Friday Flower Posting
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Happy Friday the 13th, fellow black catz! It's flower time. Damn the Columbines just keep impressing me. Here's another bicolor:
Thistles aren't popular in many gardens, but I love mine. It's really huge and has only begun to bloom, and I expect it to go on forever.
She's done with the bloom, but on a sunny day, I really appreciate the contrast the leaves make with greener plants. This is the 'yellow' bleeding heart.
You prolly can't make him out, but there was the cutest little hopping bug sitting on this rose.
Normally, I hate flies but this one I'd not seen before and the orange was very cool.
Snow on the Mountain in bloom.
Yellow Spiderwort is on, but I'm still waiting for the green one to bloom.
I think this one is like/of the Sedum family. It's very short: only about an inch and a half or so. It is a wonderful groundcover that seems to do well everywhere and can take a lot of abuse, including regularly being stepped upon.
Tracy sez: don't be afraid to Cut Back After Bloom. So I'm learning to overcome my fear, and to good result. Reblooming Forget Me Not, just a week after cutback:
I can't get enough of Orange. Zinnia:
Oh Lambert....guess what I've got for you? Heh, be ready for Chastisement.
An example of "I will never understand." Iron Cross oxalis, blooming like a mutha in the shade, still waiting on the ones in the sun.
Three. Years. That's how long I've been waiting for the astilbe to bloom. So far this is the only one. I'm cursing the landscaper who told me to invest heavily in these, so far they are not at all living up to his claim, "they love the shade."
I had to force myself to slow down and photo this before it went into the tummy. The alpines are also making fruit, although they are smaller and much less sweet.
Happy Happy Joy Joy, the primroses are on! I sincerely hope the yellow ones I planted come up. These are actually pink, I guess it was too bright for the camera to reflect that properly.
This one is for Sarah. Never Give In, Never Surrender. These croci didn't show up until after all the rest were done. Very delicate and worth the wait.
I also dedicate this post to the poor folks in Iowa and other flooding midwestern states. I hope I can bring a little relief, or at least distraction from your troubles. I'm so sorry Chimpy "doesn't care about Midwesterners" any more than he does "black people."
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Comments
Beautiful! Anyone heard from Feral Lib? How he's doing?
Not sure what areas in WI have flooded, but sounds pretty widespread.
feral is fine, heard from him this morning
he's scaling back the size of his veggie garden and unhappy about it, but what can he do? he got washed out for most of this spring. i'll be sending him some 'maters as well as lambert, i think. the goddess has been kind to us here, so far.
Hey Jawbone!
I'm hanging in there, part of my backyard has been underwater but my house is dry and safe, so I'm much more fortunate than many in the area. I'll try to put up a post this weekend, I'll have to use garden pics from last year.
The plant that will not die
I have never been sentimental about plants. They live, they die, whatever. But this little bugger is starting to win my sympathy.
Counted it up this morning; eleven years since it went in the ground. I've never had much luck with peonies, Feral's bush full of blooms is disgusting; figured this one was a gonner too when it didn't bloom for the first four years. Every winter it dies back, and every spring for a while now it crawls back up from the roots to get about a foot tall and put out no more than a half-dozen blooms - some years just one.
This is the first and only bud to appear thus far. I never talk to shrubbery but when I got down on my knees for this shot I did ask: What is with you, little plant? What do you want?
I've tried different cultivars, different soil treatments, different fertilizer regimes, different positions for light and coplantings, and nothing has worked at all – they have all died, except for this little sad stunted survivor.
I would move it, but I'm afraid I would kill it. I'd ignore it entirely but somehow it seems courageous and as anthropomorphizing as that is, I have actually developed a grudging admiration for its tenacity.
It may be that when I look at this plant I see more of a reflection than I’m willing to consciously admit. Not exactly thriving, but not dead yet either. Of course, ragged as it is, it does look better than I do; perhaps I’m romanticizing myself.
what a nice story, BIO
you should do a whole post with lots of pics of your stuff.
i talk to mine. like a Marine Corps DI. "you will perform, i will motivate you!" etc. sometimes i sing to them as well. i once had this long discussion with another plant person about how plants are motivating us; we think we grow them, but in some ways, they keep us around to take care of them.
i do take a lot of inspiration from some of my Fighters. i've got a hollyhock that is just this year going to bloom, three years after planting. even as silent things, plants can teach us so much, if we think about what their struggles can mean in our lives.
heh, i bet a lot of you think i really need a baby or puppy or something. ;-)