The Most Magical Plant of All

| Flower Roberts

If there were an official plant of the fairies, I bet it would be the foxglove.

They are magical plants.  They sow their own seeds. They change colors.

Even their flower shapes morph from year to year.

They seem to know where they belong and what form is needed.

Or is it the fairies that do it?

Every year I anticipate some surprises from my Digitalis purpurea.

This year there were several.    Some pinks got pinker.

Some whites turned half pink.

Some flower tubes got longer and narrower.

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Some seeds sneaked into the bunny yard to germinate and had to be moved.  They are poisonous.

Foxgloves are so charming, they must be magic.

FLOWER

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

| Flower Roberts

It’s peony(Paeonia) time here in North Carolina.

I love all types.  Singles, semi-doubles and doubles.

Krinkled White Single peony

The doubles are trouble though.

Duchess de Nemours double peony

They have such heavy blooms that they have to be staked.  Otherwise they dip down to the ground, especially after a rain.

I keep a supply of green stakes with open-ringed tops for this purpose.

Peonies like full sun and well-drained acidic soil.  They do not like to be divided.

If you must, divide them in  the fall.  Plant shallow.   Side dress with compost.

FLOWER

 

My Fair Weather Friends

| Flower Roberts

It’s just like some to show up only when things are good.

Here are two of my buddies that appear when the sun shines.

Slim is not our biggest nor boldest.  He is an acrobat.

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I sit and watch him move as though I am the one being charmed.

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Plop decided he needed to down-size this spring.

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He usually perches overlooking the Koi pond.

Since the largest fish is now huge,

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he feels more secure by the door in the Shubunkins’ above-ground pond.

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FLOWER loves her friends.

Azalea Afire

| Flower Roberts

My husband and I both love the flame azaleas of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Their blooming is an amazing sight.  They glow as if ablaze in the sun.

We got the next best thing for our garden.

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A Gibraltar azalea, really a rhododendron(translation rose tree).

This is a deciduous hybrid that is hardy in Zone 7.

The buds are a deep copper color.

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When the sun hits the blooms, they seem to catch fire.

IMG_9914 The bloom clusters are called trusses.

FLOWER

Against the Tide

| Flower Roberts

I have been paddling against the tide.

If I use strong strokes, I can maintain my position.

In sight of the shore of my intended landing.

If I weaken, I get pulled out farther and farther.

Into the deep, wild sea that may bring me down.

I am tired.   I am older.

I wait for the tide to turn and bring me in,

but it hasn’t.

I am ready to put down the paddle.

Let the tide have me.

Maybe I have been headed toward the wrong shore all these years

and fate has kept me from landing

in the wrong place.

FLOW

Seduced by a Single Rose

| Flower Roberts

I knew I didn’t need another needy rose.  But I kept coming back to that single bloom.

The bush had terrible form.

Gruss An Aachen

I kept walking away.  That color, that shape, that blush of pink and peach, those tight petals.

I put it in my basket. Lord help me. Another rose.

It did not bloom the following year.

I babied it. Trimmed it.  Fenced it in.

The next year it grew. The stems were thinner than I remembered.

This year it has buds, but they are too small, too numerous.

Today a bud showed its color. RED!

How did this happen, you ask?

Grafting.

The lovely Gruss An Aachen scion died and the weedy rootstock survived.

I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.

FLOWER

Cut, Pull or Stake

| Flower Roberts

We had a hard rain yesterday evening.

My houseplants get booted outside for storms.

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Now that the sun is back, they must be dragged back in before scorching.

The main job now is in the garden.   Everything got really wet and heavy.

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So I put on my rubber clogs to assess the needs of the day.

CUT the flopped over bearded iris stems and the shriveled old blooms off.

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Night Affair   Could there be a more purple purple?

PULL the ten thousand weeds. (9, 000 are sweet peas.)

STAKE the tall stalks and stems of iris and peonies.

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Krinkled White Peony

I shall not complain about the rain.

FLOWER

Evidence of a Stalker

| Flower Roberts

While searching through my many files for a certain photo,

I noticed a disturbing trend.

Someone has been using my camera to take hundreds of photos of a certain two individuals.

There are pictures of them eating, lounging, cuddling and even using the toilet.

What was even more disturbing is that there is an inordinate number of closeups of their backsides.

Whoever is doing this is obviously obsessed with these two and has a booty fetish.

I am looking into the issue and gathering evidence.

I am pretty sure I know who the perpetrator is, but I won’t divulge her identity.

Iris, Old and New

| Flower Roberts

April is the month of the bearded iris here in North Carolina.

I have one old type from my daddy’s mother’s garden.

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I moved many iris onto this bank last summer.  They have never been happier.

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The rest of my iris are hybrids.

They came from Cooley’s in Oregon over twenty years ago.

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Taco Supreme
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Shipshape
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Banana Frappe’
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Thunder Echo
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Persian Berry
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I got this from my daddy.   Hmmmm?  Depth of Field?

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This is just the first wave of iris.  There will be more in the coming weeks.

The next parade will be the peonies.  Here is the first bloom.

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Ants love the sap on the peony buds.

Ahhhhh spring at last!

FLOWER