Well I had the best darn day touring the beautiful, lush Gardens at Ball! I was invited to tour the grounds and to learn about upcoming flower, herb and veggie trends from their super-knowledgeable experts.

I’ve only been dabbling in gardening since we moved into the house two years ago, but recently I’ve hit a pretty good stride of keeping up a little flower garden, an array of herbs and some really lovely planters (if I do say so myself). 😀 So this visit came at the perfect time as it provided some serious flower lust that has my head spinning with all the possibilities for Annie’s mega-garden of 2019.

Let’s start this tour, shall we?

We entered the garden to this little flower den. How cute is this? I told Dave I have found my new must-have garden accessory. Please and thank you.

I noticed how fabulous the different gardens looked with large bunches of the same flowers and plants growing together in an organized harmony. I don’t know why but I’ve been planting one little fox glove here, and one little begonia there – silly!

How gorgeous are these flowers!? AH! And they can grow in the shade! I had no idea shade plants could be so colorful.

Another thing I noticed at the gardens was how lovely non-flowering plants can be. I have no idea what these tall brown cat-tail looking things are but I love the drama they add. I’ll have to do some research and see what I want to add next year.

I promise I did try to edit the number of photos I posted here, but I just couldn’t resist all the beauties!

Look at all these petunia colors! How in the world do you pick just one? So pretty.

I’m not sure I had ever heard of a vinca plant but these delicate petals and this gorgeous color made this a must-have for next year.

After taking in all these beautiful flowers I got to head inside to see where the seeds get coated – the seed coat refers to the hard or semi-hard covering that sheathes a seed, protecting it from various types of insects and diseases. Seed coats additionally prevent premature germination by obstructing any excess water from penetrating the seed. Who knew?! It was very cool and very science-y and I loved learning about the process.

I also got to see the baby plants, and I about lost my mind at how adorbs they were.

Whew! What a fun-filled day! I learned so much and was incredibly inspired by all I saw and I can’t wait to put it all into action when planting season kicks off next year. If you can visit the Gardens, I highly recommend it! It was such a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

I’ll leave you with these snaps where I tried to pull off a nice blogger selfie, but this is what you get. 😀

Happy gardening everybody!