Author: Flower Roberts

Iris Identification

| Flower Roberts

I try really hard to keep good records of which plants are where in the garden.

Sometimes the flowers move on me and I have to figure out who moved where.

So we are piecing together the history of a mystery iris.

I thought I got it from my dad.

I thought it had one name, he gave me another from his records.

Neither name matches this beauty.

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Its features match an iris I got from Cooley’s Gardens decades ago.  I thought it had disappeared.

After much discussion and comparison to photos on the American Iris Society website.

I am declaring this beauty ‘Jelly Roll.’

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Welcome back Jelly Roll!

Flower

One Clematis, Different Flowers

| Flower Roberts

This Jackman Clematis should have five petals.

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Petal numbers mean things in botany.

So when my clematis pulls the old switcheroo, I get a bit miffed.

Many blooms have four petals.

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Some even have six petals.

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I guess the Flower is going to have to go with the flow when it comes to this vine.

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It’s beautiful, no matter the number.

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The Night Sky

| Flower Roberts

I marvel at the coloration of this petunia.

It is ‘Night Sky’ by Selecta.

It is trademarked which means that it cannot be propagated.

Its color pattern does look like the night sky.

No two blooms are the same.

I think this Night Sky is amazing.

Flower

 

Poppies and People

| Flower Roberts

I have strong feelings about these flowers.

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The seeds were a gift from an artist friend decades ago.

Bill Troutman  is no longer alive, but his poppies bloom each May to remind me of this wonderful man.

The blooms remind me of Bill, but the pods remind me of how people ruin things.

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Opium can now be produced synthetically, by-passing the poppy.

Some places still use this plant’s sap to produce the drug.

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Humans make the drug. Poppies are just plants.

They do what plants are supposed to do. Make flowers and seeds.

I love these poppies.

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Poppies don’t make opium, people do.

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Flower

 

Another Star in the East

| Flower Roberts

This is called “Star of Bethlehem”, but it is not the weed that is native to North Carolina.

This is Ornithogalum arabicum.

Its blooms sit on a eighteen-inch stalk.

It has a lovely fragrance.

I love the shiny black eyes in the center.

Mine are planted near our walkway into the house.

It is a star in my eastern garden, though it comes from the Mediterranean.

Flower

The Burden of Beauty

| Flower Roberts

I love my single Peonies.

Krinkled White peony

I love their floppy petals and their dusty yellow centers.

But I adore the doubles.

Beauty can be a burden.

These blooms need staking.

They must be shaken lightly after rain to prevent broken stems.

Sarah Bernhardt Peony

I marvel at the loveliness of all those clustered petals.

Duchess de Nemours Peony

Oh, the burden of beauty!

Poor peonies.

Flower

Seeing Spots!

| Flower Roberts

This is the most magical plant in my garden.

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Its nickname is Fairy Flower.

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Most call it foxglove. The scientific name is Digitalis purpurea.

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One year I actually hid tiny fairies in the flowers for a post.

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Most of my foxgloves are pink this season.

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But no two are identical.

The tubular flowers have hairs inside along the bottom.

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The stamen with pollen and stigma are under the roof.

Bees go in and get their tummies tickled by the hairs

as pollen is deposited onto or removed from their backs.

It’s the spots that get me.

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His Enemy

| Flower Roberts

He comes every morning to fight his foe.

I hear the tap, tap, tapping on the window.

I know it is he, doing battle bravely.

He fights his reflection

because he does not know himself.

He is his own enemy.

 

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(This post is to honor those innocent  people who were needlessly killed at my alma mater, UNCC.)