APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS

THIS MONTH WE ASKED INTRIGUE AUTHORS

Do you garden? 

What’s your favorite flower or plant? 

Or is your favorite flower delivered in a vase?

ELIZABETH HEITER

HUNTED 

Harlequin MIRA, January 2014 

When I moved into my current house, it was winter and I had no idea what was in the gardens, so I waited anxiously to find out what would bloom in the gardens.  The answer?  Mostly pricker weeds that promptly grew to 3-feet tall.  Other than a few daffodils and irises, there wasn't much.  So, it was a lot of fun to yank out those weeds and replace them with roses, hibiscus, hydrangea, rose of sharon, peonies, and other assortments. 

I also dragged in 800 pounds of rocks to border another garden so I'd have more space to fill with flowers.  But some of my very favorites are probably my orchids, which brighten up my house even in the dead of winter. 

ELLE JAMES

THE WITCH'S DESIRE

Harlequin Cravings 
May 2014

I love flowers! All the colors bring a smile to my face every time. I haven't always been fortunate enough to grow them, but the house I live in now has the best sun to grow flowers and I've been lucky each year to have a beautiful flower garden. 

I planted a lot of azalea bushes that bloom in the spring and again in the fall. I planted tulips to welcome spring in each year. 

In late April, early May, I plant my annuals. Usually I'll put in begonias and vinc (periwinkles) and marigolds. I have the pleasure of enjoying them all summer long. 

Which flower is my favorite? Hard to say. They all bring me joy! 

ANGI MORGAN

NAVY SEAL SURRENDER

Texas Family Reckoning Book 1

Harlequin Intrigue, May 2014

I'm sooooo not a gardener. But I am surrounded with great gardens here in my hometown and take a ton of pictures to share on my blog and on Facebook.

I do try rosebushes, but I don't have much light in my yard--so more power to 'em for sticking with me! My favorite flower is an Apricot Queen Anne Rose...mainly because it's right by the back porch and has outlasted my black thumb.

April in Texas is bluebonnet season and this year they were awesome. We searched all day for a picture like this. I will definitely be framing it for our wall.

JENNA RYAN

BLACK ROSE

Harlequin Shivers

April 2014

Sorry to say, I don't garden at all.  But I do love looking at other people's lovely gardens.  My favorite flower would definitely be a deep red rose, the kind that smells so beautiful. 

And of course, I'm doing a whole series for Shivers where the titles have flowers in them, so that's an ongoing theme. BLACK ROSE, BLOOD ORCHID, AND SCARLET BELLS.  I'm currently working on a fourth book which is called DARK LILY.  See?  Like I said, all about flowers.  Well, and a lot of shadows.

PATRICIA ROSEMOOR

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

I'm a long time self-taught gardener, but five years ago, I became a Master Gardener, trained by University of Illinois Extension to be a volunteer to help other people with their gardening problems.  That training has helped me improve my own garden, and it has made me more aware of a sustainable lifestyle. I recycle, I compost, I add native plants to my garden to help with storm water runoff, which is a serious problem in big cities. 

My city backyard is totally a garden as you can see the in the attached photos. I spend as much time as I can reading or writing in my garden every summer. It is my greatest pleasure. My heroine Skye in Animal Instincts reflects on the healing nature of her (my) garden. But, writing as Lynn Patrick with a partner, I was able to give  my gardening knowledge to my heroine, Heather, in A Forever Home. 

AIMEE THURLO

UNDERCOVER WARRIOR

Harlequin Intrigue, July 2014

Here is a photo taken today of a Columbine, a plant Aimée and I planted three years ago. Last year it didn't bloom at all, but this year it's bigger and more beautiful than ever, and that means a lot to me.

Our heroine in the July 1st Copper Canyon Intrigue, UNDERCOVER WARRIOR, has a dream of buying her own farm someday and working with her hands, growing things. Here is an excerpt from UNDERCOVER WARRIOR:

Erin led the way outside, then hurried over and crouched by the tiny plant. At the tip of its sole slender stalk was a small stem with new growth and two leaves. In the center was a tiny perfectly formed bud. “Look!” 

 

REBECCA YORK 

DIAGNOSIS ATTRACTION

Harlequin Intrigue, April 2014

I love to garden.  My favorite flowers are the azaleas that bloom here in the spring.  I wish they lasted longer, but I do have early blooming varieties and later ones, so the color lasts for about six week.  Here I am with some of the ones in my front yard.

JULIE MILLER 

THE BRIDESMAID'S BODYGUARD

June Free Online Read at www.Harlequin.com 

(a prequel to KCPD PROTECTOR, August 2014)

I'll confess, I'm not much of a gardener--too many allergies!  Fortunately, my hubby has a green thumb and we have a lot of flowers around our house.  I love a riot of colors--nothing too lined up or perfectly sculpted for me.  An iris is my absolute favorite flower, but impatiens are a close second.  I have a stand of irises across the front of my house.  I'm bummed this year because a late freak sleet/snow/ice storm pretty much decimated the iris that were coming up, so I probably won't have many (if any?) of those this year.  

But it's an annual tradition at my house to go to the local nursery on Mother's Day and pick out a bunch of flowers to put around the house in colorful pots I've collected over the years.  I love to get lots of impatiens and bunch up related and contrasting colors to show off against our white house.  My job is to pick out what I want, and my hubby plants them for me.  I help a little with the tending.  But since I have the distinction of being able to kill even a cactus, no one lets me do too much but enjoy the flowers all summer long.

BEVERLY LONG 

HUNTED

Harlequin Intrigue, Aug 2014

One of my favorite things in the world is a flower garden in bloom.  I live in the Midwest but that doesn’t stop me from getting excited in February about gardening, anxious in March, and ready to go in April. This year it is way too cold to be planting flowers, yet I’ve already been to the garden center and have bought many flats of annuals and have started filling pots.  Of course I’m covering them with a sheet at night so that they don’t get too cold! I suspect that amuses my neighbors.

I generally do about thirty pots every year so I have to get an early start. Plus, I like to plant annuals in my perennial gardens to give them a boost of color.  I don’t have a favorite flower, although I am partial to Cosmos and Zinnias and for early spring, nothing beats a big pot of pansies.  Here’s a picture of my early efforts. 

We hope May brings our readers many happy blooms !!  You can catch us everyday on Facebook. Send us a copy of your favorite Intrigue in your "blooms" and be entered in a special giveaway.

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