Month: February 2017

The Cutest Daffodils in the World

| Flower Roberts

I have many daffodils.

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Tall and short, yellow and white, white and white, orange and white and even some doubles.

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I love them all, but one type always stands out the most and shines the brightest.

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Even though it is the tiniest.

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I love it that there are clusters of them all over my gardens.

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My parents gave me a pot of them blooming one spring over two decades ago.

I have been dividing them and sharing them for over twenty years.

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They are like little spots of sunshine.

Tete a Tete is the cutest daffodil in the world.

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It is a miniature Narcissus. Its name comes from the fact that many stems have two flowers.

They look like they are having a little chat.

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I would like to mention the unusual vase that belonged to a dear friend Beth.

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It has a eight-parted,  fluted, clear glass vase and a silver stand decorated with roses.

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She would love to know that I have shared it on my blog.

FLOWER

 

Bloomed Incorrectly?

| Flower Roberts

Last month I posted photos of an Amaryllis blooming.

I expected it to be a peach color. I have many reds and whites.

I wrote to the supplier and told them that the bulb I ordered,

Amaryllis Exotica, had turned out to be a double red/white.

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Their emailed reply stated that they were sorry

that the bulb BLOOMED INCORRECTLY and that they would ship another.

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I just received an email that a new bulb was being shipped at no cost to me.

Now folks, really?

Why not admit that a person packed and shipped the wrong bulb?

Why blame the poor bulb?

What is this world coming to, when we blame a plant instead of a person?

Let’s admit that a mistake was made.

I will let you know if the new bulb BLOOMS CORRECTLY in a few months.

FLOWER

 

 

Pseudo Spring

| Flower Roberts

Don’t get me wrong northern friends,

I am enjoying these days of 70 and even 80 degrees here in North Carolina.

My bunnies are very happy to get out in their yard almost every day.

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Barley
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Charlotte

But I am a biologist and a plant mama.

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Fritillaria

I have been keeping garden journals of this same garden since 1996.

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It’s too early for all the growth I am seeing.

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Maple blossoms

I fear a freeze will kill much of this growth back.

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Hydrangea

Some plants have “back-up buds”, but many don’t.

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Peony

I am glad that I brought in more plants than usual this year.

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Clematis

I always fear a hard winter.

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Scilla

How ironic that I have saved these stowaways from a pseudo spring instead.

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Tete a Tete

FLOWER

Mona Lavender

| Flower Roberts

My dear Plectranthus friend seems to be mealy-bug free after the musical cleansing.

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All the attention lead to a growth spurt, then a potting up and a pruning.  Now it is almost as tall as the Exotica Amaryllis.

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I love purple. Not only are its tiny blooms lavender and purple,

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but the leaves have a dark purple underside.

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This plant has spent the winter indoors by a sunny window.

It is a Zone 10 from South Africa. I am in Zone 7.

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FLOWER

 

Killing Them Softly with Q-tips

| Flower Roberts

Feel free to sing this song as you murder mealy bugs.

I have taken the liberty to augment the lyrics of Roberta Flack’s hit from the 1970’s.

Enjoy!

Inspecting my plant with a hand lens.

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Looking for patches of fluff.

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Killing them softly with Q-tips.

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Killing the mama and her babes.

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Smashing the eggs sacs with my tweezers.

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Washing off Honeydew with Blue Dawn.

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FLOWER sings while she kills pests.

Plants on Plates

| Flower Roberts

I will take flowers in any form during the winter.

I found these Royal Vale flower plates today in a “Treasure” shop.

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I usually buy little plates as drainage trays for my indoor pots.

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These are too pretty for that.  Oh no, where will they go?

FLOWER (Plate fetish and plant fetish)

 

 

 

| Flower Roberts

By the time he returned home that night from his job at a healthcare company, he had resolved to flee Syria. He talked it over with his wife, informed his mother, and then reached out online to an underground group known for smuggling Syrians into Jordan. Again he was fortunate: the smugglers had space in […]

via An Abrupt Leave – Syrian Refugee Crisis — Yert’s Corner

| Flower Roberts

“This was not quickly snapping a photo of a stranger on the street; it was gaining access to people’s most intimate spaces.” At Leica Camera Blog, Andrew Reed Weller captures the homes and lives of Syrian refugees in Turkey.

via A Look Inside Syrian Refugee Homes — Discover