daisies

Every year, I buy seeds for a plant I've never grown before. This year I tried Livingstone Daisy, or Ice Plant, so named because the leaves glisten like they are covered with ice crystals. The seeds were like dust, and the planting directions were really complicated, so I didn't think much would come of them, but I was surprised to find that they all germinated, and really quickly. So I was stuck with sprawling, tangled plants on my windowsills for months. The plant aren't pretty, but the flowers are truly eye-popping.

The flowers close on cloudy days and overnight. The slugs got to some of the plants, but these make up for all the trouble they were.