Yarrow and Yellow in the Yard

Yellow rose of Virginia.... sorry Texas.

“'Twas a yellow rose, By that south window of the little house, My cousin Romney gathered with his hand On all my birthdays, for me. save the last; And then I shook the tree too rough, too rough, For roses to stay after.” ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (bk. VI)

In Victorian flower language, a yellow rose meant or was used to convey jealousy. However, in the western U.S., the yellow rose came to symbolize a familiar, native and humble love, including feelings of home and domestic happiness, joy, and friendship.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) in my yard

"Thou pretty herb of Venus’ tree,
Thy true name it is Yarrow;
Now who my bosom friend must be,
Pray tell thou me to-morrow.”
~ Halliwell’s Popular Rhymes

The old Myth concerning the yarrow's name sake, Achilles, states that his Mother made a strong tea of yarrow and, at his birth, dipped him in it, thus making him totally invulnerable except for the heal that she held him by, the Achilles Heal. Another bit of yarrow lore declares that if you sew a bit of yarrow into a flannel pouch, place it under your pillow, and say this poem before going to sleep; you will learn the name of your future bride or groom in your dreams.

Placed in the garden it discourages beetles, ants and flies! If a handful is added to the compost it will speed up the breakdown of the plant material. In the garden it is a very good companion plant improving the health of all plants around it.

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ABC Wednesday ~ Letter "Y"

Annuals: To Plant or Not To Plant, That Is The Question

Lobelia erinus (Blue Cascade) & Calibrachoa hybrid (Yellow)

"To analyze the charms of flowers is like dissecting music; it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy, than to attempt to fully understand." ~ Henry T. Tuckerman.

I have never been a real fan of annuals; those flowers that do not survive the cooler zones of winter. I've never loved the cycle that the yard guy does in the front beds... spring brings the impatiens or vincas and fall brings the pansies. For one thing, the impatiens don't really love the sun that much and they don't seem to spread well. In Mississippi, our house had quite a few trees which made growing a good lawn a problem (St. Augustine was almost the only grass to grow under those pines), but the impatiens grew and spread, sometimes to three feet tall and a few plants would fill an entire square bed, hiding the boxwoods. Not here. They don't really start filling out -- if they survive the heat and my antipathy towards them -- until September or October when it finally begins to cool off and at their height of blooming, the yard guy comes along and rudely pulls them up. He replaces them with pansies. Now, I love pansies much more than the impatiens; still, while pansies may bloom her in winter, they are wimpy. They really don't like the cold that comes with snow and spend much of the winter looking wilted or frost bit. It really is the spring... usually here this includes late February and March, perhaps into April... where they are at their best. I have managed to nurse a few along in a pot on the deck, but now in June, even these are on their last leg and wobbling. In the front beds, the pansies only start looking really good and trying to spread when March gets here. And again, at the height of their beauty, they are snatched up and replaced in May. The endless cycle. It seems wrong. And so this is why I seldom plant annuals... at least knowingly.

When Stephen was here, he found this hanging basket of bright yellow million bells (I think a petunia relative), blue lobelia and (not pictured) red flowers (the name escapes me.. this happens more and more with each passing year.. though I doubt I ever knew the name of the red flowers). They are all annuals and won't make it until next summer, but I have to admit they are beautiful. Downside... must be watered every day and I mean, everyday. You cannot be two hours late before they start to wilt. It must be something about the planter they are in because I have a homemade basket of million bells and petunias that is not this sensitive.

I love to see the plants and don't mind pruning back or deadheading (except tickweed which is tedious), but I really like to plant only once and then watch as the little shoots and stems poke through the ground in spring again. I tend to look like a giant mudball when planting, not my favorite thing to be. So I tend to plant perennials. However, this year the monarch and black swallowtail have been slower to show up and my fennel is six feet tall, just waiting for some caterpillars and the milkweed overfloweth and the bees of all types are having orgies in the bee balm and lavender and agastache. So where are they? On the annuals. On this plant.

Black Swallowtail with red... verbena?

Perhaps I SHOULD plant a few more annuals... sigh.

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Mellow Yellow Monday
Ruby Tuesday

Hot Lips

Salvia x microphylla 'Hot Lips'... a changeable diva!

"If one consults enough herbals...every sickness known to humanity will be listed as being cured by sage." ~ Varro Taylor, Ph.D. (herb expert)

We already had a large pot with a bush sage planted and growing and showing off the bright red blooms that are so irresistible to hummingbirds; but this little gem was too gorgeous to pass up. I nestled it between the milkweed and the coneflowers and it loves the area. When first planted, the little flowers were totally red; but as the days grew hot, the flowers changed color....

From a deep crimson red all over......

.....to a fabulous stripe of red against a background of pure white... very 'Hot Lips' indeed. According to several sources, the flowers may also be all white -- pure as the winter snow-- if you want to believe such a saucy flower can do so. I am going to try and collect some of the tiny seed and see what I can do with it. For now, the flowers are going strong and the hummingbirds have been dining, as have the bees and a few butterflies.

This is a variety of sage, though not the typical herb used in cooking. Still, when you crush a couple of leaves together or break off a spent flower stem, the aroma of pungent sage is left on your fingers and in the air. Heavenly.

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Ruby Tuesday

My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose

Mr. Lincoln... hybrid tea rose.

"O, my love is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Love is like the melody,
That's sweetly played in tune."
~ Robert Burns (1759-1796)

We've had a spring -- a real spring -- with cool temperatures and moderate rain and then the yo-yo factor thrown in. As a reward punishment, we now have summer -- late summer, July and August summer -- with temperatures approaching triple digits, the air heavy with humidity, and no breeze to speak of. Plants are confused and befuddled, as are the butterflies. The black swallowtail have still not bombarded the fennel as last year and I have only six monarch caterpillars chomping away on the milkweed, safe in the sunroom. Each day, I expect the Japanese beetles to show up in the delicate roses (the black spot has already arrived); so I enjoy each small triumph of bloom on the rose as it happens. Mr. Lincoln was planted last year and gave one bloom, a glorious bloom to be sure, but only one. This year, two. Twice as many deep garnet soft petals, captured in digital image but now gone, whisked away by a fleeting gust of wind. Perhaps it will surprise me and produce more; yet, if not, I will be grateful for the rich ruby light it added to our day.

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Ruby Tuesday

Sensational Sizzle; But, Short Stature

I had to call these my "munchkin" tulips.

"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size." ~ Gertrude S. Wister

I planted tulips this year...literally, I planted them THIS year... 2011... even though I was supposed to plant them in November 2010. As usual, I have an excuse..explanation for my tardiness. For one thing, I tend to be tardy on planting whether it is seed, bulbs or plants. Other life gets in the way, it's too hot, it's raining, my strangely unique anti-tick outfit is in the washer, it's snowing and too cold; these are just some of my rationalizations. This year it was the snowing and cold thing.... but, really, it WAS snowing and TOO cold to plant the bulbs. My bulb bag said that for our area they should be planted the last two weeks of November and I had the bulb planter and food and all the things ready. The second week of November was a typical balmy coastal Virginia late fall week. Then it all came to a screeching halt... it got cold... really cold... cold enough for a two inch snow to stick. And it didn't really warm up... perhaps it got above freezing in the day a bit, but still the north wind blew and at night it was cold. I quickly got reams of bubble wrap and wrapped all the patio plant containers and covered the bottoms and tops of the soil. I moved Japanese maple tree (the one in the pot) and others to the south side of the patio next to the brick wall and the leaves that had blown up on the patio.. I gathered them all around the wrapped pots for an added layer. I grouped all the wrapped pots together in protected corners and even tried to wrap the mock orange bushes ... but knew that at a hardiness level of 20 - 30℉ they would not likely make it and they didn't. Other plants I brought inside.

With all this hustle and bustle at the unexpected cold snap... I forgot about the tulips, but only for four weeks. Yet, alas, it was too late. We had a couple of insignificant... at least insignificant for those in northern states... snows in the weeks before Christmas and much colder temperatures than usual. Here at the coast with the Gulf Stream it is not unheard of to have temperatures in the 50's and 60's at Christmas time. But this year it was COLD! The ground froze... I tried to plant just before Christmas and my bulb planter would not get past the mulch... the ground froze... it really did. We even had that frost heave they speak of where water gets in the soil and freezes, expanding and pushing up little bits of soil. Then it snowed twelve inches on Christmas night and the day after... and January was just as cold as December. So, it was February... the middle part.. before I managed to get them in. The bulbs had started to sprout in the garage, but at least they seemed viable. So I planted them.... 97 around the two trees in the front of the house.

The daffodils come up in March, early... and the tulips just after them. Everyone else had tulips and I finally started seeing the little pointy shaped buds pushing up out of the mulch... then the leaves started to form.... but no flowers. Across the street was a stand of tall shapely tulips... long slender stems and bulbous cup shaped red flowers swaying when the breeze blew. Mine... nothing. Then one day I saw a dash of red on the ground and thought it was a piece of trash blown into the yard. I checked and to my surprise.. it was a tulip! At ground level! No stem to be seen at all! A few days later... another... same size... and another and another. Pretty soon I had a bevy of blooms... sitting right on top of the leaves and less than three inches off the ground. They were supposed to all be red... they weren't... some were pink and some were purple with white stripes. But all of them were munchkin... short... petite.... very strange looking. I'm sure I saw people driving by twice trying to figure out exactly what they were.

I learned one thing... well, maybe two. First, did you know that after you cut a tulip the stem continues to grow for a few days? I didn't. But after the blooms were spent... the stems on my tulips decided to grow... about 8 inches. And again... people would wonder what these things were. The second thing I learned is... no matter how afraid I am that the bulbs will come up too soon in our usually warm winters and then be hit with a late spring freeze... I WILL plant my bulbs this year in the first week of November... NO MATTER HOW HOT OR COLD IT IS!

Oh, yes... I forgot... to get these pictures I had to lay down on the ground with the camera....again, neighbors wondering.......

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Ruby Tuesday

White In The Shade

Columbine... double white....the flower of the spring.

"What a desolate place would be a world without flowers. It would be a face without a smile; a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth? Are not our stars the flowers of heaven?" ~ Clara L. Balfour

It has been a real struggle to write these last few weeks and for several months now. Life gets in the way and with doctor's appointments for two parents and emergencies that seem never ending and balancing diabetic diets and gout diets and even soft diets for the same person and cooking and grocery shopping and a little planting thrown in... well, by night time the thoughts in my head are mostly non-existent. So I take my pictures... those that I have been able to take... and play. There are so many beautiful flowers opening up on a daily basis and many a surprise... (since I didn't map out the flower beds that well last year and have forgotten exactly what was where)... with such beauty you would think I would be inspired. But my muse is buried under mountains of pills for people and pets and organizing trips to the doctor with as little duplication and extra driving as possible.

This was a new addition to my shade garden last summer... a white double columbine. It prefers shade or partial sun but not too much. It will wilt in the heat in Virginia. But the columbine is hardy too... last year I planted a bunch out behind the fence, right next to the large tree that snapped off during a summer storm. After the people came to remove the tree, I noticed they had trampled most of the growing columbine plants and I grieved. But this spring, little sprouts of green began to grow in the most familiar leaf shape...little scalloped leaves... and before you knew it there were columbine.... purple and white, solid purple, burgundy, pink and white and pale yellow. Most often they die back to the ground in late fall, but emerge again in spring... ours have bloomed through April and into May. Now most are topped with the growing seed pods, but this white double is still blooming strong. I plan to collect more seed to add to our population behind the fence.

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Today's Flowers

The Passing of Pansies

Perky pansies.... their last hurrah!

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there is pansies, that's for thoughts." ~ Shakespeare, Hamlet

Creeping upward, slowly... cool day setbacks... but still warmer, each day a little bit... temperature marches slowly and then more quickly... instep with the humidity. Spring takes its time in getting the motor running but seems to rush headlong into the heat of Summer without a thought for those it leaves behind... the daffodils, tulips, iris and the pansies. Poor pansies... they tried to expand and flourish and flower and brighten up the late fall.. but the cold came too soon this year and they struggled. Spunky pansies.. called a winter flower but who can really like the snow or the cold...they try to look beautiful with wet leaves and flowers and ice and that white stuff, but they struggle. Still, in Spring, pansies perk up and lift their heads to the breezes. They call for the April rains and shine. It is in Spring that they show their stuff.... but Spring is too short and counted not by the days but by the temperatures. While the "time" of Summer does not arrive until June... the "heat" of summer... that which signals the roses and lilies and lantana to bloom... arrives in May. And just when the pansies have overcome the winter hardships and are at their brightest show.... it's over.... too much to bear.. the wilting heat... the flashy colors of summer. Perhaps if the pansy gave nectar to the bees or attracted the increasing number of butterflies... would her delicate petals stay just a little while longer? Poor pansies... already pulled up and replaced with summer annuals in the front beds... already removed from hanging baskets and most deck containers.... but, here... for another week perhaps... in a shaded area.. with slightly cooler temperatures... they can share space with roses and petunias and blanket flowers and growing sage and tomatoes.... just a little longer.

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Mellow Yellow Monday

Lilies for Love on Mother's Day

“The mother loves her child most divinely, not when she surrounds him with comfort and anticipates her wants, but when she resolutely holds her to the highest standards and is content with nothing less than her best.” ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie (American writer, 1845-1916)

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” ~ Washington Irving (American Writer. 1783-1859)

“Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother” ~ Ann Taylor (English Author, 1782-1866)

“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.” ~ Honore de Balzac quotes (French Novelist. 1799-1850)

"The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven."
~ William Goldsmith Brown

"A mother's treasure is her daughter." ~ Catherine Pulsifer

Could you see, could you guess... lovely lilies from my daughter Nyssa for Mother's Day. Thank you sweet pea... they are lovely.... not as lovely as seeing your face and hearing you call me "Madre"... but beautiful to brighten the day none the less. Thank you!

OH! Yes... I hope ALL the mothers out there had a lovely day... and all you daughters out there.... CALL YOUR MOTHER!!!!

Good Friday Reflection

The dogwood....glorious flowering tree of spring...state flower of Virginia...tree with legends holy.

Legend of the Dogwood

An old and beautiful legend has it that, at the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood was comparable in size to the oak tree and other monarchs of the forest. Because of its firmness and strength it was selected as the timber for the cross, but to be put to such a cruel use greatly distressed the tree. Sensing this, the crucified Jesus in his gentle pity for the sorrow and suffering of all said to it:

"Because of your sorrow and pity for My sufferings, never again will the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross.

Henceforth it will be slender, bent and twisted and its blossoms will be in the form of a cross ~ two long and two short petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints ~ brown with rust and stained with red ~ and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see this will remember."

~ Author Unknown

Pink and red dogwood....

The pink dogwood flower is said to derive its delicate color from its blush of shame for the way the dogwood was used to make the cross for Christ's crucifixion. The red dogwood reminds us of Christ's blood shed for our sin.

But do they grow in Israel?

Isaiah 53: 3-9
3 He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!

5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.

9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave."

~ New Living Translation

No, the dogwood tree does not grow naturally in Israel and the legend is just that. The event of that story is true, foretold by the prophet Isaiah and orchestrated by God Himself and for what reason? So that we might be able to have intimate fellowship with the Holy God. All we have to do is accept and believe... how can I not be grateful?

My prayer is that you remember, reflect and receive.... in this holiest of seasons.

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Recommended Site: A Holy Experience

Christmas In April

Christmas blooms in April. Yellow Christmas cactus.

"I've always thought my flowers had souls." ~ Myrtle Reed, Lavender and Old Lace

Mom brought this plant home over a year and a half ago, a yellow Christmas cactus. The unusual color with a tinge of peace at the base of each flower is nothing compared to the light that seems to glow from within. It bloomed a bit at Christmas but not with a spectacular number of blossoms. With the help of colder nights in the sunroom and increasing early morning sun from the east, it has been putting out buds and blooms for a month now... and I hope it continues until Easter. As always, that luminescent shine seems to pour forth from within the flower. It is so delicate and powerful at the same time. Where did she get this? At Sam's, along with her orchid... the one that bloomed for nine months straight, stopped for two months then started again and is still full of blooms four months later.

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Mellow Yellow Monday

Bashful

Bashful beauty broadcasts, " Surely Spring has sprung!"

"If one daffodil is worth a thousand pleasures, then one is too few." ~ William Wordsworth

I am reading a book... a small book.. actually, I've read it already but thought it good to go back through again. When I have finished a second time, I might post about it.. or I might simply keep it as my small treasure for just a bit to see where the journey goes... no, I won't keep it too close because a wonderful journey is even better when shared... but I did start. For now, this journey, this counting of gratitudes is in its infant stage and so my first ones are simple.. thunderstorms... we had our first today... and just the rumble of thunder said "Spring is here.... and right on cue." The yo-yo effect is slowly but surely ebbing away as the day and night time temperatures edge their way up. I don't think we will have any more freezing night temperatures... neither do the plants. Spring breezes... no longer howling around the roofline or clacking the bare tree limbs together... gentle but firm and warm with a hint of continuing cool around the edges...as I sat waiting for Mom at the doctor's office.. the soft breezes blew small white petals from the three large flowering pear trees and they floated to the ground like the winter snow. It had that "other worldly" effect.. you know, the one you feel and half expect to look up and see a golden carriage drawn by two snow white horses appear through the veil of falling petals...that effect. The tulip magnolias have bloomed and are shedding their pink petals in a carpet around their base...the buds so long in waiting and so short in staying after the opening. The same is so with our daffodils... no new ones planted, just the older bulbs well rested over winter. They opened a bit early as always and then had to brave the cold winds of early March... so this year, they are not pristine, a bit ragged and raw around the edges, but still... daffodils. One bulb managed, probably with inadvertent human help, to escape the flower bed and end up implanted in the yard. I remedied that... managed to extract it with bulb intact and placed it back among its siblings. This small variety, was hiding behind a larger yellow sister who is hogging all the attention with her big saturated golden locks... so I crept around and when she wasn't looking... I snapped the shot. Yes, one daffodil is worth many pleasures and much gratitude as well... this bashful beauty will go on my list.

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Mellow Yellow Monday

ABC Wednesday: Heavenly Horticulture

Purple hyacinths with yellow pansies.

“If, of thy mortal goods, thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one and from the dole,
Buy Hyacinths to feed the soul”
~ Muslih-uddin Sadi

Pink hydrangea.

Hydrangeas
Dragoons, I tell you the white hydrangeas turn rust and go soon.
Already mid September a line of brown runs over them.
One sunset after another tracks the faces, the petals.
Waiting, they look over the fence for what way they go.
~Carl Sandburg

Rose...spicy...Honey Dijon

"They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream."
~ Ernest Dowson, (1867 - 1900)

Purple Heliotrope...the scent of vanilla.

"Perfumes are the feelings of flowers." ~ Heinrich Heine

To honor the coming of Spring and the changing of the hours, I look back at the wonderful flowers of last year with their heavenly fragrances and their handsome blossoms and I hope their beauty will soon honor us with their presence again.

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ABC Wednesday ~ Letter "H"
Nature's Notes

ABC Wednesday on Thursday: "E" is for Echinacea

Echinacea purpurea (Purple coneflowers)... not just purple any longer.

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it is your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe (American Painter, 1887-1986)

Well, this is a day late and a dollar short but the color infusion is a blessing and much needed in February. And days like today with balmy temperatures and that blast of Spring that is in the air.. well, I am looking forward to seeing if these beauties survived the winter and if they are truly able to multiply and grow stronger in their second garden go round.

These are all Echinacea purpurea or purple coneflowers... which is fine, except they are not purple! The purple variety are the native wildflowers that grow in the central plains. They derive their common name from the prickly cone shaped central disk that towers over the daisy like petals. These days an explosion of color has appeared as cultivars that range from bright sunrise yellow through hot orange to tomato soup red. Whites and even lime green varieties along with double rows of petals and fragrant flowers have been added. So the purple coneflower is not your great-great-grandmother's coneflower.

A derivative of the tap root, Echinacea has been touted as an enhancer of the body's immune system... great for colds. It was used by Native Americans for a variety of disorders including toothaches, sore throats and coughs. Some proponents insist that this is great for preventing or shortening colds and other research indicates that it has no effect at all. Ah... the power of placebo suggestion.

So, I don't really know the answer to the "medicinal" uses.. but if you let these gorgeous blooms fade in the garden and leave the central cones to dry and turn brown.. well, yes, it doesn't look that neat and pristine... but the seeds in those cones are simply bliss for the small birds in winter, particularly the finches. I have seen them perch on the sturdy but dead stems and graze to their little hearts content.

So, this (late) ABC Wednesday is the letter "E" and that stands for Echinacea... an efflorescence of exquisite elegance, easy on the eyes as well as an edible entrée that endows essential energy to our fine feathered friends. (Just thinking about next week)

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ABC Wednesday Cycle 8 ~ The Letter "E"