The Detective That's Been Following Me, New Flowers, and More Chocolate Cake

Did that title get your attention? Ha! I'll explain, but first I need to share this pic from Instagram...

You see, I have naturally curly hair, but lately I've been blow drying it straight and the other morning I actually took the time to straighten it AND curl it with the curling iron, so I thought I better document it on Instagram. ;) Here's the pic from IG...

Now, y'all just humor me for a minute and please excuse my excitement...Do y'all see where it shows the "likers" right under my pic? Now, do you see the name "alimiballard?" Y'all...he's an actor who plays "Detective Crawford" on CSI (my favorite show!! I literally have 43 episodes on my DVR just so I have plenty to choose from) I was grinning ear to ear when he "liked" my pic. :) And as if that wasn't enough...he's also following me on Instagram!!! His name is Alimi Ballard and some of you may remember him from "Numb3rs" or even "Sabrina The Teenage Witch." So, that's the "detective" that's been following me lately. ;) Sorry for the giddy-ness, but I have the tendency to revert back to my 16 year old self at times. Lol! You can always find me on Instagram at "texasdecor"

So...on to the new flowers... My snapdragons on the patio finally succumbed to the heat, so it was time to replace them. I really wanted to try some kalanchoes, but couldn't find any.

Then I came across these pretty purple ones at the garden center...

They're called Gomphrena and have the prettiest little purple blooms. I only bought one because I'd never had them before. I looked them up when I got home and my garden book says they're supposed to bloom (here in the Houston area) from May until October. It also said they can take a lot of heat and don't need too much water. 

I was still skeptical, so I asked my fellow Texan and blogging friend Stacey if she'd ever tried growing them. She said she buys a flat of them every year!! She said hers will bloom from about May until the first frost and she has them in full sun. Well, that's all I needed to hear. I high tailed it down to the garden center and bought three more right then. :) I get pretty excited when I find a flower that can take our brutal Texas heat. :)

I planned on pulling up this juniper on the left and putting the gomphrena in its place. The juniper never really recovered from our drought years ago, and keeps getting brown sections all over it. 

Below is a closer look at the brown spots.

Well, let me tell you...this juniper was not going anywhere! It's about 10 years old and very big. My hubby suggested we just cut off the brown spots and plant the gomphrena in front of it, so that's what we did. It actually worked out well, because now we'll still have the greenery of the juniper all winter long after the gomphrena dies down. 

Below is a pic after we pruned off all the dead parts... 

And here it is with the three new gomphrena flowers!

Here's a close up look at the blooms. This was taken with my iPhone and I didn't even use a filter or anything. The color is just that pretty!

While we're in the backyard, I thought I'd show you a few more pics...

This is one of the esperanza plants. It just started blooming with the pretty yellow flowers.

Here's a close up of the cluster of blooms. These will bloom all summer and into the Fall.

I can't believe I didn't even notice the vitex had started blooming! I've walked right past it several times lately and just noticed the purple blooms starting to show. :)

I also planted some zinnias in place of the snapdragons on the patio...

More zinnias in the window box.

There's still a few snaps hanging on in there too. :)

My begonias come back year after year. I think this one is about 7 or 8 years old.

Here's a closer look at the begonia. I have much better luck with the "green leaf" ones vs. the "copper leaf." The copper leaf ones don't seem to be able to take our heat (even in the shade)

I put this on Instagram the other morning. These are the gomphrena flowers sitting on the patio coffee table right before I planted them. The sun was just coming up and I thought it made for a pretty pic. :)

And just because I never show y'all yummy chocolate treats (ha ha) here's yet ANOTHER chocolate cake I made the other day. It's called the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake. It's really fudgy and delicious and the icing is divine!! You can find a link to the recipe HERE

Well, I guess that's enough excitement for one day. :) Y'all take care!

~Lisa