A little over a week ago Ronnie and I planted 18 flats of flowers in our yard, most of them our beloved Zinnias in honor of Ron’s 97-year-old mom, Eileen.

This is the first year we haven’t planted a large planter for her in her yard as she is sadly now in a care center. We are generally safe to plant here in Utah after Mother’s Day.

We checked the ten-day forecast and it looked like we were in the clear. We spent the better part of the Saturday before Mother’s Day planting. I laid them out where they need to go, and Ron followed me with his trusty little hand shovel getting them in the ground.

By the time we finished, it started to get a little breezy. A few hours later, it was blowing much harder than that. Mother’s Day had originally been forecast as a beautiful sunny day. The day dawned with mostly cloudy skies and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour.

I prayed every prayer I could think of over our flowers. We ended up having an entire week of wind, rain, heavy rain, sleet, and hail. It got to the point where I couldn’t look at the frail little plants being whipped to death by the severe dreary weather. And to top it off, last night got down to 38 degrees . . . ughhhhh. ☹

We went out today and took a good look at the sadness. We’ve lost about 1/3 of those lovely little plants, and many are just laying down in the dirt not sure if they have the will to stand up and survive.

We were optimistic of having two full planters full of Zinnias this year. One is the new raised Belgrade paver planter Ronnie built in the back corner last summer with a lot of help from our incredible son-in-law Tyler. We really love this planter as it finishes off one of the last big projects on our yard to-do list.

We’ll have a few more bare spots in these planters unless I can find more Zinnias to fill them in, which is difficult by this time of the year. I’m sure many people lost a lot of plants and flowers as well, and the plant nurseries are selling out quickly. Tomorrow, I will go and see what I can find to help replant what we lost.

On a happier note, I finished one more planter on the back patio. With faux flowers becoming more popular, and the quality looking more realistic, I decided to make life a little easier. In the past we’ve planted this planter with real petunias. Ronnie gave me this wheel planter over 20 years ago when our daughter worked at J & J Nursery in Layton, Utah.

The idea of the patio planter was great, but when we originally put the heavy dirt/flower filled pots in the wire baskets, the entire thing tipped over to the front. We put rocks on the base to help counterbalance the weight, but it was never enough. For years, the planter stood empty. When we moved to our existing home, I had an idea to build a frame using heavy Trex brand posts inside a water trough from the Cal Ranch store in Layton, Utah.

Ron and I built a new base, attached the wheel to a new Trex post, and filled the water trough with river rocks. It worked, and we enjoyed real flowers in it for many years. However, when the 100-degree weather would hit in July, the geraniums suffered. Mixed with the winds we get here at times, we would often give up trying to keep them alive, and the summer would end with dead geranium tendrils dangling from the dry dirt in the pots.

This year, I decided to try some faux geraniums I found on Amazon. I chose the same color scheme I’ve always done with the real flowers we’ve planted in the past. I was pleasantly surprised with what arrived.

Each plant came with a nice wire basket filled with a coir liner and a half-round piece of foam with green flocking on top.

I placed one of my peppermint moth balls in the bottom of each liner before placing the foam in the basket to help repel any bugs or spiders. So far, these seem to be working on the other pots I’ve used them in.

I removed the metal hanging chain attachment that came with each basket, which I may use to make some dried moss/flower hanging wreath chandeliers for the covered porch. That will be a post for another day. 😊

I secured the foam into each basket using a strip of waterproof floral tape across the center from one side of the metal basket to the other. Each arrangement came with four floral plants which I spaced evenly into the foam base.

These outdoor flowers are UV protected and are treated to resist fading from the sun. We’ll see how they do in that regard as the summer sun returns in its blazing glory. Then it was time to fluff all the flowers.

I must admit I was skeptical they would be lush and full enough to fill in all the empty spaces. I didn’t want to see any wire stems showing through, and was concerned the wind might blow the hanging flowers around and make the wires visible.

I’m happy to report that after being outside for the entire last week of monsoon weather, these plants held up nicely, and no wires are showing through. The flowers and leaves stayed intact as well.

I used to giggle at my grandparents and aunts when I was younger with their use of fake plastic flowers on their porches from K-Mart. I’ve now become one of them! With some recent surgery and not feeling great, I had to make the choice to make life a bit easier. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go out and lift the water bucket to water real plants for a few weeks, and I really like the color that spring and summer flowers bring into our yard. Flowers bring LIGHT, and I’ve come to the conclusion that even though I love real ones better, faux ones are better than dead ones, or none at all.

This year we have a mix of real flowers and faux flowers, and there is a place in life for each. I love flowers. I love planting them, and I love arranging them. Flowers are LIGHT givers! Today Ronnie helped me plant some pretty multi-colored coleus in the Hungarian baby bathtub in the only shady corner we have. I hope these fill in and thrive all summer and into the fall.

It’s been a nerve-wracking week as we’ve watched the weather wreak havoc on our newly planted flowers. So this week’s challenge is to bring some LIGHT into your outdoor living spaces by planting some flowers! Choose what’s easiest and best for you to care for - real, faux, or a mix of both - each has its own form of beauty!

I hope you have a flower filled, LIGHT filled, week and enjoy some sunshine on your face.

Love Ya, Les 😊

Life

Utah Weather Can Be Tricky