Month: July 2025

verbena bonariensis.

Published on by Quandie9 Comments

Good morning from the garden.

I’ve been a fan of the British gardening show Gardener’s World for many years, do any of you watch it?

I’d often notice tall, wispy sprays of purple flowers in the gardens they feature and I’d always wondered what they were.  Eventually I figured out that they were verbena bonariensis.

I badly wanted some verbena bonariensis in my own garden, but never could seem to find it here in Minnesota.  It got to the point where my neighbor, nnK, got tired of hearing me say the words ‘verbena bonariensis’ every time we visited a garden center (so of course I said it even more).

Every time I saw some of them on our trip to Europe in 2023, I took a photo and texted it to her saying “look, they have verbena bonariensis in Amsterdam!”  and “look, they have verbena bonariensis in Norway!”

I spotted them at Madurodam in the Netherlands …

and at Zaanse Schans near Amsterdam.

I also spotted them in Stavanger, Norway.

But I still wasn’t able to find them at any of our garden centers here.

Then, lo and behold, nnK and I were at a garden center out near her parents house in Wisconsin last summer and what did I spot?  Verbena bonariensis!  They had it.

I purchased a couple of them and put them in my garden near the carriage house.  They need 6 – 8 hours of sun to bloom well, and they didn’t quite get it in that spot.  They performed OK, but they weren’t spectacular.

However, as you may know, my neighbor Ken had a huge shade tree removed from his backyard late last summer.  As a result, I now have one section of garden that gets full sun.  So I was on the hunt for more verbena bonariensis this year so that I could try them in that spot.

I did find it at my local Bachman’s where one plant was $14.95!  Thank goodness I didn’t buy it there, because when nnK went back to that nursery in Wisconsin where I found them last year, they had them for $2.95 each.  So I had her pick up six of them for me.

Now, I will point out that I’m pretty sure the version at Bachman’s was the Proven Winners Meteor Shower, and I imagine that price is because of the Proven Winners branding.

I believe the plants nnK found were probably grown in house from seed.  When nnK was purchasing them the nursery owner mentioned wishing that more gardeners in our area knew about this plant.  It looks so unassuming and really rather unattractive on the shelf at the nursery, so they don’t sell particularly well.

But here we are in early July and mine are finally starting to bloom and look like I hoped they would.

Unfortunately, I found it nearly impossible to capture them in photos.

Let me try to describe them for you.  They grow quite tall, I would say that mine are at least 4′ to 5′ tall now.  They aren’t especially attractive looking plants at the base, but they are perfect for the back of the border where they can be seen poking just their flower stalks above everybody else in the garden.

They do re-seed freely, and at first I thought that was a bit of a myth, but last week I realized I did have some seedlings where I planted the two plants last year.  They are about 3″ tall so far, so I don’t think that I could rely solely on re-seeding to have more verbena bonariensis next year.  I’ll be lucky if those seedling start to look good by the end of August.

But I sure do hope I can continue to find verbena bonariensis at the garden center in the coming years because I definitely have a place for them in my garden.  How about you?  Have you ever grown it?  Or, have you not even heard of it before?  Leave a comment and let me know.

free from all irritating matter.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

First up, congrats to Sue P. who won my Brandywine Valley giveaway!  Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment, I wish you could all be winners 🙂

I picked up this stool while out garage saling a few weeks back.

It’s just your typical shop stool, but it’s got a vintage vibe that I like.

After giving it a good cleaning, I first painted the entire thing in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

It seems like whenever I mention this paint color, at least one reader thinks it’s a dark blue based on the name.  It’s not.  It’s a soft black.  Not quite as black as Dixie Belle’s Caviar, but still black.  Here’s a comparison of a few of the different shades of black available from Dixie Belle that I did back in 2021.

The Anchor is from DB’s Silk Paint line (ie. a 3 in 1 acrylic paint with built in primer and top coat) and you can see that it has a little more sheen than the two chalk paint options.

Anyway …

I painted the stool with two coats of the Midnight Sky, then once fully dry I taped off a Swiss cross on the seat and painted it with DB’s Drop Cloth.

Then I decided to add just a little something extra.  I applied one of I.O.D.’s Floriography paint inlays to the seat.

At first I thought the wording on the inlay didn’t really work on a shop stool, but I liked the look of it anyway.

But then I thought, hey, the Swiss cross has long been a symbol denoting a pharmacy.  Originally they were red, until the Red Cross sort of commandeered it.  Now throughout Europe if you see a green Swiss cross you know immediately that it’s a pharmacy regardless of whatever language is written on the sign.

So … maybe this is an old stool from the Pacific Homeopathic Pharmacy in San Francisco advertising their Cocoanut Cream.

Apparently it’s the most elegant face dressing in the world.  And it’s also entirely free from all irritating matter.  Who couldn’t use a little more of that in their life?

After first sealing the paint inlay with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer (always seal your paint inlay before rubbing over it in any way), I then sanded spots here and there to add some faux wear.  Then I applied a coat of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta over the entire stool.

And that’s it.

I’m a pretty big fan of stools in general.  Currently I have 4 in my own home.  They are great for tucking into a spot that just needs something, like the space between my pantry door and my bathroom door.

  They also make a good nightstand in a pinch.

They work well as plant stands.

And they also make a great perch for a big stack of books.

So if any of you local readers think you have a good spot for a stool, this Swiss cross stool is for sale.  Check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying their products used in this makeover.

the flowering roots toolbox.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

Speaking of yellow flowers (which I did in this past Sunday’s garden post), not only do I not typically plant them in my garden, I also don’t usually gravitate towards them for my toolbox makeovers.

One exception was the tackle box I did back in May using just the yellow roses from I.O.D.’s Botanical Roses.

In all honesty, I only did that because at the time I only had a bunch of yellow roses left over and I wanted to use them on something.

Another exception would be the Fresh as a Daisy lockbox that I did back in 2024.

Usually I lean more towards pretty pink florals though.

But I recently ordered the I.O.D. Sarah Featon’s Botanicals transfer, and as it turns out it features quite a few flowers with yellow in them, so once again I found myself using yellow flowers.

Let’s start with a before photo of the toolbox in question.

This was one of my finds at the South St. Paul city wide garage sales.

It was in pretty rough shape with plenty of dirt and some rust.  I began by using a razor blade to remove that “Craftsman’ label which was basically just a decal.  I then gave it a good scrub with some Dawn dish soap.  After using a hammer to pound out a couple of dents, I used 150 grit sandpaper and my Mouse sander to give it a good once over.  I then rinsed it off with the garden hose and left it to dry.

Once dry I gave it two coats of Rust-Oleum’s spray satin sealer.  This seems to work just as well as the Dixie Belle Bonding Boss that I usually use, but it’s much quicker.  Plus, I accidentally bought three cans of the stuff in the satin sheen by mistake (I meant to buy the matte version) and I was too lazy to return them.  So now I want to use them up.

Next up, I painted the interior in Dixie Belle’s Holy Guacamole.

This color is the perfect 70’s avocado green and I tend to use it a lot inside my toolboxes.

Next I painted the exterior of the toolbox in Dixie Belle’s Ecru.  This color is from their new Southern Roots collection and is a lovely very warm, nearly beige, white.

Then I pulled out that Sarah Featon’s Botanicals transfer and started adding florals.

I started with a couple of the larger ones, and then used smaller ones to fill in.

The transfer set does have flowers in other colors, but I chose to stick with mainly yellow and white, with just a little bit of pink.

Finally I pulled out the typography from an old re.design with prima transfer called Seeds.  One of my readers sent this to me a while back, thanks again for that Monica.

It just happened to fit perfectly across the toolbox.

As one final touch, I added a butterfly from the I.O.D. Saint Germain transfer.

He had the perfect coloring to work with the Sarah Featon’s Botanicals.

I finished off the exterior of the toolbox with some of Dixie Belle’s clear wax, and I used their flat clear coat to protect the Holy Guacamole interior.

This toolbox is for sale locally, so be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

never say never, garden edition.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I should never say never.  I once said that I would never use the Dixie Belle Secret Path color because it was too purple.

But then I did use it, and I loved it.

I also once said that I would never use the metallic gold transfers from I.O.D., but then I kept working with them and realized that they were much more versatile than I originally thought.

I also once said that I didn’t like yellow flowers and would never add them to my gardens.

I even went so far as to try and remove these yellow irises about 20 years ago.

But they were stubborn, and they came back.  And continued to multiply.

Now I rather like that pop of yellow over by the carriage house.

I have to admit, when my friend Jodie brought me some of the Evening Primrose from her garden I wasn’t sure I really wanted it.  But I put it in my shade garden, probably secretly thinking it wouldn’t do well there anyway because they like full sun.

But au contraire, they are flourishing.

When they are blooming (late June to early July) they look spectacular in the shade garden.

FYI, my shade garden does get late afternoon to evening sun, probably about 2 to 3 hours per day.

Next up is the Corydalis.

I purchased this plant at a garage sale, back when I used to do that.  As a sidebar, I no longer recommend buying garage sale plants unless you are absolutely sure the seller does not have jumping worms.  As I’ve mentioned here, I now have a raging case of jumping worms and it’s definitely possible they came from a garage sale purchase.  They could also have come in a batch of mulch that wasn’t properly heat treated.

Anyway, I purchased that Corydalis over a decade ago.  It blooms nearly all summer, and will grow in full to part shade.  However, be forewarned, it re-seeds itself all over the place.  I’m constantly pulling out Corydalis babies.  So if that’s the sort of thing that bugs you, don’t plant it.

I even added a pop of yellow to my fairy garden a couple of years ago with Golddust Mecardonia from Proven Winners.

Those little yellow flowers were perfectly scaled for a miniature garden.

Then there are the daffodils.  I’ll be honest, I really prefer tulips in pretty shades of pink when it comes to spring bulbs.

But I’ve given up on them since they seem to draw deer all the way over to my very suburban location to eat them in the spring.

Deer don’t like daffodils though, so here they are.

And I’ll admit, that bright pop of yellow in early spring is kind of a showstopper.

That being said, I did choose to plant some all white daffodils under the hydrangea hedge last fall.

So maybe I’m not quite a full-on yellow convert just yet, although I did put some yellow snap dragons in the garden this year.  I’m still waiting for them to bloom though.  I’ll have to wait until they get going before deciding whether or not I’ll plant them again in the future.

How about you?  Do you like yellow in the garden?  And if so, what are your favorite yellow flowers?  Leave a comment and let me know.

red, white and blue.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Happy 4th of July to my American readers!

I’ll be heading up to nnK’s family lake home to celebrate, but first I thought I’d share some red, white and blue.

One of my all time favorite 4th of July themed makeovers was this trio of chairs from back in 2016.

I loved how they turned out, especially the red and white chair.  I have another small chair to paint waiting in the wings, maybe I’ll try that look again.

Those old pics taken in the ‘photo cottage’, which is now the potting shed, remind me why I didn’t like taking pictures in there.  I could never get the lighting and/or white balance right.

But those chairs sure were cute.

I grabbed this pair of buoys from the thrift store one year and gave them a red, white and blue makeover.

My Norske toolbox was my favorite red, white and blue toolbox.

OK, so it’s not exactly an American version of red, white and blue, but hey, we don’t have a monopoly on those colors.  According to Google there are 29 countries that have red, white and blue flags including the U.K.  I often paint the union jack design in other colors, but I did paint a traditional one on this desk in Mr. Q’s study.

More than one of my red, white and blue projects were flops including this lunchbox makeover.

I ended up painting back over it and giving it an entirely different look, at which point it sold quite quickly.

I have to admit, I like that look much better myself.

I also had to makeover this patriotic themed desk.

It just didn’t sell with a simple blue and white paint job, so eventually I also converted it to a more floral look and was able to sell it.

So, I don’t know.  Maybe the red, white and blue is OK for the 4th of July, but not so much on furniture.

Regardless, I hope you’re having a great day whether you’re celebrating the 4th of July or not!

a three hour tour (with a giveaway).

Published on by Quandie59 Comments

I’ve gotten to the final post from the trip Mr. Q and I took out east in May.

As promised, I brought something home from this trip to give away so be sure to read to the end today!  Or, if you have absolutely no interest in Gettysburg, just go ahead and skip straight to the end now. I won’t mind 😉

For the final three days of our trip, we swung through Philly to pick up our nephew and then we headed to Gettysburg.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got to see some of the most amazing public gardens on this trip, and in return for his patience, Mr. Q got to see some battlefields.

For those of you who were passing notes about your boyfriend in history class instead of paying attention, the Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War with over 51,000 casualties.  The battle took place over three days in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July 1863.

At the time the entire population of Gettysburg was only around 2,400, and it was surrounded by rural farmsteads.

Although I learned lots of facts about why this battle took place here (to prevent the Confederates from taking Harrisburg, PA which was then the capital of Pennsylvania and a crucial supply hub for the union army), and what divisions skirmished where (the 1st Minnesota Infantry charged the confederates near Cemetery Ridge and lost over 80% of their 262 men) , the details that were most interesting to me were how the 2,400 residents of Gettysburg were impacted.

We learned a lot about that on a ghost tour that we took on our first night in town.  This was a walking tour of the center of town and our guide pointed out specific buildings that dated back to the war and gave us lots of gruesome details about how the town was eventually inundated with casualties.  Certainly if any place was going to be haunted, the town of Gettysburg would be a prime location for it, but almost all Gettysburg ghost stories are complete fiction according to The American Battlefield Trust.

Up until this tour, I hadn’t realized that parts of the battle took place in the town itself, not just out in the surrounding farm fields (I was probably passing a note in class when they talked about that).  Some of the buildings in town still have artillery shells embedded in their walls.  Many of the women and children in town fled before the fighting began, and most of the rest took shelter in their cellars.  Amazingly enough, there was only one civilian casualty of the war and that was a young woman named Jennie Wade.  She was kneading dough in the kitchen to make more of the biscuits that she was handing out to soldiers when a bullet passed through two wooden doors and straight into her heart.

It seems miraculous to me that there was only one civilian casualty.

However, although only one civilian died during the battle, the town itself was rendered nearly uninhabitable after it was over.  Farm fields had been trampled and/or burned, any livestock was commandeered by the troops, and buildings were badly damaged.  But even worse, there were those over 50,000 casualties (the term ‘casualty’ refers to dead, wounded, missing or captured).  There were around 7,000 killed in the battle, and another 33,000 wounded.  Any large building in the area was turned into a field hospital for the wounded.  Many of the women in town were enlisted to act as nurses.

In addition it was a hot and steamy July, and there were 7,000+ dead bodies to be dealt with.  The air became incredibly foul, and so did the ground water.  I don’t even want to imagine what that was like.

On our 2nd day in Gettysburg, we hired a licensed battlefield guide to take us on a guided tour of the Gettysburg National Military Park.  If you ever go to Gettysburg, I can’t recommend this enough.  You can hire the guide right at the Visitor’s Center.  We paid $117 (plus tip) for a three hour tour in our own vehicle.  The guide drives your vehicle, and customizes the itinerary based on your interests.

In our case, Mr. Q wanted to see a bit of everything, but especially where the 1st Minnesota fought.

By the way, there are over 1,300 monuments in this park.  It’s a bit overwhelming.  In some areas they are just lined up one after another.

Some are a little more simple.

While some are impressively grandiose.

That is the Pennsylvania State Memorial, and the largest monument in Gettysburg which makes sense.

Our guide was a retired college professor and incredibly knowledgeable.  Mr. Q and the nephew were enthralled for the entire 3 hours (I may or may not have been passing notes, albeit via text rather than paper).

Once our 3 hour tour concluded, we headed off for lunch and then went back to the Visitor’s Center to see the film, the cyclorama and the museum.  It took most of the afternoon to see those, so if you’re planning a trip to Gettysburg keep that in mind.  I recommend planning at least a full day for the Military Park and another half day or full day to see the town, maybe do a ghost tour like we did, or tour some of the many historical buildings.

Mr. Q and I had an amazing time on our trip out to the east coast.  If you are a fan of gardens, you should add the Brandywine Valley to your bucket list.  We totally enjoyed our visits to Longwood Gardens, Winterthur, Nemours, and historic New Castle.  Those gardens were just the tip of the iceberg, there are over 30 public gardens in the Philadelphia area.

And if you are a fan of battlefields, the Brandywine Battlefield was very interesting and easy to see in half a day.  Gettysburg is about a 2.5 hour drive away, and obviously well worth adding on to your trip.

As I mentioned, I did pick up a couple of things to give away.

I purchased the book, A Year at Brandywine Cottage, at Longwood Gardens.

I’m also including the Vintage Garden Style magazine that I found at a grocery store out there.  I purchased the Jennie Wade of Gettysburg book at the National Military Park.  It’s a short read telling the story of that one civilian who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.

I decided to throw in a few more garden themed items too, including the I.O.D. Lover of Flowers transfer and two of the Dixie Belle Heirloom Roses decoupage papers.

Finally I’m also including some Dixie Belle paint in English Ivy and Magnolia as well as some of their Big Mama’s Butta in a floral scent called Suzanne’s Garden and some of their newest gilding wax in a color called Antique Gold.

That last item, the gilding wax, is in homage to all of the gilding we saw at the Nemours Estate.

I wish I could give these things to each and every one of you, but unfortunately that isn’t possible.  But please know that I do appreciate all of you.  But unfortunately there will only be one winner of this drawing.

The rules for today’s giveaway:  Simply leave a comment on this blog post and let me know which location we visited was your favorite.

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, July 6, 2025 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $200, if the prize is not claimed by Wednesday, July 16, 2025 another name will be drawn at random to win, yada, yada, yada.

Good luck!

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying all of their items that I’m giving away today!