Playing around with all of the fun effects on Illustrator today since I really have yet to learn how to use this program and I figured what better way than just to experiment? The top left drawing is the original (these are for my shop‘s new earring cards) with color added and from there I just tweaked things to get different textures and lines. The final design will only be about 2 inches so these are small, too, to get an idea of what the final product would look like. (Some of them look very similar but they really are each a different “effect.”) I may just end up using the original for this next batch of cards, but what do you think?
Centaurea montana (Syn: Mountain Bluet, Perennial Bachelor Button, Mountain Cornflower) Zones: 3-8/Height: 18-24″/Sun-Part Shade/Consistent Moisture/Blooms: Late Spring-Early Summer/Possibly susceptible to powdery mildew/Divide in fall
Every spring, one of our local garden clubs hosts a plant sale in our neighborhood and I love the novelty of literally walking down the block and coming home with a box full of plants I’ve never tried before. Last spring we added an itty bitty Centaurea montana to our garden because I had seen them blooming in other people’s yards and was having flower envy. This year, it’s tripled in size (talk about a growth spurt! In fact, watch out because reports from other gardeners say that it can be invasive) and is covered in bright blue bachelor button-like flowers. I’ve since added another and will probably divide them both this fall because the best thing about this perennial, to me, is that it provides gorgeous color in the garden at a time when the spring bulbs are fading and we’re transitioning into the peonies and roses. Plus that pretty blue looks divine at dusk when you’re taking that last stroll of the day through the garden.
Malus ‘Fozam’ FOXFIRE™
I so look forward to the flowering of the crabapples in our garden, but sadly this year they did not bloom (their buds, along with the lilacs, were frozen off earlier this spring.) It seems strange to not be carrying in armloads of flowering branches to enliven our home, nor to stand beneath a rainshower of pink petals whilst perhaps listening to the song of the catbirds. But the good news is, there were crabapples in other areas of our little town that were flowering abundantly like these I photographed at the Arboretum. Aren’t they so pretty? I truly feel a garden is incomplete without these beautiful trees; smaller in stature (perfect for a front yard), a source of food for so many little critters, and of course lovely year-round.
Malus sargentii ‘Tina’
Malus ‘Prairifire’
Malus ‘Bob White’
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