Ten Good Things on a Monday...Plants

I've wanted to do this one for a while, so this evening I'm joining in with Nina at Brush Up On Your Reading with her 10 Good Things on a Monday.  It's for all us list lovers out there, and I just love a good list!  It doesn't matter that I might not finish them, but I am a compulsive list maker.  I'm going to do ten of my favorite things for my first time here.  Here goes...

Ten of My Favorite Things Plants

1.  Succulent Collection. 

This is a small grouping in what I refer to as my tub.  It includes three of my absolute favorites...'Mother of Millions' Kalanchoe, 'Lilypad' Aeonium and one that I've never been able to identify, but she's in the corner and her leaves are trimmed in purple...beautiful!!

2.  Pineapple Lily

This has to be my absolute favorite right now, or rather a tie for first place.  I picked up a white one too this past week for my mother.  I'm going to take some of mine and share with my mother, and take some of hers to share with me!  This is made easier by the fact that I have them both here!!

3.  Passion Vine Bloom

This is the most whimsical bloom I've come across yet, and she is the other "most favorite" contender.  As though her beauty isn't enough, her fragrance is intoxicating!

4.  Balloon Plant

I have had this little gem for a number of years.  She pops back up in the spring and then dies back when the summer months get too hot for her.  The blooms start out like very small balloons and keep growing and growing until they burst open.  What makes this year especially exciting is that I remembered to collect her seeds, hoping to have a row of these next spring!

5.  'Lady Slipper'

The real name is around here somewhere, but I'm being a little lazy tonight.  This is my first year with this succulent, and am I glad a bought her!  Her blooms darken to a deep pink as they mature and are supposed to look like an old fashioned lady's slipper.  You have to turn them around though to get that, my personal opinion is that they look more like elf shoes!

6.  Pitcher Plant

I lost my original Pitcher Plants in my greenhouse mishap this past winter, but I found replacements in February.  They stayed in the house until it warmed up, lost all their pitchers, but are getting new ones.  This is a first for me, so I check on them daily and am extremely excited that they keep growing!!

7.  Bolivian Jew

Also known as 'Mouse Earred' Jew, this is hands down my favorite non-flowering, non-succulent plant.  With her purple undertones on the bottom side of the leaves, she's extremely dainty, but at the same time extremely hardy...perfect fit!

8.  Red Hibiscus Bloom

Of all my hibiscus plants, and there are a number of them, this one's bloom is my favorite!  She's frilly, she's fluffy and she's solid red...enough said!

9.  Bachelor Buttons

If you would have ever asked me if I liked these, much less wanted them, the answer would have been a flat "no".  I was desperate this year for something that the deer wouldn't eat, and these are not supposed to be attractive to them.  Well, let's just say that the hungry deer in our neighbor hood missed the memo and snipped the ones I put out right up.  I didn't know what to do with the rest, so I stuck them in a pot in the backyard.  I'm really glad the deer ate the one in the front yard, these little guys have grown on me.  They keep getting bigger and bigger and are just as bright as the day I brought them home.

10.  More Succulents!

These are in my mailbox pot, and are still relatively new.  After the verbena died, what else do you put in when it's already 100 degrees outside and it's not even officially summer!

This has been fun, hopefully I'll remember to do it again!

Happy Monday!