty soon we'll go and buy the tomato plants and other flowering plants for the garden beds - that is, after we do some weeding - and then we can sit back and relax, getting up periodically to water the plants and get a fresh drink.
ABC Wednesday is brought to you by Mrs. Nesbitt, so do pop in HERE to see other contributions.

16 comments:

Carol said...

Beautiful purple flowers...they must look great on your front porch area...they do look like daisies...

photowannabe said...

Love your purple posies. A very nice surprise.

James said...

purple potted posies on your patio. I love it.

Maggie May said...

Lovely choice of flowers for the ABC Wednesday... purple!

Have you noticed the Osteospermum flowers lean towards the sun. (Name sounds like a disease, doesn't it?)

Jane Hards Photography said...

Everyone knows in the blogging world I do love purple. New bloom to me too but what a gorgeous array of purples.

Mara said...

So Mr Uhuh bought them for you? What a sweet man!

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

How sweet of your man....I would be lucky to get mine into a garden centre...!!!

Marie Reed said...

What a great guy! And we don't think that men notice anything..... That uh huh really meant 'WOW .. those are nice!' Who would guess that?

Reader Wil said...

Well your flowers are a great big asset to your patio! Lovely colours. Thanks for showing.

Ashley said...

This looks amazing. Thank you very much for posting this.

CherryPie said...

Those are beautiful :-)

sally in norfolk said...

I just love those daisies :-)

Jo said...

Oh, those are gorgeous! You're spoiled ... :-)

Jay said...

I love osteospermums but have never had any success with growing them! I suppose I should try again ... but not this year. My patio pots are already full!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

What a lovely surprise. You're going to have such a pretty garden!

Bradley Hsi said...

The flowers are just magnificent. How nice the spring is here! Happy gardening.