Flowers are springing up so early in my neighborhood. I love the deep purple blooms of the perennial lupine that covers the terraced garden in front of my house. Their floral stocks remind me of sweet peas. Lupine like to "plant themselves" and rarely do well when transplanted because they have very long tap roots. If you want to add lupine plants, the try harvesting the seeds from existing plants—directions below.
Lupine Seed Saving Directions:
After the lupine plant is done blooming, the seed pods turn yellow. You can hear the seeds "rattle" inside the pods when the seeds are ripe. To catch the seeds to use later, just place pods in a box where they can explode naturally and then gather the seed. Right before you want to plant the seeds, try placing them in a baggie with a moist paper towel. Set the seed baggie in the refrigerator for about a week. The cool temps encourage germination. Seeds treated in this manner can be planted during the growing season (June—August).
• • • Lovely Links • • •
What are you grateful for? I'm grateful for Gabrielle Blair at DesignMom.com. Today she has a post similar to my post about kindness. Her post is all about gratitude, check it out here.
I like making printables for my blog and the always clever Nicole Balch over at the design blog Making it Lovely has created an adorable set of 10 printable Rainbow Birthday Party Invitations. They're free and fantastic!
What makes a great bookstore for kids? The moms at Red Tricycle share the best independent bookstores in the SF Bay Area here.
If you are on LinkedIn and use an iPad, the new app just for the iPad launched this week. Find out more here.
Do you have any lovely links to share? Share your thoughts in the comments, or on MomathonBlog on Facebook.
xo Chris
Image by Chris Olson.
