Month: September 2018

The Beauty of Decay

| Flower Roberts

There are many reasons that I love fungi.

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I have featured them many times on this blog.

When one sees mushrooms, brackets and their kin

we know that something is dead or dying.

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Beauty in death?  Yes.

Everything must die.

Fungi takes the valuable organic molecules and recycles them back

to a usable form.

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Decomposition is a renewing process.

I think these weeping conks are beautiful.

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The dying tree is all ready sharing the wealth it harvested from the sun

during its growing years.

Giving back to its neighbors as it declines.

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Beautiful isn’t it?

FLOW

Barley’s Bottom

| Flower Roberts

I promised Barley I would not share photos of his bare bottom.

It was not pretty.  He seemed ashamed and hid in his box more than usual.

It all started on a trip to the mountains.

Barley urinated in his crate and had a wet bottom when we arrived.

It tried to clean his fluffy rear with wash clothes and wipes.

Bunnies hate to be wet, so we both ended up soaked and I got bitten twice.

Barley has never bitten me before, so I knew this was not going to end well.

The fur on his cute,  little rear end was soon matted and dirty and clumped into locks.

It was time to visit our specialty vet.

This woman is amazing. Anybody that can hold a giant rabbit with one hand and shave his bottom with the other is my hero.

I must add that if this had been Charlotte, the attack rabbit scene from Monty Python would have been reenacted.   She is a beast!

We came home with an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory and sulfa cream to slather on his bare rear.

Yes folks, Barley had diaper rash.

Charlotte had to be isolated during this period, because she would have licked off the cream.

I am happy to report that the crisis has passed and his bottom is back to its former cuteness.

All’s well that ends well.

FLOWER/ BUNNY MAMA

The Heat is Gone

| Flower Roberts

I hope this cool Monday morning is a sign of things to come.

There seems to be a collective sigh from the garden.

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Water hyacinth blooming among parrot feather and water lettuce in the pond

This summer has been a struggle.

I have constantly pruned and watered in an effort keep things alive.

The stress has shown in yellowed  leaves,  fragile stems and smaller and fewer flowers.

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‘Picotee Blue ‘morning glory single bloom

The tide seems to have turned this morning.

A light rain has plumped up the plants and made them glisten.

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Pink Muhly Grass/ Muhlenbergia capillaris

My favorite dahlia, Thomas A. Edison has decided to stand up and bloom at last.

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Thomas A Edison dinnerplate dahlia

Let’s hope that we all can thrive for a bit in this cool.

Except for the weeds. They will be killed as usual.

FLOW

Forced to have Fun

| Flower Roberts

It’s hard for me to leave tasks unfinished.

Since I am never finished, I rarely voluntarily stop working.

Sometimes a family intervention is needed.

This weekend I was forced to stop weeding, washing and writing

to travel up river by boat with the kayaks piled onto the front.

We have been wanting to do this for years.

There are side channels of the river that can only be reached by canoes and kayaks.

We anchored the boat and paddled under bridges

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and through leaning trees to explore two of these protected areas.

I was pleased to see that nesting boxes and platforms had been erected for bird habitats.

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The turtles, fish and snake I saw seemed undisturbed by my floating by.

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I felt this was not only a haven for them, but also for me.

Maybe it’s time for FLOWER to get back to biology?

I returned home wet, tired and hungry…but with a new attitude.

Let’s call it water therapy.

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That’s my kayak, but I don’t recognize that old lady in it. Ha!

FLOW

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Evaluations

| Flower Roberts

It is a bit early for the usual fall preparations, but this has not been a usual fall.

In preparing for Hurricane Florence, many potted plants had to be moved for protection.

Vines on trellises had to be trimmed and tied.

Limbs and leaves of the tropical trees had to be preened off to lessen wind resistance.

Now that Florence has passed, I find myself dragging plants in big clay pots back out

just about the time they should be prepared to be moved in for winter.

So this fall, the transition has been complicated.

As the clay pots come out of the shop after Florence, their plants are being popped into a plastic pot of similar size.

Some late acquisitions are being put in the ground.

This is the first fall ever that I have considered tossing my FLOWER status.

It has been one calamity after another in my garden this spring and summer.

I have never worked harder nor had this many failures.

I am carefully considering the future of each plant and my position as their gardener.

Florence brought in the winds of change.

Where will the FLOWER blow off to?

FLOW

Time Flies while Watching Ferns

| Flower Roberts

This post is a follow-up to to a post from November of 2016.

I am shocked that it has been almost two years!

That fall I reported on a disappearing fern.

One of my favorite babies was disappearing.

Further inspection showed that caterpillar was eating my coveted

Dragon’s tail fern, Aspleniaceae x Ebenoides.

After attempts to save what was left of the little fern,

I decided my best hope for a future for the fern was for future offspring.

I placed the remaining fronds face down on sterile seed-starting mix in a sealed glass jar.

Green slowly appeared months later. This tiny green growth was the gametophyte stage of the fern.

This week, while trapped inside during Hurricane Florence, I notice the first tiny frond.

A fern is born!  In only two short years!

If you are into gardening for the long game, try starting ferns.

It will make watching grass grow seem fast-paced and exciting.

MAMA FERN/ FLOWER/SLOWFLOW

Safe and Soggy

| Flower Roberts

Florence has left us.

I feel such gratefulness that we ourselves were spared

the devastation experienced by so many others.

The sunshine is a welcome sight after days of darkness.

I must admit, I did not stay inside during the deluge.

This should not come as a surprise to my readers.

Over and over again I strode into the storm to check plants and ditches,

necessary for my sanity if for no other reason.

I am happy to report

the banana forest is still upright

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the vines are still clinging

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and way up in a tree

a certain nest is still intact.

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Way to go Mama Squirrel!

FLOWER

Mama Squirrel moves Babies before Florence Hits

| Flower Roberts

I have been watching in amazement this morning as

a mama squirrel has been relocating her babies to a different tree

BEFORE the storm hits.

Mama on second branch to the left of the trunk.

How does she know?

I have watched her carry three little ones high up into a new tree.

She has taken the same route each time, across the gravel, down the steps,

through the fern garden, across the lawn and up to the top of the tree.

Mama headed up the trunk at height of orange bird house.

What has told her that her home was not safe?

Was it a crick-cracking sound during the wind gusts?

Why this morning? Not much is going on here.

What does she know that I do not?

We shall see.  If a tree falls during the storm,

I bet it will have an empty squirrel’s nest among its branches.

Nature knows.

FLO

 

My Head is a Barometer

| Flower Roberts

I refuse to watch the news.

The hype is exasperating.

I am quietly praying for those in harm’s way.

It is gusty here.

The chimes are singing.  The trees are dancing.

My head knows something is coming.

I know not whether it is inner ear or cerebrospinal fluid.

The tide in my head is shifting.

I wait outside in the wind.

Whatever comes will come.

No technology needed.

I feel it.

FLO