How could I have missed the party decorations?
madgardener
Hello friends,
Madgardener here. Sorry about the time slip. Having the crud in the
bronchial tubes has made me less than observational. But today was not
only shouting to me to come outside, "rejoice, relish and celebrate the
day, come out, come out!!" it was shreiking to me, PLEADING in chorus
that one has to be deaf and blind not to hear the beaconing from
without.
So out I went. How could I have missed the most obvious of party
decorations? The fairies had strung them everywhere and in my physical
state of body and mind, I had literally overlooked them. The little
fairy lampshades are everywhere, and they also double as last minute
lacy petticoats for the under-dressed fairies to grab and slip on.
What are they? Why the fair reddish and yellow columbine flowers! They
are
about the gardens everywhere. And as I walked out the front door, and
onto the warm sidewalk, the fragrance of someone else was the next thing
to slide over me.
It wasn't just a smell, it had a light, oily fragrance to it that
beaconed my nose to follow it's source. Tracing it down to find it. I
knew that fragrance. Very well. I don't always like the taste, but the
smell is divine. The clove pinks in the two planters up front had been
teased open last night by the fragrance fairies and in the hot sun it
just wrapped itself around me and led me straight way towards it. I had
to bend over and smell the little pinked edged flowers that sat atop
slender blue green stems almost 8 inches above the tuft of blue green
fat leaves in the nice mound that now spills over the edge of the clay
pot.
Looking past the pinks, I see that the little phlox I planted in the pot
to keep company with the pinks is also up, the reddish edged leaves on
the slightly furry lime green leaves of the phlox leads one to believe
the flower might have a hint of red about it.
Can't tell if the grass in that pot survived. Some grasses I fall in
love with are marked perennials and later turn out to be but an annual
variety. If that's the case, then out it will come leaving a hole to be
filled with a nice varigated sedge.
The party signs are everywhere about me. Walk over directly towards the
west yard and I see the poor lilac had survived the bitter cold nights
we were assaulted with , but the glorious blooms have lost their lusty
fragrances in the heat of the day today. It went from a nice,
confortable 64 yesterday to lunging into the high seventies today like
rampant teenagers running across lawns. You never know where they or
their feet will land, and that was the case in the temperatures today.
The raised Colorado bed held the most surprises for me. Centaurea had
quietly lifted little green pointy balls delicately etched in black, (it
must have taken fine brush work for those fairies to get the marks just
right on the globes of green holding back the ethereal flowers) and
there they were. The warmth of the night last night, and todays heat
was just the right formula for the grand opening of the first ones.
Deep, sky blue feathery blossoms of the Centaurea. How I love these. If
I but could get a clump of the pink ones I would be a happy madgardener
<G>
The refreshing leaves of the lemon verbena lured me even more. As I
stood there, running my hands thru the leaves of the two huge clumps of
her that I thought was only one clump, I began to notice there are even
more of her, and I will transplant those to other locations to fill in
wherever it wants to. But the refreshing aeroma of lemon was so great,
that I pinched a double handful of them, and took them inside to steam
over a slowly cooking chicken breast sitting in a hint of olive oil and
other spices on the stove. (Because I get so distracted by the gardens,
I have learned if I am cooking myself something to eat, it has to be on
simmer so as to not burn it or my house down <G>)
The other fairy petticoats had to be sought out. I knew I had double
ones with short spurs. Pink with white. I had forgotten about the
totally blue one, and the larger one of surprising
colorations that I won't know until it opens for me. But they are all
here.
The three reduced pots of petticoat daffodils I purchased at Wally world
in appreciation for saving
them sent up more bloom spikes underneath the now green leafed black
cherry tree where I plugged them into in the bricko block holes. Soft
yellow hoops that barely catch the eye.
Great huge, trumpets of a deep purkle on the unexpected and forgotten
gloxinia sitting against the wall greet me and the blue columbine made
me two daughters
last year and didn't announce their birth until today. There are
swinging blue bell-like flowers amongst the fuzzy leaves of the Japanese
anemones, announcing their arrival sometime since yesterday and today..
Everywhere that I look there are surprises in store for me. A once
thought lost variety of wilder but double ranuculous, flora pleno popped
up outside the eastern beds yesterday, and because I want as much of her
as I can get, I am leaving it where it is to throw daughters wherever
she will and THEN I will transplant them to a larger spot. I love
these, with their ruffled, strawberry like leaves and the glossy yellow
double flowers rising up on strong squared stems. If I wasn't sure, I
would have sworn that the fairy in charge of painting the colors opened
the glossy can by mistake! I had a whole slip of these at my first
house in Nashville and I want another stand of them badly enough to wait
patiently for them to reproduce for me. I will lovingly transplant their
daughters later on to a better spot. Obviously they prefer the lesser
rich clay to my raised soils....another perennial speaks to me of the
soils I have given them. I hear them, I hear them.
At the end of the sidewalk in the
extended-as-far-as-I-possibly-can-without-pissing-
off-the-across-the-driveway-neighbor flowerbed, are the prickley, and
ferny looking leaves of the perennial poppy and there are THREE fists of
green shaking their tightened round globes at the skies. Since I have
those, I have to see if I have any more, and oh joy!! YES I do, the
other two clumps of them just to the east have green fists rising up as
well. Oh I hope we have no hail storms before they reveal to me if they
are all red ones or if there is an orange in the bunch.
The Champaigne poppies I bought weeks ago at Lowes that had so many pods
on them have really surprised me, and I had placed them on either side
of the rather large clump of Kniphofia, and it....works. The foliage
now is resembling steriods and jungle growth, daylily leaves are two
foot up and thickening, crocosmia leaves are spiking upwards, the narrow
leaves of the siberian iris are also rising, the fattening leaves of the
old fashioned iris have surprised me with their ability to make bloom
shoots so quickly. One day nothing but leaves, the next there are
almost three foot stems with fattening buds forming on them. The lilies
are hilarious, great examples again this year of those funny newspaper
trees we used to make in elementary school. You expect to come out at
night and see a fairy or three tugging the tip up even further and the
leaves stretching out more and more. There are also lilies with buds
formed at the tops already.
The fairies were also mischevious to me this year. I had pink woods
hyacinths I never had before to show up this year and I have to mark
them so as not to forget about their location. They are just west of
the purple loosestrife I have decided to try and remove this year, if I
can. I kinda doubt it.
The kicker is I seem to vaguely remember planting strawberries near the
sidewalk one year, and I forgot about them until this year, and now all
of a sudden I have these huge gigantic leaves and blossoms making
berries in 9 places in the eastern flower beds. I can't believe it!
The fairies have deffinately got a huge party going on, and I just
didn't notice the decorations........
thanks for letting me share, if this doesn't show up in rec.gardens,
anyone wanting to post it there for me is welcome. I tire of trying to
get my rambles posted there lately. I hope ya'll's weekend has been as
neat as mine. I even got to keep a "grand baby" despite the bronchitis
and inability to talk too well tonight, nothing like a six month old
baby to make one feel needed. talk to you all later. my love is there
for you all. madgardener up on the hilltop in EAstern Tennessee