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One Hundred Dollars a Month

I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Giveaway – Enter to Win a $50 Gift Card to Annie’s Annuals and Perennials

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
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Annie's Annuals and Perennials

I recently took a trip to San Francisco to attend the Garden Bloggers Fling with my garden buddy Harriet and my online boyfriend Ryan from Botanical Interests. One of the cool places we stopped at was Annie’s Annuals and Perennials in Richmond, California.

white and purple hollyhock

For those of you who don’t know Annie and her crew not only sell annuals and perennials at the nursey, but they also ship plants, sell garden art {my favorite} and have all sorts of books available in their shop and online {see some of Annie’s offerings HERE}.

Annie's Annuals and Perennials California

Annie’s Annuals and Perennials was like no other nursery I had been too.

It. Was. Eclectic.

There was music playing, oodles of fun art features, potted plants galore and it just had a fun, hip, vibe to it. Seriously, if I ever owned a nursery, I would want to model it after Annie’s. Being there was just so much fun.

garden cows

Thanks to Annie’s Annuals and Perennials, we are giving away a $50  Gift card to one lucky One Hundred Dollars a Month reader. You can use this gift card at the nursery, or online. It’s up to you.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment below and let us know what is your favorite flower in the whole wide world?

That’s it. How easy is that? Easy peasy if you ask me!

Container Gardening 101! from Annie’s Annuals and Perennials on Vimeo.

You can see more of Annie’s great videos HERE

annies

Rules

1 entry per person/ip address. If you cheat, you will totally be disqualified.

This giveaway ends Sunday, July 14th, 2013 @9 pm PST and the winner will be announced in the Monday, July 15th, 2013 edition of Mornings with Mavis.  You will be notified via email and have 48 hours to claim your prize. If you do not claim your prize within 48 hours the prize will be forfeited.

Good Luck!  I hope you win!

♥ Mavis

Annie's Annuals and Perennials Online

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

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Comments

  1. I love fragrant flowers!! So I’d have to say my favorite flower in the whole wide world is Honeysuckle !! I have several different kinds and I can sit on the porch in the morning to have a cup of coffee and enjoy the wonderful fragrances; OR sit out on a warm summer’s eve and just relax with the warm and toasty fragrances of my Honeys. They are “comfort smells”!

  2. I love your site! I don’t know what my absolute favorite plant / flower is… but I really enjoy cactus! So let’s say that! Would love to win a gift card and buy some goodies for my tiny porch container garden!

  4. I love hydrangeas! Especially the one I got for Mother’s Day last year. I named her Cleopatra because she is so beautiful!

  5. My favorite are roses. Some may say they are unoriginal and unimaginative. I used to feel the same way until I walked into Harper’s Nursery here in Mesa AZ one early summer day. I was blow away by the incredible variety of stunning roses that littered the entire property. I went home with 6 rose bushes that day and within a year I had over 30 rose bushes planted on my property including a designated rose garden in the back 1/3 of my yard. Living in the hot AZ desert, cactus and gravel abound. Needless to say, I had countless people drive by and stop to look at my unique and stunning yard. I’ve come to discover many reasons to make the ‘plain ‘ol’ rose my favorite; they are nearly impossible to kill and require less water then most landscape plants, but most of all, I love the smell as I walk into my yard during the early morning hours before the heat of the day stifles almost all that breath. Roses are my favorite 🙂

  7. My all time favorite flowers are pink Shirley Poppies! They make me smile when I see them from my kitchen widow. They wave gently in the breeze inviting me out to join them in the sunshine. I sow Shirley Poppy seed every January and they are in their full glory by early May. As Annie would say, “swoon”.
    PS Love Annie’s Annuals! My husband and I are anxiously awaiting our Sacred Flower of the Andes to bloom. We purchased it this spring from Annie’s. Who knows, maybe it will become my new all time favorite flower.

  9. Roses! As a little girl I would go to grandma’s rose garden and collect spent flowers, hide behind the shed (using her Tupperware) and make my own perfume. As an adult I not only appreciate the beauty and scent but also the flower hips that are high in vit. C.

  13. So many favorites!!!!!!!!!!! But my Husband has tried to save the PRAIRIE ROSE– he has taken starts from roses that we know the source had to be over 100 years old or more & we share starts of those roses with many others to keep the old fashioned prairie rose living– soooooooo many people use terrible killing toxic chemicals– & have almost totally killed out all starts to the old fashioned prairie rose!!! So many of our old fahsioned wild flowers & other old time flowers are gone due to people using toxic killing chemicals!!!

  14. I love just about anything. Sunflowers, roses and shasta daisies are my favorite.

  15. I’ll say my favorites are daisies, but I love most the flowers on plants that signal vegetables or fruit are coming soon!

  16. I love hibiscus! I have a few hardy varieties growing in my garden, and I love them. I haven’t bought any tropical hibiscus yet, since they’re usually pretty pricey and I’m too lazy to dig them up and bring them inside for the winter, but I always appreciate them in other people’s gardens.

  18. I love all varieties of Marigolds. So bright and cheery, and useful in the garden.

  19. I have never owned one, but my favorite would have to be black orchids! So mysterious and beautiful!

  22. Sunflowers! They were my wedding flowers, and I just love seeing a field full of them. 🙂

  23. My favorite by far is the coneflower!! The purple has always been my favorite but this year I added yellow and a red and I love love the red one =)

  29. I love peonies. They are short lived but so beautiful! Thank you for this fun giveaway.

  31. Tulips are my favorite flower in the whole world. I’d love to visit Holland when they are blooming…it’s on my bucket list!

  33. I love Gerber Daisies. We had them everywhere at our wedding reception! Cool giveaway. Wish I could go to Annie’s. Looks beautiful. Great video. Very informative.

  38. My favorite flowers are wisteria – they smell amazing, are soo beautiful and are nitrogen fixing! I discovered Annie’s annuals when I was searching for a certain type of tuber online- and I was so excited to see that she was located in the bay area! I haven’t made it over yet since its a little far, but I would for sure get my butt over there if I had a gift card. She throws garden parties as well and they look too fun! Everyone comes in costume and she gives away a lot of gift cards! xoxo I need to get over there for sure!

  41. Daisies are my absolute favorite, with squash blossoms coming in a close second! 😀 MMMmmmm…..squash…..

  44. Sweetpeas! They grew wildly and abundantly alongside my grandfather’s shop building on their farm.

  45. Marigolds have been my favorite since I was a child. I use to pick them out with my father at the local flower stand. (I am from a small community and there are no nursery’s just a few vendors that buy wholesale from the big nursery’s).

  46. I have to say ALL lilies!! But my absolute is the stargazer Lily!!! So precious!!!

  47. oh…so hard to choose…I will play favorites and go with white peonies with little, tiny specks of red in the center!

  49. I love roses but daisies especially gerber daisies always make me smile. Honeysuckle and jasmine make me want to curl up in a porch rocker.

  56. My favorite flower depends on the time of year and location. I have a bleeding heart that is huge (at least 3.5 feet tall and spreads out at least 5 or 6 feet) and every spring look forward to it being loaded with flowers. Wish it would bloom all summer long.

  57. Annie’s Annuals is SUCH an inspiration. I love the possibilities it presents to any gardener, I see what Annie grows and hope mine can look as good as hers. My favorite flowers are lilacs and peonies but the delphiniums and hollyhocks at Annies are amazing!

  62. I absolutely love Autumn Beauty Sunflowers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the opportunity to win this wonderful prize!!!!!!!!!!!

  66. I love fragrant roses. My favorite is the Double Delight.
    Hours of enjoyment are in watching the bumble bees, butterflies and hummingbirds flitter about the butterfly bush outside my window.

  67. My Tiffany rose is my favorite flower. It has a big, beautiful pink flower with the best rose scent!

  72. Oh, I love so many but I will go with blue delphiniums. In fact, any blue flower seems to be a favorite, ranging from delphiniums to salvias to hydrangeas, etc… I just gravitate towards blue in the garden. I LOVE Annie’s Annuals and visited for the first time last year. It was amazing!

  74. I will have to say a Deptford Pink! They’re so pretty and dainty! I’ve tried buying seed and transplanting them from where I find them, but alas! My garden is without them.

  75. I love flowers. I make fabric flowers and sell them online and at crafts fairs. It’s hard to pick a favorite one, but I think I’d say Daphne. The first time I caught a whiff of Daphne was when a friend brought some into work. It has an incredibly gorgeous scent. I heard it was a tempermental plant, which is why you don’t see it a lot at the garden stores. I ordered a Daphne plant and it flowered once and died. I have another one now that has yet to flower, but I’m not giving up hope.

  79. My favorite flower is the Tulip. It’s beautiful, and they only bloom 1 time per year. I have them planted on a big hill in my yard and their colors are so bright and pretty, they make me love the spring time. Hands down the best flower! 🙂

  80. I love Calla Lilies, especially the colored ones. They are so beautiful but strong.

  86. My very favorite flowers, as cliché as it is, have always been red roses. I’m not a romantic or anything. They are just beautiful flowers!

  89. I used to be a calla lily girl, then a hydrangea gal–but now I’m feeling an intense seduction by succulents! I want to do some wall art and a living wall with the amazing variety of texture and color of different succulents!

  90. I love sweet peas! So easy to get started in Feb/March then fun to watch them grow all spring and part of summer. I cut bouquets every day and they fill my home, office, and friend’s homes with a lovely fragrance. I even have some in a canning jar in a cup holder in my car! They are the ultimate simple, old-fashioned flower that anyone can grow.

  92. My favourite flower is the daisy – not the big ones, but the little 1.5inch bloom ones that grow wild. (I love all daisies, but those are my absolute favourites) I’d rather have daisies than roses any day!
    Thank You
    DIane

  93. My favorite flower would have to be the humble white with a yellow center daisy. Tulips are a very, very close second but I’ve always been a lover of daisy’s…their simplicity calm me and never cease to make me smile. My husband loves it because, well, they are one of the cheapest flowers around 🙂

  98. Okay! I’ve got to say it! I love Gardenias! Sorry about all the quotation marks but Gardenias remind me of my childhood in California. Hot summer nights where the fragrance would float through the air, perfuming the night with it’s beauty. When I breathe it in I feel like a little girl and the night is magical. No other flower does it for me like that. Smells can take you to those special places in your memory. I get happy just thinking about them. 🙂

  99. Love, love, love gardenias! We had a huge bush of them growing up and the local florist would come and gather some for special events (along with asparagus fern).

  100. Hydrangeas are my favorite! I love the beautiful poms and lace caps. I love that you can change the color of the flowers by putting different things in the soil.

  102. The peony. I cannot seem to get mine to bloom but I can buy them at the farmers market.

  103. I love daffodils. They were the first flower I remember planting with my Grandmother as a small child and to this day every year on my birthday I clip some to bring inside to remember her and how much she loved flowers, and me…

  107. My favorite flower is the simple Calendula. I use it to make some amazing lotions and lotion bars that I can give to my friends.

  108. Dahlias, they are always smiling and happy to greet me when I enter the garden.

  112. I have to pick just one favorite??? Ok then I’ll say daylillies. Or honeysuckle. Or sunflowers. Or … 🙂

  113. My favorite would be the bleeding heart because it reminds me of my grandmother back in CT who use to grow them when I was a child.

  114. I love so many flowers I can not even pick out a favorite. Daisy’s, lavender, roses, cosmos, and marigolds! Those are my tops!

  115. My favorite flowers are hollyhocks. I have fond memories of making hollyhock ladies with my grandmother, when I was little. (Buds for the head and body; open flower for the skirt. Joined with tootpicks and added toothpick arms.)

  116. I love a pretty yellow daisy. They last forever and look perky and like a big smile.

  117. My favorite is Stargazer Lillies. Their scent is absolutely wonderful, it makes me smile.

  118. Cosmos! Or gerbera daisies or zinnias or portulaca or sweat peas or black eyed susans

  120. My favorite flower (kinda cheating because it’s a flowering bush) is the Lilac. It’s sent instantly makes me happy and brings back a great bunch of childhood memories..If i had to choose a flower i’d say Sunflower.. they just evoke a smaile everytime you look at them.

  122. My favorite flower is whatever is blooming beautifully right now. I guess that would be the gloriosa daisies or the Jethro Tull Coreopsis.

  125. Daffodils! I was so happy when some came up at my new house this spring!

  129. Really, I have to choose?! Well, my first thought was lavender but I think it’s an herb so just in case that doesn’t count I will choose the little English daisies – which we can’t grow because the wild bunnies ALSO choose these as their favorites! But in all honesty I think the flowers I get most excited about are those that bloom on the vines of our berries before fruiting : )

  131. I like Snapdragons. When I was a little girl my mom showed me how to make the blossoms open and close their ‘mouths’ by squeezing them gently on the side. 🙂

  133. I like all kinds of flowers, so it is really difficult to choose just one favorite flower. I really like the cheery sunflower. It became a favorite after seeing fields of them in Hungary and Serbia last summer.

  134. My favorite flowers are peonies…always remind me of my grandmother’s flower gardens!

  137. I love ranunculas. Not only are they beautiful but it’s just fun to say ranunculas!

  138. I love Gerber Daisies. Just looking at them and seeing the long outer petals and then the centers petals get smaller and smaller and the textures of the center are amazing to me. The vibrant colors can only brighten your day.

  139. Mavis, I just love your blog! It’s often the highlight of my day. My very favorite flowers are zinnias, especially the variety Envy, it is green! Completely, insanely, beautiful green!! I love a big bouquet of zinnias on my table in the summer. Thanks, I hope I win:)

  143. Today…sunflowers! Ask me again tomorrow and I’ll have changed my mind! 🙂

  144. I love phlox. I have the tall pink and tall white ones. They smell so wonderful and faithfully return every year.

  145. I love Salvias. I think my absolute favorite is Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’.

  151. They are all so pretty…I’m a flower nut but I’d have to say that roses are my favorite!

  154. My favorite perennial is bleeding heart. I remember watching it grow when I grew up in PA and amazed when the arching flowers blossomed. Its a simple, understated perennial that always marked the spring season and fueled my love of horticulture.

  156. My favorite is the Giant Allium. My mom used to grow giant purple alliums when I was little and I was fascinated by the fact that they were taller than me. I need to plant some in my yard.

  157. Do I have to pick a fav I love them all… Well just in case I’ll pick my rose in my back yard -who knows what it’s called but it’s beautiful because it keeps living even after I moved it around a couple of times. This year it has even given me a little shoot to plant somewhere else!

  159. I have so many favorites but any knid of bulb I love. Iris would probably be my most favorite. I have moved several times and I always try to dig up some of them and take them with me. Thank you for the opportunity to win something.

  161. Lilies, any kind of lily especially now that I have a 16 month grandbaby named Lili!

  164. Boy is that a hard one to answer. I think I would have to say lavender flowers are my favorite though. Will never be without them in my garden if I can help it. They feed my soul

  165. Because I sell seeds, it is hard to just pick one. But so far, the Evening Scented Primrose has to be my all time favorite. I’d like to get involved in your contests, so hit me up, and we can discuss it.

  167. Ackkk, we have to pick just one??? So many choices, kind of depends on season. Daffodils, sweet peas and lilacs are Spring favorites, fushisas, dahlias, phlox and black & blues right now and mums for fall. But my favorite is actaully and herb..the borage plant. The flowers are covered by honey bees and bubble bees and they are so amazing to watch. Hope I win!!

  169. Lilies =) I love them so much I named my daughter Lily…. ok it was also my Grandmother’s name.. but I also really love Lilies

  173. My favorite flower is the Black Eye Susan. I have the common one found on both roads & nurseries. I also have a very delicate smaller version that use to grow wild in the woods near a park that I use to go and picnic at. NOW The city has that land but I have plants & collect & save the seeds.

  174. Millionaire Eggplant flowers are a beautiful deep purple and they turn into delicious eggplants!

  177. I’d say my favorite flower is Marigolds. I love their fragrance, they are easy to grow, and I have lots of childhood memories helping my Aunt collect the seeds every year!

  179. My favorite flower is the Fushia!!! and I’m growing one for the first time this year… Gorgeous!!! I’m also growing Sunflowers and can’t wait to see them bloom!

  180. I think my favorite plant changes every month. Right now I am lovingly tuberous begonias. I love the large, picotee flowers.

  181. My favorite flowers are the ones from childhood. My dad loved flowers, crusty old farmer that he was, and put the extra work into flower beds all around the farm buildings. A special favorite is hollyhocks! The lined the chicken coop and shielded it from the sun, but for a child the mounds of leaves erupting from no where, the tall stalks growing up, the variety of single & double flowers, the fascination of opening the seed pods to the little circlet of seeds and separating them out…

  184. My favorite, by far, is Lavender. And it’s so diverse: You can cook with culinary lavender, dry it, distill the oil, use it on sunburn, dab on your pillowcase for sound sleep. The fragrance is intoxicating!

  185. My new favorite flower thanks to Annie’s is – Lupinus Regalis ‘Thomas Church’.
    The combination of purple and yellow are spectacular and I love the story of how Annie acquired her first seeds.
    First seed pods just dried on my Thomas Church. I will try propagating them so I can have this stunning plant everywhere in my garden.

    Thanks to Annie my veggie and flower gardens are blooming!
    http://kkravchik.zenfolio.com/june2013
    http://kkravchik.zenfolio.com/june2013/slideshow

    Karina
    figurative sculptor mfa
    http://www.karinafurhman.com

  188. I, like many others love so many…..Gerbera Daisies favorite especially in bulk; but I also LOVE the unique unrecreatable (couldn’t come up with the word…) smell of Orange Blossoms!!!

  189. My favorite are orchids…it’s their simplicity and quiet stated elegance that makes them a star…

  190. One of my life goals is to have so many huge hydrangea bushes that I can cut 30 of them at one time and not even make a dent in them. And they have to be blue hydrangeas!

  192. I love plumerias, especially the white ones with yellow centers. They smell divine! Plumerias grow in warm, tropical climates, such as Hawaii where they are used in leis. If only I could get them to grow in zone 5!

  194. Hi Mavis! My favorite flowers are white lilies. They remind me of my mom.

  197. My favorite wildflowers are lady’s slippers. They are unique, unpredictable, and delightful to come upon in the woods. For garden flowers, I would have to say Irises. Stately, bold, and always a sure sign of Spring.

  198. This is a tough question, I think my favorite flower has to be the flower that I’ve loved the longest because now I have too many “favorites”. Ever since I can remember I always loved blue daisies, Felicia amelloides I think. I remember being three year’s old and getting in trouble for picking every single one of my Mom’s blue daisies.

  199. For me, its a tie between lilac and lavender. I loooooove the way lilacs look and smell, but lavender is so soothing, and the essential oils can be added to so many DIY home and beauty products!

  200. I’ll say ranunculus because we had them at our wedding and they’re fun to say. But lavender also.

  202. Mavis my favorite flower is the tulip. Because here in Wisconsin when you see the tulips come up you know winter is on the way out!

  203. I love stargazer lilies. They are my mom’s favorite flower too, and seeing them always makes me think of her!

  204. California Poppies. They’re the state flower and they’re tough cookies. They’ll even grow in my rain gutter, 12′ up!

  208. Pink Lady’s Slippers! They grow naturally on my property and makes me feel magical to see them!

  209. I can never pick between hydrangeas and sweet peas. They both bring back great childhood memories.

  213. My favorite flower is whatever is in bloom at the moment or whatever I happen to be looking at. Today it is the apple blossem.

  214. Do I have to pick one?! Sunflowers.. And coneflowers. I live in Denver and it is dry dry dry! So anthing that grows well with very little water is beautiful to me!

  215. My very favorite is the daisy..both the cultivated and the wlldflower (of which I have hundreds throughout my vegetable garden. A close runner-up would be the sunflower which a few sometimes sport a smiling mouth with teeth from a toothpaste advertisement cut out and stuck on with a straight pin. Catches grandchildren by surprise and the occasional visitor to the gardens.

  216. My favorite flower is the daffodil. My dad brought me a bunch every year on my February birthday.

  217. The last time I was asked my favorite flower, I was a child. Today it is as difficult to choose as it was all those years ago! I will say the first flower to come to mind: grape hyacinth ‘Muscari armeniacum’. I love the lovely bulb planted among King Alfred daffodils in a drift of cobalt blue and bright yellow, or just a few popping up in unexpected places. Don’t you enjoy the way they slowly increase in number, coming back year-after-year? Plus, brought inside, they make an amazing bouquet. My favorite container for Muscari is a gold leaf creamer made by my husband’s family pottery in the 40s. Just thinking about grape hyacinth makes me smile. Of course, any flower makes me happy, which is why I played in the heat today, filling in a few bare spots with white Shasta daisies and yellow calendula.

  219. My favorite flower is the bird of paradise, just love the colors and look of them

  220. Man this is hard question. How do you narrow it down? If i have to pick one then my favorite today is the giant Russian mammoth sunflower. The wild parrots in our town go crazy over them, they flock to our yard and peck the seeds right off the 8 foot stalks!

  224. As a child my grandmother had a small patch of lily of the valleys growing, I would always pick some once they bloomed and bring them inside. At my last visit a week ago, I was upset that I had not taken a look on how they were doing if even still around. I remember that she had a rock garden that she spent hours tending but I do not recall the flowers growing only the lily of the valley’s. From the lily of the valleys, the apple trees, and the wild blackberries – I always loved being at my grandmother’s home. I’m at that point as an adult where I want to have that small patch in my yard to have my daughter appreciate.

  226. I like snapdragons. When I was a tot, my dad showed me their secret. A gentle squeeze at the right spot and they’d pop open and then snap shut again. A flower you can play with? I was entranced. To this day they remind me of my dad.

  227. Just love,love,love Fresia….the fragrance is amazing!I’ Id get a bouquet every day if I had the finances to cover that little expenditure!!

  230. Really enjoy your blog! Resurrection Lilies (Naked Ladies) are my favorite.

  231. I choose irises! My husband and I both like them and had them in our wedding flowers (almost 24 years ago!). I grew up in the UP of Michigan, right on the lake (ok, NEXT to the lake), and there were purple “flags” or wild water irises growing near our garage. Every time I see irises, they take my breath away! When we moved to our present home 4 years ago, I discovered a bed of irises growing (but not blooming) in our woods. After a year in their new home in the flower bed with Mr. Sunshine, they bloomed a pretty pale apricot. A farming friend grows and sells them (from Dauphin, PA) and she is a great source to feed my addiction. I have 3 different light purple iris types in my front flower bed, a clump of dark purple Siberian irises in the back yard – along with the VERY dark purple “Dark Vader” (LOL) bearded irises and the transplanted apricots. This year, a bunch of purple and white irises bloomed in the front yard – I didn’t even remember planting them! Maybe the word is out that orphaned irises will be welcome in my gardens. (I would LOVE to visit Annie’s!)

  232. I love all flowers: big, small, colorful or not. My favorite for right now is the evergreen jasmine that blooms in the winter. It’s right outside the front door and last year bloomed in January. I just love flowers!

  233. My favorite flower plain and simple is the pansy…because it grows in the cold of winter to bring us some cheer when there is snow on the ground!

  237. My favorite flowers are my kale flowers! I know, I know, it’s a veggie. But when my abundance of kale ends and the dainty yellow flowers appear, it’s the best! The bees go crazy over them and I know that soon I will be harvesting kale seeds. Lovely 🙂
    I would also like to mention that my 30th Bday is July 15 and I shall be moping around the house in my p.j.s feeling sorry for myself. This would definitely brighten my day 🙂
    Cheers! Trina

  244. Peonies!!! They are gorgeous and remind me of the wonderful summers I used to spend at my grandma’s house!!

  246. Two favorites that I can’t decide between — Gerber daisies or sunflowers. Awesome giveaway! Hope to get to Annie’s someday.

  249. Columbine stay on my mind
    Each Spring and summer they flower,
    Columbine, Dear Columbine;
    I love your bright, unusual flowers!

Mavis Butterfield Etsy