Two Special Flowers, A Contest, and a Prize

Hello all! I am back from our big trip to North Carolina. I had a great time and will be posting a few posts about it, starting this morning. If I have not yet caught up with you, I will soon and know I am trying to get back into a routine.

You all know I visited two garden bloggers. Their gardens were most wonderful, and of course so were they and their plants! That is what this post is about today-two special plants. I will post more pics later this week about the visits themselves. But today is a different type of post, it is the first day of an opportunity to win a prize, not a contest perse, but an opportunity to win one of my prized handmade marker stones and the opportunity involves one plant from each of our blogging friend's gardens. Who are the two friends? Glad you asked! Cameron of Defining Your Home Garden was the first blogger, and Helen of Gardening With Confidence was the second blogger. Do stop by and say hello if you haven't already.

Long time readers know that I make marker stones. If I am ever lucky enough to meet another garden blogger, I always gift them with a marker stone. So far it has worked out since I usually only meet bloggers onesies and twosies-what would I have done if I went to Spring Fling? Ha! I'd be making stones all day. Hmmm. Getting off track here-get to it Tina! The marker stones are a memento from my garden to yours. They are nothing big or huge, just a token gift that will last forever...in the garden. My two blogging friends whose gardens I visited will soon be recipients of their own marker stones, but you see, when I make the marker stones I always make them in batches. One batch will make 4 or 5 stones. I need only two, so, being the somewhat 'outside of the box' thinker that I am, I thought I'd share with you all! Two readers will win their very own marker stones. All you have to do is identify the two pictured plants by Latin and common name. Please, I can only send the marker stone to within the United States and if you are already a recipient of a marker stone, you can certainly guess at these two special plant identifications, however no marker stones and no consolation prize:( I know you all understand.

I saw this first plant in Cameron's garden. It is a favored plant and I had never seen it before in any garden. I know very little about it and thought it might be fairly new to you all too. I think it will be a hard plant for most of you, but some may recognize it right away. Here it is. Look at it closely and keep reading. I will need to know both the common name and Latin name of this plant.

The next plant can be found in Helen's garden. This plant is an outstanding plant and here, at least in my neck of the woods, a somewhat difficult plant. I've never ever seen it in bloom. You can just barely make out the foliage. Please look at it closely as this may be needed for an identification. I will need both the common name and the Latin name. Now on to the fun part.
I will ask that you DO NOT post your answers in the comment section. This would give all other readers an unfair advantage. You are certainly welcomed (and I encourage you to do so) to comment that you will email me the answers. Please do some research first, and when you think you have both the common name and the Latin name of both of these plants, THEN comment and let me know you are emailing me your answers. You do NOT have to comment in order to email me your answers. My email is ramseytina5@gmail.com. No, this is not a ploy to get emails. I get too many already. I just can't think of any other way to give everyone a fair playing field other than to do it in the blind. Remember to not get discouraged if there are a lot of guessers (based on comments), hey, there might not be any so who knows? I will be the one who knows since I am the only one with access to my email. There are many late readers and I encourage you not to let this dissuade you from guessing. Everyone has an equal chance. These plants are not impossible to identify.

I will announce the two winners tomorrow when I (hopefully) get up my post about Cameron and Helen. So you have until 5:00 am in the morning to make a guess and email me. I will check there first prior to posting so tomorrow's posting will be late. No way I am getting up early in the morning!

If there are no right answers I might post some tips to help you all out. We'll see how it goes.

Remember, only email the answers, do not leave the guesses on here, and remember to include the common name of both plants, as well as the Latin name.

in the garden....

Today is my twin daughters' 28th birthday. I want to wish them both a very wonderful day!