Happy Mother's Day to me

I know I am probably the only mother in the world who buys herself a Mother's Day present but I came across some beautiful chrysanthemums and roses in recent days that I simply couldn't resist especially as the chrysanthemums had been reduced from $15-$18 to $5. I was going to wait until after Mother's Day and check for any reductions at one of our few remaining locally owned plant nurseries which I will still do but I saw these plants at BigW just begging to be rescued so I obliged. Honestly there is nothing wrong with them and they just need a little TLC and eventually some sunshine and they will provide some colour in our late Autumn garden where nothing much is flowering at the moment.

I have been eyeing off the pink chrysanthemum in front of a shop just up the road and wondered if the owner would give me a cutting as they are so easy to grow but I didn't pluck up the courage to do that so was thrilled to see the same light pink flowers when I went into BigW. I checked out the other colours and all the pink ones were reduced to $5. The rusty coloured ones are still $18 but I did manage to pick up one of them last week when it was the only one that was reduced. The flowers had died and a few of the leaves were going mouldy so I just gave it a trim and potted it up and it is looking good especially as we have had some light rain since last night. 

The spent flowers just need to be taken off this plant. 

This one seems to be two toned and I just love both colours.

This is a purple one which looks red in the photo which I bought myself for Mother's Day last year.

I bought a couple of roses for the first time too. This one is Oklahoma. It says on the tag that it is strongly scented so I hope that is right.

The other one is Blue Moon and is also scented so I do hope they survive as only three of the six roses we were given last year by a neighbour are still alive and well. Mind you the CEO moved them at the wrong time of the year but if he didn't dig them out that particular day then the neighbour was going to throw them in the bin and she did end up tossing the few that were left. The previous owner had really loved her roses and I wish she had taken them with her but she wasn't sure where she was going to live when the house was sold. So sad all round really! 

Personally I don't really care about receiving presents for Mother's Day and I am sure most parents would just love to hear from their children on the day. I see advertisements about buying expensive jewellery etc. for mothers and I often wonder if anyone really does that. My mother certainly didn't expect any expensive gifts. I used to do craft work to sell years ago during the 1970s and 1980s and I am sure anyone who was crafty at that time will remember Tracy Marsh's books like Touch of Bouquet. I used to make tissue box covers in the shape of a house where you pulled the tissues out the chimney (don't laugh)and other crafts like that and my mum would always receive one of these handmade gifts for Mother's Day. I had a giggle the year after she had died and my sister and I were cleaning out her house to sell it as I found a drawer full of my crafty gifts which had never been used. Considering she was 97 when she died I don't think she really found any use for them in her eighties and nineties. I think she just wanted to know that we loved and appreciated her. 

Isn't that what any mum wants?