Apple Brown Bessie

The best and worst thing about being home is that I'm surrounded by good food all the time.  For example, today for lunch I had a wonderful salad with lots of spinach, baby greens, cherry tomatoes, and a sprinkling of almonds and goat cheese.  I was feeling really proud of myself until my Nana walked in the back door with something hot, cinnamon-y, and wrapped in foil.  It smelled so good, I knew I was going to eat way too much of it before I even tasted it.  My grandmother calls this an apple cobbler.  She got the recipe from...

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Mystery Solved: Bryophyllum crenatodaigremontianum!

So, I was slightly wrong in my previous post about this mystery plant.  My Nana pointed out that Granny actually referred to this as a teardrop plant (and not a tear plant), and upon googling teardrop plant I quickly found the information I was looking for. In my online research I've also seen it called mother of millions (or thousands), Mexican hat plant, and chandelier plant.  The forums at gardenweb.com were especially helpful in pinpointing the exact plant that I have.  They directed me to bryophyllum.com (which has some very informative pictures!), where I learned that my...

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Mystery Plant: Tear Plant or Hen and Chicks?

We had a lot of fun on vacation, but it's really nice to be home.  One of the first things I did (after bringing in my bags and kissing Chowder and Maxine) was go outside to see how my plants fared during my absence.  I'm happy to report that my Nana took good care of them.  One plant seems to have done especially well. During my visit with Granny (a neighbor, family-friend, and phenomenal gardener) a couple of weeks ago, she gave me this very visually interesting plant that she called a tear plant.  She said that growing up she'd also...

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Mini Roses

Call off the search party. I haven't fallen into a well. I have, however, gone on vacation with my family, and it's pretty rad. Despite the oil, we're visiting the Alabama Gulf Coast. We're not spending too much time on the beach for obvious reasons, but our hotel has a lazy river and several pools and a sauna, so we're still spending plenty of time in the water (maybe even too much--my shoulders are pretty pink right now). I noticed a beautiful mini rose plant while visiting a neighbor recently.  Her name is Grace, but my sister...

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