Image from slantmouth.com

But I won’t whore myself. When accepting payment it must be clear that it is no guarantee of a favorable review at a later date. Not every thing is as great as the marketing would suggest. Shocking. Of course human nature makes me giddy with excitement over many of these new and exciting and best-ever-introduced plants. It’s variegated? I’m smitten. It’s chartreuse? I’m falling in love. It’s orange? I’m shopping for a ring. It’s all of those? I’m booking the wedding hall and registering at Target. The result of placing my chlorophyll in such a vulnerable spot is that some times my little horticultural heart gets broke – “I was sure this was the one that would bloom forever (sob, sob)”. But I know the pain will ease and soon I will be lusting and loving anew. Ah, the life of a plant slut.

Sometimes a plant isn’t so much sexy as practical. I think many natives fall in this category.I wouldn’t call Tiarella sexy. Pretty? Maybe. A hard worker? For sure. These woodland plants bloom in spring usually with new selections continuing until as late as July. Flowers are usually white with a pink blush but some are a rue light pink. They have very good foliage all season. I’m now trialing five new cultivars of running Tiarella cordifolia, foam flower from Plants Nouveau. Tiarella tends to be either a clumper or a runner. Runners can make better groundcovers because they spread by sending out runners, small plants on the end of horizontal shoots. These are all native to eastern Pennsylvania and named after five rivers in that region. Here are pictures of two.

'Delaware' (Plants Nouveau)

'Susquehana' (Plants Nouveau)

We will have to see if they like Indiana as well. I don’t think there will be a problem as we grow plenty of Tiarella already.

Some natives on the other hand are sexy. The Silphiums in all their big, bold, bodacious beauty are a fine example. Another example would be Tiarella’s somewhat slutty cousin Heucherella, a hybrid resulting from a one-night stand between a Tiarella and a Heuchera (coralbell). Heucherella is sometimes called foamy bells (foam flower x coralbell). The result is plants with flowers generally larger than Tiarella blossoms but smaller than Heuchera blossoms. Some have dark pink flowers. Now all the fantastic colors of Heuchera foliage is being introduced to these plants. Terra Nova has some hot ones right now. I am very interested in trialing some of these as well (my wish list is growing daily and gets sent next week). Jimmy Turner – I can’t help it, I have to call him by both names – Director of Horticulture Research at the Dallas Arboretum, likes them so I know they can handle heat and humidity. My favorite is probably ‘Golden Zebra’ though ‘Sweet Tea’ makes my blood boil a little too.

‘Golden Zebra’ (Terra Nova)

‘Sweet Tea’ (Terra Nova)

So many plants, so many vendors. Such is the life of a plant slut. Now, who had that chartreuse-leaved daylily with delphinium-blue flowers?

Everyone needs a little everyday design, and Target has got the right idea by teaming up with design super-stars like Michael Graves and Isaac Mizrahi on everything from fashion and beauty to decor and dishes. My favorite collab has to be the rock ‘n roll infused line by Alexander McQueen, inspired by my all time favorite front woman, Leila Moss of The Duke Spirit.

McQueen's muse, Leila Moss modeling the Target line

And these days at the IMA, it’s all about design, design, design. The European Design exhibit is drawing to a close (hurry if you haven’t seen it!) but the Design Center will stay open with great pieces you can take home. Already have a lot of design in your life (or living room)? Take some photos of your everyday design objects and upload them to our Flickr group.

And here’s some great news: tonight you can hear Jeff Carter, senior designer for Target Stores, speak here at the IMA.

• Thursday, June 4
• 7:00 pm
• The Toby at the IMA
• $7 Public / $4 Members / $5 students, click here for more details

And let me just take a moment to mention Target’s website.  I’ve always been a fan of their clean layout (although the mega menus are over-stuffed), and the Design For All section provides a mini profile on each designer they’ve collaborated with. Nice. Although,  I’d really like to see video interviews with each designer or even a Design For All blog. That’s probably asking too much-  but hey, a girl can dream, right?

Speaking of blogs,  check out these Target posts from local design blogs The Design File and Level: zine.

And this one from The DieLine:  Los Angeles-based illustrator Hiroko Sanders created the illustrations for the Kleenex ‘Perfect Slice of Summer’, new limited edition tissue box series for Target Stores.

Juicy.

What a month it’s been so far in Indianapolis. My Target Chip Ganassi Racing team has performed flawlessly and put my teammate Scott Dixon on pole position, with myself close behind in second for our first ever one-two start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I’ve always been fortunate in my career to be in great equipment, and I hope to take the No.10 Target Honda Dallara to victory lane Sunday.

What a great feeling it would be to win a second Indianapolis 500. Winning this race in 2005 was the highlight of my professional racing career, and the highlight of my personal life came just a few short months ago in St. Petersburg, FL when I married my beautiful wife Susie. Things are going extremely well and I can only hope we have lady luck on our side when the green flag drops in a few short days.

I’ve always been a fan of the arts so in the spirit of good taste and with a nod to my heritage I’ll be sporting a new pair of PUMA racing shoes this weekend for the race. They are a very distinct blue, red and white pair that feature the British Flag…complete with a gold PUMA logo to accent the design. I also had a very special helmet designed for the race which shows off what its like to sip the milk at Indianapolis. I don’t want to give too much away so you’ll have to look for it on Sunday!

Finally, in starting on the front row for this year’s Indianapolis 500, my teammate and I were able to participate in a special visit to New York City on Monday at the new Sports Museum of America on Broadway in NYC. What a thrill it was to see a display showing off one of the helmets the team donated to the museum for the grand opening. That’s all the inspiration you need to close out the month of May in Indianapolis on a high note!

Here’s to another victory this weekend, and hopefully adding another piece of “fine art” to my personal collection!