Solace in the Garden

The days are truly running together. I'm grateful that I can still be in the garden when some people cannot even leave their houses. It was so quiet in my garden this morning - I couldn't hear any traffic, or really any human noise at all. Just birds and other creatures like bees. Granted it was a particularly quiet moment, but it gave me such peace. 

I managed to get some annual flowers ordered and picked up yesterday, and planted in various containers in the garden. You may know Osteospermum or African Daisy. They've become more and more popular over the last ten  years or so. When I first became acquainted with them they were unusual enough, but in very ordinary colors, like white and yellow, with maybe a bit of color. Now the hybrids are in so many varieties of colors and even odd spoon-shaped petal shapes that they look almost fake. These are frost-tender subshrubs hardy to USDA Zones 10 and 11, although I have had them overwinter here in Portland during mild winters. Native to Africa, South Africa and the SW Arabian Peninsula. The genus names comes from the Greek words osteo meaning "bone" and sperma meaning "seed" in reference to the plants hard seeds. 

Terrific cold weather annuals.

Thank you for your lovely comments and stars and hearts on yesterdays pink ranunculus and poetry blip - I'm ever so grateful! I hope you've all had reasonably pleasant days, all things considered. Be well!