Has the change in the air given you energy? Are dreams reawakening in your heart? Do you feel a glimmer of holiday anticipation? Then, you have tasted the sweetness of September! The following is a list of “blooms,” some tended, some unexpected, in my actual garden and in the garden of my life during this ushering-in-of-autumn month.

Purple Hyacinth Bean vine

This lovely vine is easy to grow.  I started this one from a seed I collected about five years ago, and it is now taking over the left-hand side of my boys’ swing set.

Thunbergia grandiflora

To my joy, this perennial vine has once again claimed the right-hand side of my boys’ swing set!  The flowers look as though they are opening their mouths to sing.

Cosmos ‘Bright Lights’ (orange)

I wonder if you’ve found, as I have, that orange is the most hardy cosmos.  I planted one plant in the spring, and it has already produced a new plant by reseeding!

Mexican Bush sage

If you have a void in the back of your border, plant this!  When it blooms in the fall, you’ll want to climb (or reach) back there just to feel its velvety plumes.

Roses

I’m ever grateful to my mother-in-law and to the book, The Organic Rose Garden by Liz Druitt, for teaching me how to grow rose varieties that thrive without being treated with any chemicals/sprays.

Cypress vine

This vine reseeds with wild abandon.  Plant it once, and you’ll have more little red flowers than you ever wanted each subsequent year. 🙂  Thankfully, in my garden, the seeds only sprout in the bed where last season’s vine grew.

Cockscomb

Isn’t this a striking plant!  It keeps surprising me by coming back in the same pot in which I planted a cockscomb seed several years ago.  Its textured flower lasts a wonderfully long while.

A few of the “blooms” in my life this month:

* My “imperfectly perfect” birthday and all the tears and the shattered plate that made it so

* Gluten-free birthday cake, made with sisterly love

* Receiving a thick novel in a white envelope in the mail, and anticipating a wonderful read

* Holding rare Beatrix Potter prints in my hands

* The beautiful gift of a Jessica Kirklin print

* Having tea with my sister in London while double-decker buses passed by outside the window

* Relishing a foodless picnic on a yoga mat with a dear friend on a fall morning

* Ma’s and Mama’s homemade meals

* Gramps helping with school lessons!

* Walking hand in hand through England’s Lake District with my love

* Riding a bike with a real white wicker basket strapped to the front

* Uncle Dean’s booming knock at the door, bear hugs, and blooms galore!

* Balloons bearing my sweet friend’s handwriting in a basket filled with love

* Savoring tea in Texas with my mother

* Little One tearing up while I read him, Once There Were Giants

* Laughing with my eldest over grammar lessons, of all things!

* My daddy, calling me, “Strong.”

* Watching the sky, and marveling at the beauty God paints above Texas