Month: June 2020

Rumple Rowe

| Flower Roberts

I name parts of my garden. It helps me keep my work organized.

Here is Rumple Rowe. It is named for my friends who gave me these daylilies.

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Excuse the poles and fence rings. That is my deer deterrent method.

I lowered the rings for the photo shoot.

They are usually hung on the poles around the blooms.

The deer have not been much of a problem this year…yet.

These six daylilies are extremely special to me because I picked them from hundreds of daylilies when Rumple and Rowe had a daylily farm.

They gave me these six favorites. I love each one. Each makes me pause.

Enjoy my Rumple Rowe.

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Nutmeg Spice daylily
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Peacock Alley Daylily
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Moonlit Masquerade daylily
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Daring Deception daylily
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Dixie Boy daylily
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South Seas daylily

South Seas is on the end of the row and glows whether the sun is out or not.

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This Rumple Rowe has given me joy.

So have my friendships with the Rumple and the Rowe.

Flower

 

 

 

Cliff Swallow Colony

| Flower Roberts

Cliff Swallows build their nests under the bridge near our home.

They form huge colonies which swoop and tweet as your ride under them.

I love watching their activities from below.

It is all new construction this year.  The old nests were cleared during bridge maintenance over the winter.

The Cliff Swallows carry mud pellets in their beaks and spit them onto the vertical surfaces.

The pair work together to construct a cup and close it in. The result looks like a jug on its side.

Each nest may have as many as one thousand pellets in it. That’s 500 pellets of mud and grass per bird.

Get some mud in your mouth, mix in some grass, fly to your chosen site, carefully spit out the pellet, repeat…

I am so glad I am not a Cliff Swallow.

Flow

The Plant Knows

| Flower Roberts

Plants know things. I know this because I study them.

I want to know What a Plant Knows.

I have read a book by that name written by Daniel Chamovitz.

I also took the Coursera class from Tel Aviv University by that name.

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Plants know where they are and the seasons and what they are close to.

I am trying to learn from them. They are teaching me.

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This Epiphyllum Orchid cactus never bloomed.

I researched its native habitat.

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In Brazil it hangs from the trees.

So I hung it from a tree.

See.

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It knows.

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Now it blooms every June.

Humans don’t know everything, but we can learn things

even from plants.

Especially from plants… and animals.

They are the ancients.

Flower

 

Leave Me Alone

| Flower Roberts

Yes, I’m home. Leave me alone.

I have gone in my shell, cause the world’s gone to hell.

You people have passed down a disease of the heart.

Hating folks who are different is not very smart.

Now, I’ve lost my mojo.  You’ve ruined my groove.

I’m inside my shell contemplating a move.

So, LEAVE ME ALONE!  I am not in here to stay.

When I finally emerge just GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!!!!

Furious Introvert Flow

P.S. Don’t touch me and don’t breathe on me. Get away from me. Damn humans!

 

 

 

Pistils Up on the Passion

| Flower Roberts

I know my garden like the back of my hand, so any little change is noticed.

On a misty, moisty morning last week, I was out with my camera and noticed the Passion flowers looked wrong.

They usually have the stamens and pistil parts in a whorl like a merry-go-round above the lovely corona.

On this morning however, the pistils were pulled up away from the stamens.

Were the pistils being prude for a particular reason?

I wish I could answer my question. I did do some research.

Some flowers are “male only” so that only the bisexual blooms set fruit to save plant resources.

All the blooms were pointing their pistils up, so I do not think this is the case here.

I checked today and all the pistil parts are down again, cozying up to the stamens and their pollen.

Ready for business with their styles spread wide.

Maybe some of you botany folks can shed light on this mystery.

Does the androgynophore  morph due to temperature, humidity, maturity…?

Flower

 

Your Poison Spreads

| Flower Roberts

It started with bird seed. You wanted to watch the pretty birds.

All that extra food attracted a raccoon, a ground hog and a chipmunk.

All three uninvited guests feasted, grew fat and multiplied.

Now the raccoon family needs to eat my trash.

One of the ground hogs wants to nest in my seawall.

There are chipmunks digging tunnels everywhere. ( I love my tiny friends, holes and all.)

Then came the feral cat to eat the chipmunks that ate the birdseed.

You did not want all these uninvited guests, only the pretty birds,

so you put out poison.

Some of the chipmunks ate the poison which made them thirsty

so they came and drowned in my fish ponds.

I check the ponds each morning so our koi won’t get poisoned as well.

NOW something big is dead under YOUR pier.

Did the cat eat a chipmunk that ate your poison?

What got thirsty after your poison and went under there to drink and die?

Is it one of your ground hogs or raccoons?

Is it you?

It’s okay. The black angels of death are here to clean up your mess.

These birds aren’t so pretty.

Where will your poison go now?

Furious FLOW

 

‘Good Hope’ is a Good Sign

| Flower Roberts

I was busy with my daddy this winter.

He went in the hospital on December 19 and came out of rehab on March 12.

We were lucky to get him out just as Covid-19 closed off visiting.

He is home carrying on like the cancer is gone.

I did not look at my plants in my workshop for those three months.

I watered and pruned nothing. I did not even think to check on them.

When I finally went down there most plants were dead or almost dead.

That’s okay. I have too many plants and only one daddy.

The one plant that seemed to ignore being ignored was this Clivia.

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It is a Fire Lily named Clivia miniata.  Its hybrid name is ‘Good Hope’.

I popped it outside in the shade and it is thriving.

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As I walk by it I say its name “Good Hope”.

All hope is good. Hope is always good. That’s what we all need.

Good Hope

Flow

You Don’t See It?

| Flower Roberts

I have learned to be an observer.

I pause and examine things closely.

This pond looks empty at first glance.

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The noisy nights have let me know that things are happening.

I pause and ponder and bend down to look into the empty pond.

The green water is dotted with specks.

Some specks have heads and tails.

There is wiggling and swimming going on in that empty pond.

It is teeming with life.

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Watch it. Wait for it. Let it be and see what evolves.

Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

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Look closer.

Flow

Brighten Your Corner

| Flower Roberts

I needed something tall and light

to brighten a dark corner in the garden.

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The corner is shady during the day.

It is also where I sit in the evenings as the sun goes down.

I thought white would be nice, so I planted a Navona lily.

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Tall, white and fragrant. Perfect.

But not all the ‘Navona’ bulbs were white.

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When the ‘Navonas’ came up about half of them were white.

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Others were a very tall yellow.

Sunny yellow with freckles. Perfect.

That corner is brighter and more beautiful than I planned.

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Sometimes you get what you need, instead of what you think you want.

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Brighten your corner.

Flow