Author: Flower Roberts

Spring Queening

| Flower Roberts

Each spring has its own unique crop of weeds. This spring has an unusually high number of different weeds, due to our mild winter. The volume of weeds this March has been overwhelming.

Even though there were many contestants in the Spring Queen Weed contest, there was a clear winner.

IMG_8169

This weed showed a superior ability to grow along side other weeds.

IMG_8170

This one was firmly rooted wherever it took hold. It clearly dominated the field as a go-getter.

IMG_8158

The lovely little purple blooms atop square stems were quickly recognized as a nettle.

IMG_8186

Its hairy leaves with a blush of purple, arranged oppositely with palmate venation was the sign that this was no regular Henbit.

IMG_8187IMG_8189

I’d like to announce the newly crowned “Spring Queen of the Weeds” is…

IMG_8163

Purple Deadnettle/ Lamium purpureum

She is clearly top of the heap for the 2016 spring season.

IMG_8190

Congratulations Nettie!

Do not expect me to end this post with

“Long live the Queen.”

Bunnies out, Bulbs up

| Flower Roberts

I have been telling folks that my bunnies are as big as the neighbors’ beagle. Now I have a photo to prove it. Thankfully, I had my camera with me photographing bulbs when this encounter went down.

IMG_8142
Charlotte standing her ground.
IMG_8145
Barley. To dig or not to dig? That is the question.
IMG_8133
Alberto Costello Starflower
IMG_8119
Anemone blanda

I spent every day last week sliding up and down the hills on cardboard.

No, not for amusement!     I’ve been digging weeds.

Spring is just around the corner in NC.  Wait for it………

Follow the Flower to spring.

Start Your Seeds

| Flower Roberts

It’s time.   Finally.

Here’s what you need to start your seeds.

SEEDS, SOIL and SIGNS.

IMG_8094

SEEDS can be what you’ve collected yourself (See Save the Seeds Post),

or what your friends sent you in their Christmas cards,

or some you bought.

IMG_8090

SOIL must be fine for small seeds in pots .

or loosened and enriched with organic  material, like compost or chopped leaves.

Think of it as plant “baby food”. You wouldn’t give a baby a big chunk to eat. Break it up.

IMG_8095

If you use a Jiffy tray, keep it covered. Do not put this little greenhouse in direct sun or you will cook your babies.

IMG_8093

 

SIGNS can be anything weather proof. I use colorful plastic knives from the party store.

If these need to be legible for long periods, etch the plant names with a Dremel Tool.

IMG_8092

Six weeks from now these babies will go outside.

NOW…Start your seeds!

Where Do My Words Go?

| Flower Roberts

I send my words out into the world.

I get back  numbers and flags,

20160224_113147.jpg

and occasionally comments.

Sometimes I have to Ctrl C and Ctrl V these into a translator.

I love these beautiful languages with their own sounds and rhythms.

Do they read my words, or just look at my photos?

Do they really understand what I am trying to say?

Do they feel what I feel?

All I can do is let my words fly away and hope they land where they are needed.

A smile or a laugh from me,

in a land I will never see,

IMG_8089

to friends I will never meet.

I hope I help you or brighten your day.

Your flags and numbers let me know you are out there,

but your words bring me joy.

20160224_113246.jpg

 

Talk to the Flower.

 

I Just Won the Lottery, sort of…

| Flower Roberts

I found another treasure yesterday.

Rare Treasures from the Library of the Natural History Museum.

IMG_7986

 

DO NOT ROLL YOUR EYES!

It is NOT just a book.

It is a book of art about art in a box with art.  JACKPOT!

IMG_7989

There are thirty-six , 10 x 13 prints of famous paintings.

IMG_7985

I have studied many of these works for years in my reading about plant hunters and their rare finds.

IMG_7984
Thornton’s “The Queen Flower” of Strelitizia reginae/Bird-of-paradise (and my shoe)

I feel like I have the whole world in my hands.

And now they are MINE…ALL MINE!

There are enough prints in here to cover every wall in this house with beauty.

Art with a story behind it.

IMG_7983

The who, the what, the when and the where.

AND…

It cost $19.95.

SEE…. I did win the lottery. Sort of.

IMG_7987

 

 

Lean down and Look

| Flower Roberts

There are tiny treasures all around you,

20160219_131937.jpg

but you can’t see them if you are stiff-necked and straight-backed.

IMG_7892

You have to get closer.

IMG_7883

You are high-up and they are lowly.

IMG_7920

If you can’t bend, you will miss them.

IMG_7923

Lean in to look at the little jewels.

IMG_7721

You wouldn’t hold a diamond out to examine it.

IMG_7907

Tiny does not mean insignificant,

IMG_7943

nor does big mean important.

IMG_7949

Beauty trumps size.

20160219_132510.jpg

Look closer.

IMG_7915

You are missing things up there.

IMG_7913

Mother-of-Thousands? Not this Mama!

| Flower Roberts

I am so glad that I am NOT a Kalanchoe daigremontiana.

This plant reproduces both sexually, by flowers, and asexually.

The ends of its leaves are covered with tiny “plantlets” with needy, draping roots.

IMG_7485

Can you imagine trying to live with little”adultlets” hanging off of your arms?

Mother of thousands?  Two progeny has about done me in.

The Kalanchoe babies do eventually drop off, but to where?

The same pot, that’s where.

IMG_7755

So now,  Mama Kalanchoe has to share her soil and water with all those “independent” plantlets.

Talk about “Not far from the tree.”

Next time you are feeling overwhelmed by motherhood, consider yourself lucky not to be a Kalanchoe daigremontiana.

Think how it would be to drop little clones of yourself all around your house and yard.

Now, there’s my next nightmare!

IMG_7762

The “Old Woman in the Shoe” had it way easier than this mama.

Plantlets available…by the thousands.

IMG_7751

 

 

 

Haunted by the Chimes

| Flower Roberts

I think of him when the wind blows.

I have his chimes.

IMG_7868

I listen to their notes and wonder.

Is he sending me a message.

Is he spelling it out in the musical notes A, C, E, F, B?

IMG_7865

What is he telling me? Is he calling my name?

Or do the notes just bring me back into this moment,

away from my plans for tomorrow, back from my worry of yesterday?

You can’t see the wind. You can only feel it and hear it.

Is it an unseen proof of faith?

I hear it singing. I watch its moving shadows.

He was here.

Now he’s not.

Or is he?