QUESTION FOR ALL BUDDIES......Since this is a BDAY swap...was wondering...

What is YOUR favorite BDAY memory ?? or gift ?

Wow! I didn't notice in the original e-mail that I was the only birthday baby for May. I'll finish up my list and get it posted soon. Can't believe May is tomorrow, but since our spring is so early part of me can't believe tomorrow isn't June!

A little about myself...hmmmm. I was born in PA but grew up in Alabama. Now I'm 42, and two years ago husband and our four young children moved from Georgia up here to NH. Why? We were tired of the heat and wanted to snow ski. My four year-old is skiing like a real pro! The older ones are doing a great job, too. Snow is FUN! We now own a house and for the first time in my life I can really really really do my own gardening. It's so exciting! I know it's unusual, but my husband is very aesthetic and the house is his domain. That leaves the garden all to ME! I'm completely amazed at what grows up here in the frigid north. Take peonies, for example. No peonies in the lower south. I'm having such a fantastic time learning about plants and filling the garden with all kinds of things. I've always thought it was neat to grow from seed, but I always managed to kill every seedling except zinnias. This past winter I did my first winter sowing and for the first time I grew plants from seeds and they LIVED! Amazing--a miracle! I feel a little like Dr. Frankenstein, except I didn't create a monster, I just finally kept something alive that I always managed to kill. My seedlings live! It's very exciting to learn about so many new plants and watch my garden take shape. The house we bought already had a garden, but it had been neglected for a while. Last year was serious week eradication season, and now the garden is ready to be filled. Waa-hoo! So much room, so many plants to explore. Now seeds have become one of the more exciting things for me to explore. Who needs those expensive nursery plants when I can have seeds!

My wish list, before I find another cool plant:

Campanula persicifolia 'Telham Beauty'
Magic Fountain Delphinium
Delphunium belladonna 'Bellamosum'
violas/alpine pansies, johnny jump-ups--Viola tricolor and others
Rudbeckia fulgida var. speciosa(R. newmanii) orange coneflower (Whew...that's a long one!!)
Rudbeckia maxima great coneflower
Rudbeckia nitida 'herbstonne'
Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy'
Helenium autumnale Sneezeweed
Heliopsis 'Lorraine Sunshine'
Thunbergia Black-eyed susan vine or yellow clock vine
flax, all types
Monarda--all types but common red Monarda didyma (other Monarda didymas welcome)
Cardamine pratensis 'Flore Pleno'
Matthiola incana--Ten-week-stock or Gillyflower any variety,
Poppies, all varieties
Scabiosa caucasica
Silene oreintalis
Silene dioica
Echinops ritro
Any plant you wish more people would enjoy!

Thanks so much,
Deanna

My favorite B-Day memory....
My parents always let me skip school so me & my Dad could go fishing!!

later...April

Deanna,

Happy May...Happy Birthday!!! Enjoy!!!

No "favorite" birthday memory...they have all been great!!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Annie

Deanna,

seeing where as we will be together for Annies swap. I will bring your b-day surprise in person!

Lisa

Thanks, Lisa! I'm glad your back is feeling well enough for you to come to the swap. At least hubby won't have a Patriots game to worry about!

It was hard to think of my favorite birthday memory. Whenever I try to think of a particular thing it seems my mind goes completely blank! But, I must say my favorite memory involves a friend. I had a dear friend who was in almost every way the very opposite of me. Once we were having a spat (because we wanted totally opposite things), and at the same time I reached to roll our half-way down windows all the way down and she reached to roll them all the way up. We burst into laughter as it was a perfect thing for two opposites to do. Our opposite-ness made us close friends. We both had to learn and grow and begin to understand people different from us. Then I moved away and she went through some things while I was gone. Our differences no longer bound us and we drifted apart. As the years passed I always wondered how she was and wished we were still friends. For my 39th birthday, ten years after our last talk, I suddenly get a call from her out of the blue to wish me happy birthday. She had come through her issues and was missing our friendship, as well. I was so excited! From that phone call on we've been great friends again. In fact, she was going to fly up to see me this month for my birthday, but the IRS got in the way. I just love the IRS and I think they are very kind to all of us. I'm so grateful for them and find their services so desperately necessary, so I was not at all disappointed when she couldn't visit because they needed more of her money. HAHAHAHAHAHA! A birthday laugh for us all.

That's my favorite birthday memory!

One of my memories happened many birthdays ago. I was probably 7 or 8 and my best friends and I always played Barbie. She had a Skipper doll and I really wanted one. On my birthday, she came down to my house with a present. I opened it and found a Skipper doll and was so excited. I didn't stop to think it was not in a box. After school, I suggested we play Barbies and when I asked to bring her Skipper doll. When she came over, she didn't have it and I asked her where it was. She told me she couldn't find it. Her Skipper doll never did show up and years later I realized why. We are no longer friends as we grew apart in High School but I still carry a fond memory of her and her unselfishness.

My first birthday wish! Sandlapper_rose is an anti-procrastinator, I must say. She has already sent me a blue ballon flower and lavender double poppies. YEA! I think the balloon flowers will be so fun to grow for the kids. And, my 7yo daughter is a poppy lover. She has grown some poppies this year and likes keeping up with how they're doing. We'll sow these together in a jug this week to get them started. (I mean together as in me and her, not as in poppies and balloon flowers.)

Thank you so much! Since your husband shares my birthday, on my birthday I'll have to eat an extra piece of cake for your him, too. He can eat an extra piece for me. Nothing like a good reason to eat more cake!

And extra ice cream, too, of course.

THANK YOU!

Deanna

A few Birthday wishes finally caught up with me @ the other address.

Thanks to Margo for~'Candy Cane' zinnia,'Citrus' sunflower,'Blackball'cornflower,&'Tinkerbell' nicotania!!

Thanks also to Iris for~ 'Birdhouse'gourd,'Dwarf Teddy Bear' sunflower,& 'Paul Roberson' tomato!!

later....April

I've had a good birthday already! farmergirl2009 sent me some annual poppies with mixed pinks. I don't have any pink poppies and the more poppies I see te more I love them, so these are very welcome! I also got a wonderful surprise, salvia 'Snow Nymph'. Salvias are beginning to really interest me as I learn more about plants, and I just love that this is a white one. Next year I hope to add some more to the garden, but it never occurred to me that I could have a white salvia. Thanks so much! I will certainly love growing it. I hope to sow it in a jug this summer so it will overwinter and flower next year. Can't wait! Lastly, she gave me a flower that was just highly recommended to me--a nicotiana! So exciting! Can't wait for the wonderful scent. It's a Purple Perfume nicotiana. I just love scent flowers. Literally, in another forum last week somebody said i should grow them if I want heavy scent. Then--BAM--here they come in the mail!

canyonwind also outdid herself. I got MORE poppies! She sent me dannebrog laced poppies. I had never heard of these, but they are BEAUTIFUL! Any poppy lovers need to seriously check these out. Then she sent some more of my favorites--Susie formula mix of Black-Eyed Susan Vine and a bushy sweet pea. I appreciate these SwallowTail seeds especially as I know the Susie Mix, which I don't have, won't come true from harvested seed. Thank you so much for sharing your commercial hybrids with me! And, as I've already said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE scent flowers, so I LOVE LOVE LOVE the sweet peas. I am out of trailing vine room, so these bushy sweet peas are exactly what I need! Can't wait!

I am becoming quite the poppy lover! The more I see the more I love. Somebody down the road grew them by the roadside and they were neck-jerkers every time we passed, and that started my interest in them. So far all three birthday buddies have blessed me with poppies--Dannebrog, mixed pinks, and lavender. These will all be brand new and wonderful!

You girls are reading my mind. I can't believe how great the seeds in my first three cards have been. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Deanna

P.S. Happy birthday to sand_lapper rose's husband today, too!

Hi, Deanna -
I'm glad you are having a nice birthday. Be sure to enjoy the rest of the day! My husband says thanks for the Happy Birthday Wishes that you sent to him (above.) He is having a nice birthday, too.
Jeanne

Woo Hoo!
Another card today....Thanks to Margarita 10 for:
Yellow Cosmos,Columbine,& "Burgundy" Gaillardia!!

later....April

Birthdays are never over on Garden Web ;-) I got a card from Margarita ! She sent me 2 of my favorite purple flowers - Tennessee Coneflower , Balloon Flower and Calla Lily a seed I have been wanting ;-) Thank you so much Margarita !!

Hope you are having a wonderful birthday month Deanna !! My son's birthday is the 30th, I can't believe he is going to be 23 !!

~Iris

Two more reports to make. Each had another type of poppy, too!

smitties sent me some great seeds. She sent 'Jelly Bean' poppies. I had never heard of these before, but I highly recommend everybody check them out. They are beautiful! Really an eye-catcher and neck strainer. I love them. She also sent me Monarda 'Bergamo.' I actually saw this flower last week on the Parks website and marked it as one I wanted to wintersow this year. You read my mind! It is really fantastic, too. Truly lovely.

margarita10 sent me mixed colors oriental poppies. I winter sowed some red oriental poppies in funky soil and I don't think they're going to make it, so i am extremely happy to have a replacement for them. These mixed colors will be great! She also sent Shasta Daisy. Yea! This year one of my beds will be near a construction area and will probably be altered, if not some of it ruined. The construction will end up expanding it when it's over. I had decided to do a yellow/white garden there, and shasta daisies were on the list as a must in that garden. Perfect! She also sent me my first cosmos, too. They will be a great addition to the garden. I love things that bloom a long time. I am trying to figure out what to grow around our mailbox as the soil is less than ideal. Cosmos might be the perfect thing to put behind it. Thank you so much!

It's amazing that all the birthday seeds are so perfect. You guys are awesome! Is there a birthday seed fairy going around and arranging all this good stuff?!

Thanks so much,
Deanna

Two more cards to report on! w9yards sent me THREE wonderful seeds! She sent me scarlet flax, which is perfect. I have blue flax and one little plant of compact golden flax (from which I hope to get some seeds for WS when it blooms!). I didn't even know there was a scarlet flax! This flower will be very welcome! It looks just as dainty and beautiful as the other flaxes. She also sent me burgandy gaillardia, which will be a wonderful blanket flower addition. Thank you! And, she continued the poppy addiction with yet another new variety, Hungarion Blue! My first blue poppy! Truly beautiful. You people must be some kind of poppy fanatics, too!

patti1957 finished out my birthday with more fantastic seeds. And, it includes...ANOTHER BRAND NEW POPPY!! I got 'American Legion' corn poppy. Yea! She topped of the surprise with a second awesome seed, 'Cherry Brandy' Rudbeckia!!! I have heard so much about these and have wanted them every time I saw them. Thank you for the awesome seed!

I find it hard to believe that not only did you all not copy yourselves in the seeds you sent me, including all those different poppy varieties, but you didn't even send me any poppies I already owned. They are ALL brand new to me! Wow. What a group of gals, eh?

Thank you all for a wonderful birthday!

I forgot to thank ishareflowers, who gave me my birthday surprise at our swap. She gave me a start of Campanula punctata 'Cherry Bells'. If you haven't heard of this one, I'd recommend you look it up. What an unusual campanula and so beautiful! This is clearly going to be a favorite! She also let me have a Bowl of Beauty peony as long as I promised to keep it in the family ;-) . It's here ready to be adopted. I don't have any peonies with this type of flower, and it's real beauty, too. I just love peonies. I never saw one till I was an adult because they don't grow in the southern heat. What a true blessing of the northern garden!

Thank you, ishareflowers!!

I got one late birthday card and I've been terribly late myself to post. Thank you, dirt_under_my_nails for the Thunbergia seeds! I saw Thunbergia for the first time last year and just loved its beautiful simplicity. Thank you so much! I love it when birthdays last longer than just that day.

Again, thank you everybody for your generosity!

I got a wonderful surprise in a late birthday card from hidperna. She sent me California Poppies! These always look so beautiful in the catalog from Annie's out in California. I'll be so excited to have some of them in the garden next year.

I decided to make my thank-you late also. Lateness is often my favorite thing, or at least it looks that way! Thank you again!