My largest bloomers are my Cardoons.
They grow giant with many buds and blooms.
I love its big leaves and artichoke-like blooms.
Now that’s a plant I can get into.
Flower in her giant bloomers. Ha
Cardoon in Bloom
Author: Flower Roberts
Glad Circle
This little colorful spot is called Glad Circle.
It is a bit messy due to my neglect and several storms.
The groups of Mardi Gras and Priscilla are supposed to be inside the rings for support.
I moved the rings to weed and never put them back.
Tall Glads do not stand up to wind and rain.
I have been too busy to fix this mess.
It usually reminds me of a colorful Merry-Go-Round.
This looks like Pick Up sticks instead.
Hi Ho! Gotta go.
Flow
A Calla you can Count On
This one is always beautiful.
Hot Chocolate Calla shows up and shows off every June.
This is the plant that I give to everyone.
Anyone who sees it, who wants it.
The best part of all is that it requires only water during dry periods.
Maybe a stake when the spathe develops and gets heavy.
Then I cut the blooms and leave these gorgeous leaves.
Flow loves her Hot Chocolate.
The Willy-Nilly Lily
My “Lily of the Nile” hasn’t bloomed in a while.
I wanted to share one of my purple ones with a “Purple” friend
but did not remember which ones were purple.
I researched the possible reasons that might cause Agapanthus to stop blooming…
needs more sun, needs more phosphorus, needs to be root-bound…
So I moved some to more sun, I gave some more phosphate and I put some in pots.
No blooms again.
I gave up.
My friend has patiently waited for several years now. (Sorry Brenda.)
This year they are blooming.
The whites and the purples.
The ones in full sun and partial sun.
The ones in pots and the ones in the ground.
The ones that got phosphorus and the ones that did not.
They are ALL blooming.
Let this be a lesson.
Things will bloom when they will bloom.
This willy-nilly lily taught me that.
Flow
Maskmaker, Maskmaker
Maskmaker, Maskmaker keep making masks
slow down the spread, ‘fore we’re all dead
Stick to your scissors and needle and thread
and keep making Covid masks.
For sister, she wants hers pretty.
For brother, he prefers his be green.
Daddy’s? His must be sturdy.
Be sure to check thickness by flame blowing.
Maskmaker, Maskmaker stick to your task
so we can breathe and we can thrive
Keep young ones healthy and old ones alive
This pandemic cannot last.
Grandma? She will misplace hers.
And Grandpa? He will sleep in the thing.
All masks must be three layers
both sides of thick cotton with interfacing.
Maskmaker, Maskmaker share them with all, strangers and friends,
folks far and wide.
Help us stay safe ’til this pandemic ends
then we can all go outside.
WEAR a DAMN MASK. NO, not damask!
(Singing is better than cussing…)
FLOWER
Fig on his Face
You told me this would happen. (Peggy Joan, Eliza, Robyn)
I wrote a post on how much I loved my cute, little creeping fig climbing up the carport wall.( Look at it now)
You warned me that it would get sneaky and slither everywhere.
I looked away for a moment. (Okay, maybe a couple months.)
I looked back and poor little Moss had fig on his face.
I guess it will cover little Lily next.
Then make its way around the truck tires.
You tried to warn me that this cute, little vine was a creeper.
The heart wants what the heart wants. Even if it is bad for the statuary. (My bad.)
Creeping fig. Another ivy, only cuter.
Sigh!
Flow
Rumple Rowe
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.
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.
South Seas is on the end of the row and glows whether the sun is out or not.
This Rumple Rowe has given me joy.
So have my friendships with the Rumple and the Rowe.
Flower
Cliff Swallow Colony
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
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.
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.
This Epiphyllum Orchid cactus never bloomed.
I researched its native habitat.
In Brazil it hangs from the trees.
So I hung it from a tree.
See.
It knows.
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
floweralley 