My Wondrous Cereus

| Flower Roberts

I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen last night in my garden. I witnessed this wonder alone at midnight.

I consider this plant a miracle. I believe its flowers are a living link to something magic and cosmic.

My friend The Fairy(Madge) gave me this dream of a plant. I thought of her and my father last night as I sat under the stars watching these blooms quiver with energy. My daddy sometimes exclaimed “How could heaven be better than this?” I cannot imagine that, Bop.

I knew this second blooming from this plant was coming. That has never happened before. The buds turned up like pipes and started expanding two days ago.

When I saw the shape last evening, I knew this was the night. I was determined not to miss it, so I set my alarm. I could not go to sleep. I decided to go sit beside the plant in the dark and wait.

Epiphyllum oxypetalum

Its flowers were almost fully opened. They were quivering. There was no breeze. The blooms have their own energy.

The white, threadlike stamen form a tunnel through the flower.

The opalescent pistil has a strange star-shaped end.

The flowers are as big as my opened hand.

The back has finger-like sepals that splay as the bloom opens.

What wondrous, glorious blooms this “Queen of the Night” has!

Night blooming Cereus/”Queen of the Night”

How could heaven be better than this?

FLOW in the GLOW

Dahlia Disaster

| Flower Roberts

I try really hard to be a good ‘plant mama’ but I fall short each spring and summer. This year it was the dahlias that took a hit.

The dahlia ‘Nonette’ got left in the bag until I discovered it in June when I almost threw it away. It could not be revived.

The lovely ‘Kelvin Floodlight’ got a disease again this year. My overzealous treatment killed it. I will miss its giant yellow blooms.

I had two batches of ‘Thomas Edison’ dahlia. My usual potting soil messed up the mix this year. It was too wet. Many of my plants rotted including one pot of ‘Thomas Edison.’

‘Cafe Au Lait’ is spindly and floppy with no blooms. I keep propping it up, hoping for improvements. The weather has cooled so there is hope for it.

I know this row looks lovely from afar. I know how it could look. That’s my problem. Gardener’s Guilt is real!

The “glass is half empty” and the row is half empty. I am extra grateful for ‘Firepot’ and ‘Snow Country.’

They have survived the many mishaps and are happily blooming.

FLOW

What’s Eating You?

| Flower Roberts

I grow tomatillos every summer for the chipmunks. They climb up the plants and shake the fruit down. I love watching this trick. My usual supplier did not have any, so I had to grow them from seed.

Growing these plants has taken months of babying, watering and staking. I finally put most of the potted plants in the ground last weekend.

They started disappearing on Monday. It happened so fast I thought the deer had eaten them. The twigs and fruit were left, but the leaves were gone.

Evidence was examined.

The culprits had the nerve to continue eating right there in front of me.

There were numerous Tobacco Hornworms on each plant. They hang upside down to eat.

Grasping the petiole with their back legs and gripping the leaf blade with their front little legs.

They munch away with their tiny mouths.

Okay, so I planted these Tomatillos for the chipmunks and now they are being eaten by caterpillars.

I am hoping for a lovely crop of Carolina Sphinx moths this fall. I have planted a patch of Four-o’clocks just for them.

FLOW

On Golden Pear

| Flower Roberts

I spend a lot of time outside every day. I am usually too wet and dirty to go inside for a snack, so I grab a hand full of Yellow Pear tomatoes.

I call them Golden Pear because it is so much more poetic. These tomatoes are the perfect size to pop in your mouth. They are not too acidic to eat alone.

This morning I started to pick a snack and noticed signs of another snacker. Missing leaves and frass(poop) means caterpillars.

The expected suspect was the Tomato Hornworm/ Manduca quinquemaculata. I searched and search for the expected intruder, only to discover many other visitors on Golden Pear.

I first found a brown caterpillar.

Then an exoskeleton shed by a cicada.

I almost picked this pear with a tiny frog on it.

No jewel could be more gorgeous than this tiny amphibian.

I finally located the suspected munchers.

There were three. They were smaller than I expected.

I even clipped one off the plant and had to put it back.

Hornworm caterpillar on eaten Yellow Pear tomato leaf

These caterpillars make lovely moths. I do not mind sharing my Yellow Pear tomato leaves.

Who knew there was all this life on Golden Pear?

FLOW

If I had Wings

| Flower Roberts

If I had wings I would want them to be sturdy and small

not big and showy.

Spicebush Swallowtail?

I do not want to be defined by my wings.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail/ Papilio polyxenes asterius

I want to be known for my flying.

“Common Clearwing”/ Hemaris thysbe

I need wings I can count on in a storm.

Not delicate colorful things that keep me grounded.

My wings need strength, with strong ribs and veins.

So that I can fly when I need to fly.

I want some rainy-day wings to lift me up and out to a new place.

Hummingbird Moth on Verbena bonariensis

I do not wish for beautiful wings, I need useful wings.

FLOW

A Girl’s Gotta Eat

| Flower Roberts

I was out chasing flyers today.

I found many butterflies,

dragon flies,

and wasps.

I am glad I spotted this nest before the wasps spotted me.

I was pleased to see a Hummingbird clearwing/Hemaris thysbe in the mix.

Upon closer inspection, the clearwing was not pleased.

It was being eaten by a Green Lynx Spider/ Peucetia viridans.

This is the exact location I find a “Mama Lynx” every summer.

I hope I can witness the making of the egg sac and the hatching of spiderlings again this year.

Spider in the Storm
Steadfast Spider has Spiderlings

Stay tuned for more wings.

FLOWER

The Colors of Change

| Flower Roberts

The colors of August are the warning colors…yellow, orange and red.

They are the colors of change.

The heat cannot continue.

The blooming must cease.

It is time to set seed

and harvest the crops

and prepare for a change.

There will always be change.

Beginnings and endings.

Births and deaths.

Slowing and stopping.

August is a time of change.

A crescendo of colors.

When the brights cannot get brighter.

The light must dim. Life must dim…and slow…and stop.

Only to begin again at another place…at another time.

A Slower Flower remembering our precious Melissa

The Queen and the Cactus

| Flower Roberts

The surprises just keep coming here. This post was supposed to be entitled ‘Catching a Queen’ but something else happened out there in the dark last night. I would have missed it, but I assigned Mr. Flower night duty. I went out around 9:30PM to catch the late bloom of the “Queen of the Night.” I caught myself dozing while waiting. I knew if I fell asleep, I would have no blood by morning due to the mosquitoes.

I asked Mr. Flower to catch later photos when he finished watching television. This was a fortuitous move because when he went out late in the night, he noticed that his fifty-year-old Giant Cactus (given to him by his grandmother) which is beside the Night Blooming Cereus was ALSO blooming that very same night.

So here we go with the Queen and the Cactus blooming side by side. It was not a full moon, just a 50% quarter moon. The two plants must have been communicating. They are touching each other and tied to the same deck pole.

Here is the Queen alone at 9:30PM. Click to enlarge.

Notice the base of the large cactus to the left.

Here are side by side photos and Queen late in the night. Cactus left. Queen right.

Cactus bloom open
Queen bloom open

Cactus side view left. Queen side view right.

THIS is what makes my heart sing. Catching a Queen and a cactus blooming on the same night. My thanks to Mr. Flower for the assist. This Flower needs her sleep!

Flow