Author: Flower Roberts

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

Hearing Voices

| Flower Roberts

Are you talking too loudly to hear the voices of others?

Are you yelling so that others quit talking to you and around you?

Are your own opinions monopolizing your airwaves and brainwaves?

Be still.   Be silent.  Listen.

You will hear millions of voices.

Their words may be a different language , a different dialect or with a different accent.

Some are whispering, some are pleading and some are crying.

They may be different from yours.  You may not understand them.

Still listen.

They are your brothers and sisters.

They matter, too.

It’s not all about you.

 

FLOWER