What's In A Name?

“Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive”
~Thomas C. Haliburton

This pothead is the newest addition to my garden. I’ve had a hankerin’ for a pot head for some time, and after a lot of looking but no finding, I was thrilled to stumble over a newly arrived, large shipment at a small nursery that was just what I was looking for!

Almost every pet I ever had was given a well thought-out name, and this hand crafted pothead that comes to my garden from Thailand is no different. I have a few ideas for a name for her but I’d love your input!

Ooh, ooh, I know…let’s make this a contest! The winner will be rewarded, naturally. If you are in the continental USA, I will send you a prize of TWO packets of my favorite annual purple poppy seeds! One for you and an extra if you choose to give a friend a gift. These poppy seeds should arrive to you in time to sow them in your spring garden in the Northern hemisphere. Here in the western part of Washington State, USDA zone 7-8, I can usually sow them in February, and they bloom in June. They reach over three feet tall and are a beautiful deep purple, single (occasionally double) flower with a darker throat and creamy pollen which my honey bees love. After flowering, it yields wonderful seed pods that not only supply you with a-gazillion more seeds to save but also snazzy dried pods to use in your fall decorations or arrangements. Heck, I even like to use the green under-ripened pods in flower arrangements, which you can see in this picture.

Outside of the continental US it is illegal for me to mail seed, so for my non USA readers, if I choose your suggestion for a name you’ll have to settle for knowing I celebrate you as the winner! Lame, I know but my hands are tied. Sorry! But your name and blog address (if you have one) will be forever posted for all to see! I’d love to hear all my reader’s suggestions!! I know I have many readers outside the US, so please join in the fun! After all how often do you get invited to give your opinion?

I’ll end the contest 7 days from the day of this posting.

In bloom in my garden today: Oxalis oregana ‘Wintergreen’, Anemone nemerosa ‘Robinsoniana’, Dodecatheon (Shooting Star), Alpine strawberry, Muscari (Grape Hyacinths), Hepatica, Fritillaria, Primrose, Hellebore, Skimmia, Mahonia repens (Oregon Grape), Heather, Rhododendrons, Clematis, Hyacinth Orientalis ‘Blue Jacket’, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’, Wood Hyacinths (Hyacinthoides hispanica), Corylopsis veitchiana (Winter Hazel)

Author’s photos