WEDNESDAY'S WISDOM: The Last Leaf Gardener (LLG) "Accepts" the Social Media Inevitability! LLG Joins Facebook & Twitter – – – posted by the Physocarpus opulifolius (aka Coppertina tree's) flower, today's guest blogger

Remember me? I'm one of the flowers from the Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina) tree that grows in the urban (New York City) garden of Patricia Youngquist, the person who maintains this blog The Last Leaf Gardener, and, nearly six months ago to the day, on May 5th (Cinco de Mayo), this tree which I grow upon, authored his first blog entry, which you may refer to by clicking here. 


I had not bloomed at the time, but I learned about the Coppertina's posting soon after I bloomed, around May 19th 2011, because I (along with the other flowers that bloomed with me on the Coppertina) was featured in one of Youngquist's blog entries — on this very blog — titled, My Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina) and the Prodigal Son's Brother, which you may refer to by clicking here.


A short time after that, a Monarch butterfly landed on me — as evidenced in the photograph posted below,

and this image  of me is most likely very familiar to you by this time, because it is the one Youngquist currently uses in the 'About' section of this blog (upper left hand corner), and she also uses it so folks can identify her on Flickr as well as tumblr, and, addtionallly, Youngquist uses it for her Gravatar, and I am thrilled — as she has many flowers from her garden to choose from — to be featured in these venues.



Moreover, I was equally thrilled when the butterfly first landed on me, as it, too, could have chosen to "land" on any one of the beautiful things which grow in this garden. I still recall the day the butterfly was flitting about this garden whilst I hoped he would choose to land on me, and, lo and behold, he did! And now, that event — the butterfly looking for a flower and finding me — is going to be the trailer for Youngquist's second garden movie! I can't tell you the plot right now, as I am sworn to secrecy, but if you'd like to see this trailer, it is posted on Vimeo or you may click here.


Meanwhile, as you may recall, dear reader, in Youngquist's first garden movie, The Kiwi Speaks! Fifteen Minutes  of Fame (almost), which was discussed in a prior blog entry that you may refer to by clicking here, and is now available for viewing on Vimeo by clicking here, one of the "partners" of her Actinida kolomikta and Actimida (Kiwi Vines), was the narrator. I must confess I was a little jealous of that vine until I was reassured —  in the aforementioned blog post that includes the Prodigal Son's brother in the title which once again you may refer to by clicking here).


However, I must say that, even though it is fun to be in a movie trailer, and it is gratifying to be featured in the 'About' section of this blog (upper left hand corner) as well as on Flickr and tumblr, and to be her Gravatar, the butterfly is blocking some of my finest features! This is the reason I am so thankful that my image has been chosen — without the butterfly —  to be the representative on The Last Leaf Gardener's just released Facebook (FB) Page, where you will see a photograph of me without the butterfly. You may view it by clicking here  which will lead you to the full FB page, and I have posted a "copy" of the FB image below:

Pretty cool, huh? But I gotta say getting Youngquist to bite the Facebook (FB) bullet wasn't easy, and I'll tell you what convinced her to try FB: As you undoubtedly know, dear reader, my gardener, AKA the main author of this blog, is a big fan of Dagwood Bumstead (the "cartoon" character associated with the comic strip, Blondie). Her appreciation for this character is evidenced by a couple of her prior posts which you may refer to by clicking here as well as here. However, one of Dagwood's recent scenarios (regarding FB) is posted below:

It was Youngquist's realizing, that since even Dagwood Bumstead weighs in on FB, coupled with the things (such as me the Coppertina flower) which grow in her terrace garden convincing her that she should give us FB time, that The Leaf Gardener join the "FB" community!


And believe it or not, Youngquist, a "renaissance soul" is now finally a step ahead of Dagwood Bumstead, because she also set up a Twitter account! The address for it is: @THELLGARDENERNEWYORK and you may visit it by clicking here. I am happy to say that Youngquist also used my FB picture on Twitter! Her twitter slogan is, "Giving voice to what grows in a garden," and I would like to think that I was the inspiration for the slogan as a result of the post I wrote on Cinco de Mayo which I mentioned earlier in this entry however, for your convenience, I have posted another link to that post right here.


But, if truth be told, giving voice to the things which grow in Youngquist's urban garden has always been the norm. As the matter of fact, even the pumpkins, which were only here in the garden for the Halloween season, were impressed with how we express ourselves, and their thoughts were featured in this past Saturday's blog entry, which you may refer to it by clicking here.


Snippets of what this past Saturday's entry pointed out is that the things — such as myself, the Coppertina flower — which are grown in this terrace garden feeling the freedom to express ourselves, "all started in April of 2010, when [this] blog was only a little over four months old, and one of the beautiful flowers from [Youngquist's] Paeonia suffruiticosa (Tree Peony), posted a photograph of herself with a short narrative. (If you would like to refer to this, please click here.)"

"Meanwhile," last Saturday's post also pointed out that Youngquist's, "Helichrysum bracteatum (Strawflowers), has also "penned" (or shall I say "key-boarded"?) her thoughts too in a blog post which may be found by clicking here, while [Youngquist's] Penniestum setaceum (Purple Fountain Grass), on behalf of herself and [Youngquist's] Acer palmatum, posted a letter requesting assistance, so that an image of them taken by [Youngquist] could be rendered in a manner that it, too, could be used for one of the greeting cards, invitations or event program covers that [Youngquist designs, produces, and sells] within the Card Shoppe Pages (which you can view by clicking here) of [her] web-site, Patricia Youngquist Photo-Art."

I am just a Coppertina flower, so I don't know for certain, but I suspect, that it was this past Saturday's posting (and there is much more to it besides the snippets which I've included here) that made Youngquist realize just how prolific the things which grow in her terrace garden are, and that is another reason she may have decided to set up both Facebook and Twitter and give us more opportunity to share our view points and thoughts!

I do hope she keeps me as her profile picture! Therefore, if you agree with me that this is a cool opportunity for me, and that the things which she grows in her terrace garden were right to convince her to go the FB and Twitter route, please let Youngquist know in the "comments field" of this blog, or go over to her FB page and give it a "like", because if you do either or both of these things, then she'll keep me in the profile picture! 


P.S. If you are new to posting comments on a blog, you may click here for directions.