FLORAL FRIDAY!

Horticulturists of great repute in one's neck of the woods and beyond is known to me as my kind neighbor Susan. Chatting today as she was  using mulch loaded with molasses (never heard of that) from Cherokee reservation,  Bill and Ann, gardeners from street behind us, made their frequent drive-by to see what was happening in this renowned garden on WRD.

 

I, on the other hand, use my SEEK app to find my way around a garden. When Susan shared her Apricot Peonies, I was fascinated by these which had 3 different colors on the same plant. 

My pix don't do justice but I want to remember her enthusiasm as she shared info with me.

Bachelor buttons, planted in the fall (key time) now blooming in blue and white, with Eastern red columbines all behind her apricot peonies.

Note small green bud @ bottom of pic

...and a larger green bud opening to red

From small green to green openings to reddish sprouts....... 

........to full red blossoms and blooms, "whitened fluffy as a petticoat," as she described them!

Scripture uses flowers to show God's provision and the beauty of His creation.

Song of Solomon refers to a time when winter is past and verse 2:12 rang out as I stood at her garden's edge:

"The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land." (literally on our street)

I hummed, "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Him" even as I typed this as the second line was in my heart and eventually on my lips!

🎶 "Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, 

opening to the sun above."🎵

SLOW AND STEADY: IT'S NOT A RACE!

SLOW GO.........

Slow and steady! It started at Christmas via a kind and generous horticulturist neighbor. 

A gift that keeps on giving....creation from the Creator.

Maturity can take a while.

Enjoy the experience.

VALENTINE'S DAY. WORTH THE WAIT!

"Creativi-TEA"

Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. (Luke 12:27, NIV)

Today is May 1. 

Growing up in Kentucky, the first week of May had most folks looking forward to Derby parties because those thoroughbreds ran at Churchill Downs (and still do run) that first weekend. I, on the other hand, was looking "under" the leaves of my Mayapple plants to see if those little white flowers were there yet. 

Along with a few Jack-in-the Pulpit, Dutchman's breeches, red columbine, trillium and a Johnny Jump-up, I had scads of mayapple. All my wildflowers grew among the roots of the big tree in our back yard, that bordered the Madduxes' side, at 2211 South Virginia Street 

At age 10, I had a wildflower garden and I loved it. I guess that's why, to this day, I can remember those strange names ---nothing botanically correct, just what Mother and Mama Davenport called them. 

Those memories always seem to come flooding back this time of year......tho I have to travel to the Dixon Gardens to "look" for my little white flowers under those umbrella plants---and later the little green apples tucked in under those leaves. There's nothing like a garden to allow one to marvel at the handiwork of a creative God. 

Nowadays, I realize that the "mul-TEA-plying" of my "scads" of mayapples was His doing. A creative "doing" that allowed underground runners to produce plants for a very young gardener's joy----His creativi-TEA, not my horticulture prowess. 

"God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:12) and I did too!!!