Flower for the Day Penstemon digitalis 5-31-24

Penstemon digitalis is also known as fox-glove beard-tongue, talus slope penstemon, and white beard-tongue. It is a  

flowering plant in the plantain family. It grows 3 to 5 feet tall with opposite simple shiny green leaves

Two lipped tubular flowers come off the long stem and have tiny white hairs on the outside of the tube. The lower lip has 3 downward pointing lobes of similar size and shape.   The upper lip is erect and lobed in 2 parts somewhat smaller than the lower lobes. Inside the tube are several pinkish or purplish lines, 4 black-tipped stamens hugging the upper part of the tube, a white style, and a sterile stamen with sparse yellow hairs at the tip end.  

Charles Darwin's grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, employed digitalis to great outcomes with his dropsy patients. He even sought to immortalize the plant in a poem:

Bolster'd with down, amid a thousand wants,
Pale Dropsy rears his bloated form, and pants;
"Quench me ye cool pellucid rills," he cries,
Wets his parched tongue and rolls his hollow eyes.
Divine Hygeia from the bending sky
Descending, listens to his piercing cry;
Assumes bright Digitalis dress and air;
Her ruby cheek, white neck and raven hair;
Four youths protect her from the circling throng,
And like the Nymph the Goddess steps along,
O'er him she waves her serpent wreathed wand,
Cheers with her voice and raises with her hand
Warms with rekindling bloom his visage wan,
And charms the shapeless monster into man.

–  Digitalis, From Botanic Garden, Part 2, Canto 2 (emphasis added)

( From Henry E.Hooper, Witness Post: Foxglove)

Flower for the Day Spiderwort 5-29-24

Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) has been a reliable addition to our gardens for many years. 

It comes in a blue 

and a delicate white.

        Spiderwort is a prairie flower, as ethereal is it is enduring.

The name is a consequence of its long slender leaves that break suddenly downward.

                      mimicking the legs of crouching spider.

    It rises at the end of May in the prairies and savanna's, in a universe all its own,

a small galaxy of blue starlike flowers that form the constellation of the universe of the Crouching Spider.

         Unlike celestial bodies that survive in the billions, for billions of years,

the stars of the Crouching Spider number only a few and shimmer for just a few hours.

            Coinciding with earth's star, they emerge, not with a bang,

     but slowly materialize from a golden hot centering three purple points.

                           

                                    As the sun grows high in the sky,

                            they gradually collapse into deep blue planets.

              Yet tomorrow morning, and for thirty or more turns of Earth,

You may gaze into the prairie universe to witness the reemergence of the Crouching Spider

                                                 and the creation of new worlds.

Mike MacDonald

Flower for the Day Coreopsis 5-27-24

I hope you are having a great Memorial Day. This coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora) is very plentiful this year.

Its other name refers to small black seeds commonly  called tickseeds. 

The large flower (grandiflora) is impressive.

The old sweet-rocket sheds its fine

perfumes;

With golden stars the coreopsis

flames;

And here are scores of sweet old-

fashioned blooms

Dear for the very fragrance of their

names…

               John Russell Hayes

Flower for the Day Last Iris 5-24-24

This delicate iris (Iris  fernaldii) is the last one of the year.

It is native to western California and how it got to the heartland is a mystery.

Iris, Most Beautiful Flower

Iris, most beautiful flower,
Symbol of life, love, and light;
Found by the brook, and the meadow,
Or lofty, on arable height.
You come in such glorious colors,
In hues, the rainbow surpass;
The chart of color portrays you,
In petal, or veins, of your class.
You bloom with the first in Winter,
With the last, in the Fall, you still show;
You steal the full beauty of Springtime,
With your fragrance and sharp color glow.
Your form and beauty of flower,
An artist's desire of full worth;
So Iris, we love you and crown you,
MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER ON EARTH!

- Edith Buckner Edwards (January 1961) 

Flower for the Day Creeping Thyme 5-24-24

As you know I am always into garden infrastructure. This year my creeping thyme (Thymus surpyllum)

is blooming off the chart. 

And the blooms are extraordinary.

A Bed of Creeping Thyme

Don't call your grown son at this late hour.
Put on a coat and go outside, recall a family
you made of snowpeople, your daughter's
mittened hands, the bed of creeping thyme
disappearing in the sudden storm.
The snow is bandaging the world
or is it erasure? What is the answer
to this night's interrogation?
It's falling heavy now.
You know why there are two syllables to hours.
Ours is what is left you cannot name.
Explain can't you, canto what you can bear,
swear
this music is what most matters,
the lawn's staff, notes of tiny boot prints
vanishing—.

Sean Thomas Dougherty
​

Cicada Time 5-22-24

The cicadas (Cicadoideae) have been out for several weeks. The nymphs come out of the ground ( that is what is making all those little holes in the dirt), climb the nearest tree, and shed theirs shells (exuviae). The shell is on the right.

 

The noise they make is from tymbals on their underside. The noise is a mating call. 

They can fly and are essentially harmless. They do not eat any plants or leaves.

After mating they lay eggs in the trees and then the adults die in 4-6 weeks. 

The eggs mature into nymphs which fall to the ground below the trees. The nymphs burrow into the ground and for the next 17 years they have an active life surviving on plant juices from the tree roots. After the 17 years they emerge from the ground and start the cycle again. In order for the cycle to be sustained the trees must be at least 17 years old for them to survive and emerge. 

Maybe the only advantage to having high tone hearing loss is that what I hear is greatly muted and not at all bothersome.

Flower for the Day Philadelphia Fleabane 5-22-24

I have seen this flower for years but never knew it's name. Who would believe it is called 

Philadelphia fleabane (Erigeron philadlphicus) - really? It is also called common fleabane, daisy fleabane, Robin's plantain, frost root, and Skervish - really. The flowers contain a chemical that if burned can drive away fleas. Even if they are not burned you will note that there are no fleas here.

They are interesting in a daisy way.

The Sunset Sky

When I see the clouds shined by sunset,

I have to go home now.

When I see the birds shade,

I have to go home now.

I have to go home.

It is sad.Why does today end here?

See you tomorrow?

Tomorrow and today are

Different.

Today is only today.

Tomorrow is different.Today's me doesn't exist

In tomorrow anymore

And, neither does today's you.

there doesn't exist

todays's touch anymore.

Nobody knows that

Today and tomorrow are completely different.

That's why I cry

In this evening.

In this shiny bright evening,

Today is closed.

In this time,

When a bulbul's voice

Slashes the sky,

It is the same feeling.

All that I've earned,

I don't need.

The annual fleabane's white bouquet

That I gathered

Is withering 

In the hands

Like the letter that was never read.

I'll throw it away onto the meadow

And run away

In order not to be seen by the first star.

To be honest,

I want to be absorbed in the dark sky

And disappear

Because I can see the uninhabited vacancy

From the sky forever

and might even see today's back there.

Tomoko

Flower for the Day Daisy 5-20-24

The oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) is ubiquitous for which I love it. 

It can and does show up anywhere. Here it is in back of the house.

And its right purty.

Here is a poem that is challenging.

Let me fall if I must. The one I will become will catch me.

~ Baal Shem Tov

The rain falling from the cloud, caught by--and becoming-- the thirsting tree, the shining drops falling from leaves to the ancient alchemical Earth, the sunlight falling, caught by hungry life; everything is falling into what it will become.

Once, I moved in the world as though I knew my way, as though I had a map and a name for my becoming; I didn't.

I pedaled through the air of my life wildly, panicked and struggling to feel the ground beneath me.

I couldn't land, too fearful of meeting my imagined life, doubting the woman who held my spirit would be there to catch me.

If only I had seen that we're all falling, as long as it takes, till we meet the garden where all our seeds have been planted, the room of our dreams, the home we know to be ours, our own and only holy self.

And then we fall again.

If only I had noticed the tiny fledgling tumble from his bending wind-tossed branch and how he was caught by flight.

If only I'd seen Yeshua fall into his waiting Christ-ness, or Siddhartha cradled by the enlightened Buddha.

We cannot know what mysteries will unroll into time when we let go, only that we're free to bide, to breathe, transform and catch our truer selves when the falling ends, and none of the tipping energy that sends us softly swirling or suddenly down, is wasted.

Everything deepens those who allow it.

I have seen lives fall into the arms of the love they became, and sinners fall into certain saints.

We spend lifetimes, days like centuries, catching and releasing the Sacred One we are, learning to leap into wonder, trusting it will meet us as we merge and fall, like the fledgling, into something as surprising as flight.

And when at last we must drift down into our silent, waiting tombs, we'll know the light we always were and bow to the wonder we are.

It's finished, we'll say, our culminating yes. and we will become our light.

In the garden, blossoms flash into dark, honeyed cherries ready to be eaten by hungry life; everything is falling into what it will become.

 Catherine "Kitty" O'Meara

If you enjoyed this work I suggest you look up Baal Shem Tov, an amazing man.

Flower for the Day Western Wallflower 5-17-24

The Western Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum) is a native to North America. It grows in rocky and clay soils and on walls and fences. I love its singular color.

Here is a poem for these interesting times.

This isn't rocket science, you know,

it's just sitting with what is,

letting the whole, wild and

impossible conundrum of life

touch me, change me, shake me awake.

This isn't difficult exactly

but neither is it easy to

witness sensations and thoughts

without withdrawing, defending,

pretending to be somewhere else.

You'd think simply being present

would be the most natural act

in the world, but in fact it

requires the unwinding of patterns,

the unlearning of thought loops,

the refusal to stay in old grooves.

It's a practice, this choice to be

still and know what I know

while allowing the ocean of my

unknowing to scour the mind's

shoreline until awareness is

laid bare and the subtle sound

of breath vies with silence

for my attention.

  Danna Faulds

Flower for the Day Peony III 5-15-24

Here is another growth of peonies. This has been an especially good year for them.

I have a full field circle of separate peonies. They have extraordinary depth of color.

And here is a full plant of pinks.

I love the double peonies.

Here is my all time favorite peony poem.

  Peonies

Grandma called them pineys, and I don't 

know why. They

smelled so good, the full lush petals

crowded thick, the whole flower heavy on 

its stem, the leaves

dark and rich as shade in Chautauqua 

woods where each spring I

hunted for violets.What could there be to 

pine for on this earth?

Now I think maybe it was Missouri she 

missed, and maybe that

was what somebody she knew called 

peonies there, before she

travelled to Ohio, a sixteen year old bride 

whose children came

on as fast as field crops and housework. 

Her flowers saved her,

the way they came up year after year 

and with only a bit of care

lived tender and pretty, each kind 

surprising, keeping its own

sweet secret: lily-of-the-valley, iris, and 

the feathery cosmos,

lilacs in their white and purple 

curls, flamboyant sweet peas and

zinnias, the bright four o'clocks and 

delphinium, blue as her 

eyes, and the soft peony flowers edged 

deep pink.

              In her next lifetime I want my 

grandmother to

walk slowly through the gardens in 

England and Kyoto.I want

to be there when she recognizes the 

flowers and smiles, when

she kneels and takes the pineys in her 

hands.

Jeanne Lohman. Calls from a Lighted House. Fifthian Press

2007 

Flower for the Day Iris III 5-14-24

Here are some more iris. They are short lived but gorgeous.

Here is my favorite. Love deep purple.

And some more.

          dwarf iris 

dancing in violet blue gowns

    blurred by breezes

   Brenda Davis Harsham  (2014)

Flower for the Day Dames Rocket 5-13-24

Dames Rocket (Hesperis matronal) is a long time favorite. It has numerous common names, including dame's rocket, damask-violet, dame's-violet, dames-wort, dame's gilliflower, night-scented gilliflower, queen's gilliflower, rogue's gilliflower, sweet rocket, and mother-of-the-evening.

I love that it shows up in many unexpected places.

It will stay there for several years and then show up in other places. This is described by formalists

as having "escaped from cultivation" but that is the fun of gardening. Plants show up where they can live

successfully  and not where we want them to grow. The plentiful, fragrant flowers are produced in large, showy, terminal racemes that can be very tall and elongate as the flowers of the inflorescence bloom. Each flower is large with four petals. Mine have always been pink-purple.

Dame's Rocket

 

 

She arrives in the water

that runs off our roof

in this hard rain.  The sound

boils up inside so that

 

I can feel it in her back

before I hear her laughing,

like grapes each laugh,

like bulbs of lung that send

 

air out and clench the new

with joy and comprehension.

In my arms, rain becomes

her universe rising into sense.

 

The dame's rockets hum

sweet summer nights,

their petal claws and corollas

purple along rails and in thickets.

 

Brought here from Europe

long ago, this is their home now,

just like us, mothers and daughters

back to the first ones born

 

in bluebells of wilderness

and close rain that infuses all.

My cells' energy is hers

and will be in her children, too,

 

an atlas to the past like chains

of ferns with fronds,

fiddleheads, and sori

underneath for the next of us.

Angie Macri

Flower for the Day Wild Blue Flax 5-10-24

Of the wild blue flax (Linum lewisii) one could say,

          Looking at it

           I am struck

          speechless

Flower for the Day Peony II 5-9-24

We are in the midst of peony season. The flowers are weathering numerous rainstorms

and drooping down like peonies do. I have a whole circle full of peonies.

The white ones are quite formal.

     a rice bowl

  filled to the brim
   one peony
 ~ Buson

And the pinks are regal.

           though mine

      I hesitate to pluck
         the peonies
        ~ Baishitsu

Flower for the Day Sweet William 5-8-24

Many flowers have showed up so I am catching up with a few extra posts. 

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) is a favorite that we have newly planted

from seed in the front garden. It takes two years for it to bloom so these seeds

were planted last year.

As you can see it has taken off.

Its florets are magnificent.

Sweet William

Flower of the homely but poetic name,
Loved by our fathers' fathers long ago,
Unchanging beauty thou hast yet to show,
A beauty ever fresh and yet the same,-
Here a deep crimson, here a scarlet flame,
Here a soft pink, and here a white like snow,
Setting this border's margin in a glow
Of colour that no lordlier flower can shame.
Whence came thy title? Is it wrong to dream
That Shakespeare loved thee in the olden days,
And in a garden bordering Avon's stream
Honoured thy beauty with a word of praise,
And some good friend of flowers and poesy
Bestowed this title upon him and thee?

Robert Henry Forster

Flower for the Day Sweet William 5-8-24

Many flowers have showed up so I am catching up with a few extra posts. 

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) is a favorite that we have newly planted

from seed in the front garden. It takes two years for it to bloom so these seeds

were planted last year.

As you can see it has taken off.

Its florets are magnificent.

Sweet William

Flower of the homely but poetic name,
Loved by our fathers' fathers long ago,
Unchanging beauty thou hast yet to show,
A beauty ever fresh and yet the same,-
Here a deep crimson, here a scarlet flame,
Here a soft pink, and here a white like snow,
Setting this border's margin in a glow
Of colour that no lordlier flower can shame.
Whence came thy title? Is it wrong to dream
That Shakespeare loved thee in the olden days,
And in a garden bordering Avon's stream
Honoured thy beauty with a word of praise,
And some good friend of flowers and poesy
Bestowed this title upon him and thee?

Robert Henry Forster

Flower for the Day Lily of the Valley 5-7-24

Outside our lower level window is a small stand of lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis).

It blooms every year. It reminds me of growing up where we had a plot outside the dining room window

which we looked at every day.

Delicate white cups

Silent bells line their green stems

Fragrant and tiny

PamelaWLucas 

Flower for the Day May Apple 5-6-24

We are in the month of the May Apple (Podophyllum peltatum). It is also called American mandrake, wild mandrake , and ground lemon.

May Apples are woodland plants, typically growing in colonies from a single root.

The flowers are rare and  simple arising from a branch junction.

      Magical Mayapple

Down in the shady woodland

Where fern fronds are uncurled,

A host of green umbrellas

Are swiftly now unfurled.

Do they shelter fairy people

From sudden pelting showers

Or are the leaves but sunshades

To shield the waxen flowers?

    Audrey Stallsmith

Columbine

The columbine near the angel have large skirts.

If you look under a skirt there is a wonderful surprise.

Flower for the Day Iris II 5-3-24

My irises are planted in several places and come up at different times.

Here is the latest group.

              Irises

     from which the rainbow

             rises

   

        Kobyashi Issa 1803

David G. Lanoue interpreted this haiku as follows:

Issa imagines that the rainbow has arisen from blooming irises—the intense, showy colors of the flowers continuing in bold streaks upward, into the sky, forming the rainbow.  It is interesting that "iris" derives from the Greek word for "rainbow."  Issa could not have known this, but he intuits the same connection that exists in many Western languages.  The rainbow is in the sky; irises are rainbows on earth.

Flower for the Day Spring Beauty 5-1-24

I love Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) because it is so inconspicuous that you have to go look for it.

It is also called Eastern spring beauty, narrow leaf spring beauty, and fairy spud. Its name honors Colonial Virginia botanist John Clayton (1694-1773). 

You better look closely for the individual flowers bloom for  three days. The five stamens on each flower 

are only active for a single day. Now how do you figure that out.

 Claytonia virginica

Prim pink pinstripes
beckon from the wet soil
beside the creek. But like
most beauties, they're choosy
about their suitors,
unmoved except by just
the right bee visiting
in just the right order:
one day they hokey-
poke their stamens out;
the next, it's the pistel's turn.
Petals close even for a cloud.
And when flowering's done,
they do their best
to pass for grass.
Who wouldn't be wary
with such a large
& edible heart?

Jennifer Schlick