Glorious Flowers

It is so amazing how many charming flowers there are that God has created for us to admire! Our family took a trip to the River Banks zoo this morning, and my Mom and I went to the River Banks Botanical Gardens, where these pictures came from. 

                                                 

 Amaryllis 

 Yellow Lily

 Here's a mystery plant. Does anyone no what this is?

 Green Rose

 Yellow Lily

Amaryllis 

Amaryllis 

 This is probably a type of Coleus. I'm not sure.

 Day Lily

 Fire Lily

 Caladium

I think these are a type of Morning Glory.

 Sword Lily

Here is another mystery plant. This plant is a green vine with tiny pink flowers and green curly buds.

Pumpkin Flowers

This fall I am growing pumpkin plants, to which they are in bloom right now. It is my first year growing them, and they are doing really well. I had no idea that the pumpkin flowers were this big!

Here is another pumpkin bloom. They look like they are part of the Tiger Lily family, don't they?

Vincas

I got these Vincas and transplanted them... though when I did they were already blooming but the plants were small. Now all the plants formed new plants and they grew and grew, so now I have a small flower bed of just Vincas!

Here is another picture of the Vincas.

Morning Glorys!

These are blue Morning Glory's that I planted last Spring. Don't they just make you feel joyful when you look at them?!

Here is a Morning Glory up close.

Here is my whole vine (or should I say vines) of my Morning Glory's.

Butterflys in my flower garden!

I found this little guy fluttering around my flower bed. I am not sure, but I think I watched this butterfly when he made it's cocoon and when he came out! He has always stayed in my garden when he was a caterpillar and he has always stayed in my garden when he now is a butterfly!

I think this type of butterfly is called an Aphrodite. It is a charming orange and black with a light brown body.

Here is a picture of just the yellow flower that the butterfly drank the nectar from.

Rainbows!!!

We were just coming from Church on a Sunday night after it had been raining hard. Never would we have known that there was a surprise for us when we got out of Church! 

A entire FULL rainbow spread it's colors out over down town Columbia. The first time we saw it, it was over our Church, which I thought was God's blessings to our Church!

When the rainbow started to fade, the sun went down making a glorious sun set, the results of the rainbow! 

Plants I'm growing in my garden

This is Catnip! I have been growing this since the end of last winter. It was unexpected to live, and grew by winter sowing. It is now the biggest herb I'm growing right now. I have many herbs because they are my favorite plants especially to grow. 

This is more Catnip.

This is one of my favorite herbs- Lemon Balm. This lemon balm has a story behind it! Here is the story, if you would like to read it:
I was on a prayer walk about a month ago or so, and Jesus saw that I really wanted lemon balm because it was my favorite plant. I couldn't find the seed for it in stores or find one that I could buy that was already growing. So, as I'm walking under my favorite oak tree in my yard that I call the Jesus tree, I saw this plant that I have never seen wild growing or anything. It looked like an herb. I sat down beside it, touched it, then sniffed my fingers. It was odd, yes, but I found that it smelled like lemon, the kind of lemon that was on lemon balm! It looked like lemon balm too! I dug it up and transplanted it in my herb garden. Since then, the lesson that I have learned from the lemon balm is that the biggest lemon balm plant seems to represent God and all the little sprouts represent his children! When I think that, the story of Jesus telling his disciples "Let the little children come to me" (Matthew 19:13-15). Now I call the regular lemon balm not just a regular name; I call it Spiritual Lemon Balm.

If you have Lemon Balm, here is a recipe on making Lemon Balm tea:

Ingredients:
Sugar
Boiling water to fill 1 regular size cup
1 tea bag (if wanted, you may add flavor by putting any flavored tea bag)
8-10 leaves of Lemon Balm

Instructions:
Put leaves and tea bag into water in small sauce pan. Boil on high, after boiled wait for 3-5 minuets to seep. Drain the tea into the cup, not with the leaves or tea bag. Add the amount of sugar you would like.