Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Money DOES Grow On Trees!

Yeah, yeah . . . don't we WISH these were real silver dollars? Even though they're not -- they're still one of my favorite flowers! They meet all of my requirements for garden flowers:
1) They are easy to grow and require no special soil, sun or amount of water
2) They provide beautiful purple blooms in early spring that last for weeks and weeks
3) They provide a beautiful dried 'flower' to use year round
4) They seed themselves year after year
5) They can be used for other crafts
 Scatter the seeds across the ground in the fall and just lightly turn the dirt over them.  That's it.  In the spring, you'll see the plants that look like this -- big, green weeds.  Memorize this photo or keep it handy as you'll be tempted to pull them out because they are prolific and they do look like weeds!  After they get to be about 3-4" tall, thin them out leaving just the plants you want.
They'll grow to about 3 feet in height and begin producing these clusters of gorgeous, purple flowers!  In a few weeks time, the flowers will wilt and you'll see little marquise-shaped seeds where each flower was.  By early July, they'll look like this . . .
I stake mine so they maintain a nice, even shape.  The pods will begin to go from green to brown and when they're completely brown and dry, you'll notice the 3-layered pods will begin to naturally shed the two outer layers.  That's when it's time to cut the stalks and enjoy some mindless, soothing, therapy.
Pull up a chair outside, place a table cloth or drop cloth on the ground and start rubbing the pods, shedding the two outer layers, dropping the seeds onto the cloth and revealing the beautiful, silvery silver dollars.
I always arrange bunches inside the house and give away a LOT of stalks to friends, along with bags of the seeds.
Once you've planted these, they'll naturally drop a TON of seeds onto the ground and just come up on their own the following spring!



These are fun to stamp on -- I used black, Staz-On ink and stamped different images on these.  I like to add them to cards and other crafts.  

If you're a lazy gardener or a very bad gardener (like me) and you still want something to impress you neighbors and show for your efforts . . . give these a try!  And to help you get started, the first five people to ask (U.S. residents only) I'll send you a bag of seeds.  Just let me know you'd like some and email me your address -- I'll get them out to you.

15 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! We were sitting on the deck last night (we live in the woods) and I looked down and was surprised by how our "money trees" had multiplied so much. I always forget about them since they are down in the wooded area...but how ironic you did a post about them! I love the stamped look! Cool!

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  2. OH MY!! They look beautiful stamped. I never would have though. I love them. I can imagine them being beautiful in cards. LOVE THIS!

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  3. They just are too ute for words. What an idea. My greadparents had a money tree back when I was a child. I remember how neat they look.

    Cynthia

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  4. Hi Lauren,

    I love how you decorated them. I wish I had room in my garden. My aunt always had them displayed in her home.

    Dee

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  5. Such a cute idea, Lauren. I'm loving your larger photos, btw.

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  6. I never knew these were so easy to care for! I love your idea of stamping them, they look adorable! I'll have to give them a try!
    Hugs,
    Patti

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  7. Hey... I might just be able to keep these plants alive! lol, they are gorgeous, by the way. Especially the stamped ones.

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  8. Have you gotten your first 5 requests filled up? I LOVE these! :-) I am in Iowa and don't know if they will do well or not, but I know they grew in NC where we just moved from last year...Your idea of stamping them is SO creative...I have never seen it done before. Awesome...Thanks for your generous spirit as a blogger...if you have some left, I'd love to give them a try here.....I'll send you my addy if you do....! :-)

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  9. What a lovely idea to stamp them! What a great idea! I would be delighted for you to share this on Potpourri Friday!

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  10. I love how these turned out. I'll have to check out the ink.

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  11. love your post so beautiful and whimsy

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  12. I've grown these and even had dried ones in a vase but I have never seen them stamped. They look awesome with the print on them! Did you figure that out yourself? I'm impressed!

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