Tag Archives: Plants

Seed Time

I was given a pot of lovely calla lilies in the spring. When they finished blooming, I moved the foliage to a large pot outdoors and then remembered rhizomes I had saved from last year so I added them to the pot. It was rather late for them but they sent up leaves and two blooms. Usually, I am attentive to remove the faded blooms but these were forgotten, the pot drying and the older foliage withering away.

It was a sad sight and I decided to move the pot away from our sitting area when a flash of color caught my eye. It is these tiny sightings that lead to amazing discoveries.

Seeds! Seeds forming in the faded bloom! I had no idea of this. I am learning about these seed kernels and waiting for them to ripen, turning yellow or orange. Each kernel will have 2-5 seeds. This one cone could yield 50 seeds!

I’m so glad now that I “neglected” these plants so that their amazing fruitfulness can be displayed.

Flowery spidery beauty and an update

Cleome – I first met this flower in my sister’s garden. Its prickly stems made me take a step back and only admire them there.

Fast forward to these fighting-the-deer-in-the-gardens years and a friend offered seedlings with the words, “The deer don’t eat them.” Suddenly spiny stems were appealing and I gratefully planted them.

I love the airy beauty and amazingly complex flowers that bloom through the long summer and fall days. I love that they are at home here and freely reseed. I love seeing them from the swing and I smile as they glow pin and lavender and white in the ever changing light of day.

I’ve learned they have common names like Spider Flower, Spider Legs, or Grandfather’s Whiskers.

I thought I would include an update on the resident deer family who love fresh rain drenched hydrangea with tomato, pepper, and sunflower salad – they pick their own!

Early morning light

I love the light glowing through the daylilies, bringing the garden alive for the day. Every day fresh and new beckoning me to come and see.

Spring time blessings

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is Thy Faithfulness — Thomas Obediah Chisholm

Apple blossoms

Bending Low

I believe these to all be mosses. Brilliant greens against the dry old leaves and litter of the forest floor; living color shining as filtered light dances down through new leaves tossing in the wind.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures…He restores my soul”, a long ago shepherd boy said.

While not a pasture, looking at these simple plants slowly forming soft colonies and feeling their gentle cushion as I tread gently on some was amazingly restorative. I am so grateful for small wonders!

On a sunny day

Before the rain which turned on the greening, and before yesterday’s blast of winter cold and snow, the wild ginger folded out, like heart-felt love letters from God.

Perfect for this time when I think on His perfect Love Letter, Jesus.

The Roses of Lent

“Delectable”, “luscious” are used to describe Lenten Roses in Seeing Flowers by Teri Dunn Chace with photography by Robert Llewellyn. Exquisitely complex comes to me.

Nourished in shade and deep composting tree litter, they are shy blooms rarely lifting their heads to gaze back at you. To see their beauty requires determination and the humility to bend low or even kneel in the woodsy damp round them. I’m sitting in the coffee shop surrounded by human bloomings and thinking about the passing of time and people and how difficult it can be to see the exquisite beauty of each person. How difficult it can be to lift my own head to look into the eyes of others. In the Book of Malachi, these lovely words are found, “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings;”

I think about how hard it can be to lift my face to the Sun of righteousness Who has healing in His wings so that I might then serve others with humility.

The journey is a grand adventure, The reward to see exquisitely complex beauty is before me.

Do you find it easy to find the amazing beauty in others? I know I have often walked by without even noticing.

5th Day of Christmas

My mom grew one of these for many, many years. She always called it Christmas Cactus*. I took cuttings from her plant about 15 years ago. It is not the most beautiful plant – until it blooms each winter. It usually is a bit neglected and then I go into care mode and it rewards my feeble efforts with flower love.

* Schlumbergera truncata – I think!

The naming of plants is a serious matter!

I grew up calling this Autumn Clematis. Dad grew it on a trellis in the back yard and I loved the luxurious bloom and the amazing fragrance. I finally have a plant descendant from that vine growing well and blooming this summer.

A number of years ago, I was gifted with a 1939 edition of The Gardener’s Bed Book. Richardson Wright’s language is a bit flowery at times as he takes the reader through the months. September 9 he wrote on Virgin’s Bower, Clematis paniculata. “...even the Latin of it is pretty.”

“Early September sees its stars appearing — here a star and there a star, as the light of the heavens twinkle through dusky mists. And when that Milky Way has come down to dwell with us, it brings also a divine fragrance.”

I had never heard the name Virgin’s Bower so I searched to see if it is the plant in my garden.

Shockingly, one man’s poetic beauty is another gardener’s invasive nuisance! Two different plants with the same common names of Sweet Autumn Clematis or Virgin’s Bower, one native, the other an import from the 1880’s.

My search brought be to this post of beautiful photos and a “cautionary tale”. After reading it, I will be pruning my plant before those seeds ripen!

May’s visit with us

“Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment” Ellis Peters

I quite agree, every spring is so amazing! The sweet woodruff loves it here, matting itself around and through so many plants. Giving us delicate white bloom in May and a carpet of green until frost.

Fiddleheads are intriguing ans so visible on these large ferns. They grow under the Fragrant Viburnum carlesii. White Flower Farm says, “This is one of the most gloriously fragrant shrubs known to man. The dense flower heads, which measure up to 3in across, produce white flowers from blush pink buds, and the perfume, which is a sweet, rich, spicy vanilla, carries a considerable distance across a lawn or garden.” And this is so true! I like to stand near and try to drink in the fragrance of it. All too soon the bloom is gone. But then it is time to search the shady nooks for sweet Lily of the Valley. Little clusters in a tiny bottle on the kitchen table bring such joy.

The sweet yellow bloom is trollius or globeflower which seems to love a shady area along our fence.

This was a very cool spring for us; I thought I would never put away my heavy fleece! I think it delayed the arrival of our hummers. Last year the territorial war seemed a bit vicious so I found another of these bottle feeders in an attempt to have everyone be nice. The newest one has the most interest right now but I would like to dine among the iris myself! It will be interesting to see if the popularity of the feeder changes as the Iris wane and the daylilies bloom out around our porch area. Not a traditional porch but with our swing, small table and chairs outside our kitchen door, It serves us well as one. We enjoy many pleasant hours there.