cold or hot

the weather has gone cold.  it was a low of 11 and a high of 15 degrees farenheit today.  is the cold making the flowers hot ?  at that rate they will self combust when the high goes to 2 degrees next week.  pass the hot flowers please…

14-0722-022 Give Me Eight x Smoke Scream

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fall clean up

emptying pots and removing annuals continues.  more fodder for the compost.  moved a couple more plants out of the seedling bed and into the monitoring bed.  the lantana and gardenia were moved to the basement to winter over.  who needs an exercise program when you have a garden…

11-082 Webster Seedling x (09-009 South Seas x Highland Pinched Fingers)

13-008 10-098 Freak Show x Coleman Hawkins ) x Mort Kid ?

looking vs seeing

often this part begins with ‘find a picture.’  ‘looking’ for a picture.  found a picture – hmm that would be seeing what i want.  there is a picture.  when i first saw it the thought was this is not good.  i was not seeing the daylilies.  there was clutter in the way.  then again maybe the not seeing came from not looking for that.  maybe i was looking for a ‘garden’ picture.  or even a nature picture.  we will get back to that.  so what do you see ?  or better what were you looking for ?   did you see the whole and not try to break it into discrete elements ?  did you choose primary and secondary elements to focus ?  did you choose to dismiss lesser elements ?  did you notice the blue larkspur ?  or should i say the mostly blue except for the pink petals.  did the unbloomed scape get mentally pushed out of the way so the large and mostly obscured flowers could be seen ?  or did the green and red coleus get your attention ?  so what have you been conditioned to see ?  it might be this picture was chosen to tell the story of nature.  a story where no one element is in front or in focus.  a story where only barely constrained chaos rules the day as soon as the gardener’s hand is drawn away.  well it is a theory – chaos that is.  and it might even explain why some days i walk right past the prettiest of visions…

   

the care free garden

i do not want one.  a care free garden that is.  i am beginning to think it is nearly impossible.  the garden should be a place where we can go to forget about problems.  there is no garden big enough to cause problems to be released.  when half a world away more than 100 children are killed the cares are too loud to silence.  there is no room for the hate that has harmed these children.  there is only room for prayer for the families that have been hurt.  prayer to walk away from hate.  start the prayer…

mixing

when two flowers are put together you know the color of each parent.  what is not known is what the seed will do.  in this case a brown flower Teddy Bear’s Picnic and a pale cream colored seedling from Cobrug Preview and Turn Back Time.  and what will win out ?   in this case the pale color carried over to the new seedling.  two images

 

7/13

in the picture

you have to get out into the garden to get into the picture.  even if like now it is several months later.  yes it is a bit of chaos out there.  it is hidden sometimes by editing.  i was going to say careful editing, then decided that it was to limiting. to anti-chaos.  and sometimes we need to acknowledge the chaos.  and live with it.  not deny it.  not sugar coat it.  and not try to hide it.  so now on to the chaos of the flower.  one of mine.  named even.  named with help from a gardening friend.  Rainbow Afterglow from a big flower – Open Hearth and a little flower – Little Rainbow.  from old chaos comes new chaos.  four images  – sometimes the focus changes and we still need to look…

 

 

7/13

the picture

the picture starts in the garden.  it is not a photo studio.  while it is not as hectic a playground full of kids it is a might busy.  besides some times it is good to just see the garden.  this is a section that includes tonight’s flower.  some are easier than others to isolate and focus in on an individual flower.  Purple Many Faces is the one in the middle.  perhaps if it was a single planting with a bit more room to spread out some of the other faces would be revealed…  three images.

7/13

 

difference like day and night

when things go clump in the night, that is usually not a good thing.  during the day and particularly in the garden when things go clump it is a good thing.  this is a picture of several daylilies blooming together… often referred to as a clump….  the darker red up front is Red Suspenders, in back to the right is Woman’s Scorn.  two images

 

7/11

not skinny

a daylily can be shaped by the temperature as much as by its genetics.  so on this day the flower was not skinny.  not so many days before it was skinny…  two images  Apophis.

7/11

are we there yet ?

that is a question more often heard in the car, not in the garden.  so why now ?  well it is about patience.  daylilies are perennials, plants that come back year after year.  and usually they bloom the very first year.  this is in spite of the delivery.  the majority of daylilies are delivered by mail and arrive bare root.  they do not come in a nifty little pot.  and their growth has been interrupted by a rude uprooting from the soil.  and even if they were to arrive in a pot they are a perennial.  one who’s growth pattern reaches its peak in the third year.  so the second year of bloom is usually better.  and the third year and on should be even better.  this flower is the first year bloom after a bare root delivery.  and the answer to the question, just be patient we are not there yet !  two images…  and the flower is Queen Cobra