Flower for the Day Last Peonies 5-29-26

> > Here are some of the last peonies - the best year ever for them. The doubles are a great addition. >   > > But the singles are the staple. I love the buds by the blossoms. >  > > I am sorry to see them disappear. > > From Blossoms > > From blossoms comes > this brown paper bag of peaches > we bought from the boy > at the bend in the road where we turned toward > signs painted Peaches. > > From laden boughs, from hands, > from sweet fellowship in the bins, > comes nectar at the roadside, succulent > peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, > comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat. > > O, to take what we love inside, > to carry within us an orchard, to eat > not only the skin, but the shade, > not only the sugar, but the days, to hold > the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into > the round jubilance of peach. > > There are days we live > as if death were nowhere > in the background; from joy > to joy to joy, from wing to wing, > from blossom to blossom to > impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom. > > Li-Young Lee >

Flower for the Day Last Iris 5-26-26

Here are this years last Iris - a feast for the eyes.   And my favorite. Profound infinite color.  The Infinite <https://allpoetry.com/poem/8527635-The-Infinite-by-Count-Giacomo-Leopardi> This solitary hill has always been dear to me And this hedge, which prevents me from seeing most of The endless horizon. But when I sit and gaze, I imagine, in my thoughts Endless spaces beyond the hedge, An all encompassing silence and a deeply profound quiet, To the point that my heart is almost overwhelmed. And when I hear the wind rustling through the trees I compare its voice to the infinite silence. And eternity occurs to me, and all the ages past, And the present time, and its sound. Amidst this immensity my thought drowns: And to flounder in this sea is sweet to me. Giacomo Leopardi The more times you read this poem the more you ‘get’ the infinite.

Flower for the Day Miniatures in Field and Stream 5-8-26

> > >> >> I have grown to love the miniature flowers that grow in the meadow and the creek bed. >> Few people see them. You have to bend over and search them out. But somehow they satisfy. >> >> Here is blue field-madder (Sherardia arvensis). It is an annual broadleaf plant that is more common to New England and coastal California than the heartland. Two to three small flowers form trumpet-shaped clusters on the stem at the bases of leaves and have six to eight leaflike structures underneath. They look somewhat like bluets which bloom way earlier. >> >> >> >> Here is mouse ear chickweed (Cerastium fontanum) which is also called starweed. It is a mat-forming perennial. >> Cerastium fontanum, also called mouse-ear chickweed, common mouse-ear, and starweed, is a species of mat-forming perennials. It has tear-shaped leaves growing opposite one another in a star pattern and small white flowers with five notched petals. The flowers have 10 stamens and five styles. Don’t you love the hairy leaves. >> >> >> >> Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is derisively called Creeping Charlie. It grows on the edge of the meadow, is ubiquitous,and intensely invasive. There is nothing of value that I can say about it except for its beautiful flowers which disappear in a blink. >> Oh, it is simple to slowly pull out with its root if the ground is wet. >> >> >> >> Finally this lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) is growing in our dry creek bed. It is also known as fig buttercup, figwort, >> pilewort, and fig crowfoot. It is a low-growing, hairless perennial flowering plantin the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It has fleshy dark green, heart-shaped leaves and distinctive flowers with bright yellow, glossy petals. >> The plant is known as pilewort by some herbalists because it has historically been used to treat piles (hemorhoids).Lesser celandine is still recommended in several "current" herbal guides for treatment of hemorrhoids by applying an ointment of raw leaves as a cream or lanolin to the affected area. Getting a comercial salve appears to be easier and probably more effective. >> >> >> >> Ode to Creeping Charlie >> >> Aromatic perennial, evergreen creeper, >> you thrive in dense shade yet tolerate the sun. >> Brought to this land by brewers and healers, you escaped >> cultivation, survived mower and rake. You feed >> the pinewood mason bee, take over my lawn, choke >> out bergamot and blazing star, those native flowers >> I cultivate in vain. There will always be more of you >> than I can ever remove, and yet >> you are my favorite weed to pull. I love >> that it must be done slowly, a gentle urgency >> in the fingers, a little tug to release your runners, >> knowing how firmly the earth is holding you >> from first snow melt to first snow fall, o ground ivy, >> field balm, catsfoot, alehoof, run-away-robin. >> >> Katelyn Hibbard >> >> >> >> >> >> >

Flower for the Day Cuckoo Pint 5-18-26

Well here is a new one to start the week. Jan has been watching a plant we have not seen before in a meadow circle. How it got there is a good question . It has interesting leaves and when we looked it up it is called cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum) and is in the family Araceae. It has multiple names including Jack in the pulpit. The leaves are triangular with an arrow-head shape at the base. The leaves have a long stalk and the network veins.  Below flowers are borne on a poker shape inflorescence called a spadix, which is enclosed in a pale green leaf-like hood called a spathe.  Arum maculatum is known as cuckoo pint or cuckoo-pint in the British Isles and is named thus in Nicholas Culpeper’s famous 17th-century herbal book. "Pint" is a shortening of the word "pintle", meaning penis, derived from the shape of the spadix. The euphemistic shortening has been traced to Turner in 1551. In order to see the pint I had to open up the pale green leafy spathe. What fun and how great to have Jan show me the way here. She is always full of surprises. Arum Maculatum Seduced on a damp woodland bank the lily lantern glows. Inside the green hood the purple spike protrudes. A shower of glossy leaves shoots arrows to the ground. The cowl calls to insects and traps them until dusk when they are released to carry the fairy pollen to another spadix. It shimmers as they escape. Lords and ladies. So emphatically a lord’s pintle and a lady’s vulva— Arum maculatum stands in the hedge row as an exotic sexual statement. Willy lily or priest’s pilly sucky calves or cuckoo-pint— our jack-in-the-pulpit flower belies its English bower. More suited to a tropical place the wild arum takes an aroid space and sedately waits until it can shout into Autumn with a spike of shiny orange globes— and blaze the bank with its fiery stalk. Helen Slade

Flower for the Day Rosemary 5-15-26

Each year we have a new rosemary (Salvis rosmarinas) plant. It is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae). Rosemary is shrub with very fragrant , evergreen, needle-like leaves. The fresh or dried leaves can be used for food flavoring.  Rosemary flowers in late spring. The branches are dotted with groups of 2 to 3 flowers down their length.   Time has an end, they say Sea-walls are worn away By wind and the sea spray, Not the herb, rosemary Queens have died, I am told Faded the cloth of gold No Caeser half so bold As the herb, rosemary Rooted within the grave Spreading to heaven, save Us by the grace He gave To the herb, rosemary. Aubrey de Vere. 1814--1902

First Flower

Jan noticed our first flowers for the year, two beautiful yellow crocuses. The crocus is in the iris family and displays the general characteristics of the family Iridaceae, which include basal cauline (arising from the aerial stem) leaves that sheath the stem base, hermaphrodite flowers that are showy, the perianth petaloid with two whorls of three tepals each and septal nectaries. The flowers have three stamens and a gynoecium of three united carpels and an inferior ovary, three locules and axile placentation with fruit that is a loculicidal capsule. Other than that it is a relatively simple flower. It closes up at night.  There was an apple tree in the yard — this would have been forty years ago — behind, only meadows. Drifts of crocus in the damp grass. I stood at that window: late April. Spring flowers in the neighbor’s yard. How many times, really, did the tree flower on my birthday, the exact day, not before, not after? Substitution of the immutable for the shifting, the evolving. Substitution of the image for relentless earth. What do I know of this place, the role of the tree for decades taken by a bonsai, voices rising from the tennis courts — Fields. Smell of the tall grass, new cut. As one expects of a lyric poet. We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory. — Louise Gluck

Flower for the Day Iris III 5-13-26

We are in our second growth phase for the iris. Their intricate structure continues to amaze. The Japanese iris are out in full force.  But the bearded iris continue to be the clear winners. Their only issue is their brevity.      As in dreams behind high doors there is nothing, not even emptiness. As in dreams behind the face that looks at us there is no one. Obverse without a reverse, one-sided coin, the side of things. That pittance is the boon tossed to us by hastening time. We are our memory, we are that chimerical museum of shifting shapes, that pile of broken mirrors. Jorge Luis Borges

Flower for the Day Columbine 5-11-26

Columbines (Aquilegia vulgaris) grow well in the heartland. They are herbaceous perennials in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). Their compound leaves are ternate and each divide into three leaflets. The inflorescence forms several flower heads. They present as nodding - facing downwards. Luckily for the photographer this changes in time. Aquilegia is from the Latin word for "eagle”, aquila, describing the petals' resemblance to eagle talons.  The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove, That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the Rocks, Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow Rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing Madrigals. And I will make thee beds of Roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle; A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty Lambs we pull; Fair lined slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold; A belt of straw and Ivy buds, With Coral clasps and Amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me, and be my love. The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May-morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my love. Christopher Marlowe

Flower for the Day Miniatures in Field and Stream 5-8-26

I have grown to love the miniature flowers that grow in the meadow and the creek bed. Few people see them. You have to bend over and search them out. But somehow they satisfy. Here is blue field-madder (Sherardia arvensis). It is an annual broadleaf plant that is more common to New England and coastal California than the heartland. Two to three small flowers form trumpet-shaped clusters on the stem at the bases of leaves and have six to eight leaflike structures underneath. They look somewhat like bluets which bloom way earlier.  Here is mouse ear chickweed (Cerastium fontanum) which is also called starweed. It is a mat-forming perennial. Cerastium fontanum, also called mouse-ear chickweed, common mouse-ear, and starweed, is a species of mat-forming perennials. It has tear-shaped leaves growing opposite one another in a star pattern and small white flowers with five notched petals. The flowers have 10 stamens and five styles. Don’t you love the hairy leaves.  Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is derisively called Creeping Charlie. It grows on the edge of the meadow, is ubiquitous,and intensely invasive. There is nothing of value that I can say about it except for its beautiful flowers which disappear in a blink. Oh, it is simple to slowly pull out with its root if the ground is wet.  Finally this lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) is growing in our dry creek bed. It is also known as fig buttercup, figwort, pilewort, and fig crowfoot. It is a low-growing, hairless perennial flowering plantin the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It has fleshy dark green, heart-shaped leaves and distinctive flowers with bright yellow, glossy petals. The plant is known as pilewort by some herbalists because it has historically been used to treat piles (hemorhoids).Lesser celandine is still recommended in several "current" herbal guides for treatment of hemorrhoids by applying an ointment of raw leaves as a cream or lanolin to the affected area. Getting a comercial salve appears to be easier and probably more effective.  Ode to Creeping Charlie Aromatic perennial, evergreen creeper, you thrive in dense shade yet tolerate the sun. Brought to this land by brewers and healers, you escaped cultivation, survived mower and rake. You feed the pinewood mason bee, take over my lawn, choke out bergamot and blazing star, those native flowers I cultivate in vain. There will always be more of you than I can ever remove, and yet you are my favorite weed to pull. I love that it must be done slowly, a gentle urgency in the fingers, a little tug to release your runners, knowing how firmly the earth is holding you from first snow melt to first snow fall, o ground ivy, field balm, catsfoot, alehoof, run-away-robin. Katelyn Hibbard

Flower for the Day Sweet William 5-7-26

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) is a flowering plant in the family <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_(botany)> Caryophyllaceae. Each flower has five petals which have serrated edges.  I love the exquisite color combinations of the individual flowers.     ​​Sweet Williams’ Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan All in the Downs the fleet was moor’d, The streamers waving in the wind, When black-eyed Susan came aboard; ‘O! where shall I my true-love find? Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true If my sweet William sails among the crew.’ William, who high upon the yard Rock’d with the billow to and fro, Soon as her well-known voice her heard He sigh’d, and cast his eye below: The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands, And quick as lightning on the deck he stands. How swift the lark, high poised in air, Shuts close his pinions to his breast. By chance his mate's shrill call he hears, Then he drops at once into her nest. The noblest captain in the British fleet Might envy William's lips those kisses sweet. Oh Susan, Susan, lovely dear, My vows shall ever true remain; Let me kiss off that falling tear; We only part to meet again. Change, as ye list, ye winds; my heart shall be The faithful compass that still point to thee. Believe not what the landsmen say, Who temp with doubts thy constant mind; They’ll tell thee, sailors when away In every port a mistress find. Yes, yes, believe them when they tell thee so, For thou art present wheresoe’er I go. If to far India’s coast we sail, Thy eyes are seen in diamonds bright; Thy breath in Afric’s spicy gale, The skin is ivory so white. Thus every beauteous object that I view, Wakes in my soul some charm of lovely Sue. Though battle call me from thy arms, Let not my pretty Susan mourn; Through cannons roar, yet safe from harms, William shall to his dear return. Love turns aside the balls that round me fly. Lest precious tears should drop from Susan’s eye. The boatswain gave the dreadful word; The sails their swelling bosom spread; No longer must she stay aboard; They kissed, she sighed, he hung his head; Her lessening boat unwilling rows to land: 'Adieu!' She cries; and waved her lily hand. John Gay (1720)

Flower for the Day Allium 5-6-26

Allium (Allium giganteum) are in the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae. The flowers form an umbel at the top of a leafless stalk. The flowers are erect having six petal-like tepals produced in two whorls. The flowers have one style <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynoecium> and six epipetalous stamens. In the umbels the outside flowers bloom first and flowering progresses to the inside. Who doesn’t love a ball of purple stars?  In Praise of Allium No one celebrates the allium. The way each purposeful stem ends in a globe, a domed umbel, makes people think, ‘Drumsticks,’ and that’s that. Besides, it’s related to the onion. Is that any reason for disregard? The flowers – look – are bouquets of miniature florets, each with six elfin pointed petals and some narrower ones my eyes aren’t sharp enough to count, and three stamens about the size of a long eyelash. Every root sends up a sheaf of sturdy ridged stems, bounty to fill your embrace. The bees care for the allium, if you don’t ­– hear them now, doing their research, humming the arias of a honey opera, Allium it’s called, gold fur voluptuously brushing that dreamy mauve. Denise Levertov

Flower for the Day Peony II 5-5-26

These last three weeks have been a peony bonanza. As the have matured we have enjoyed them immensely as cut flowers. Their beauty speaks for them. Here is one of many peony patches. We have had more rain than usual which causes them to droop - beautifully.      Their fragrance is delightful. Peonies Peonies This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready to break my heart as the sun rises, as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers and they open --- pools of lace, white and pink --- and all day the black ants climb over them, boring their deep and mysterious holes into the curls, craving the sweet sap, taking it away to their dark, underground cities --- and all day under the shifty wind, as in a dance to the great wedding, the flowers bend their bright bodies, and tip their fragrance to the air, and rise, their red stems holding all that dampness and recklessness gladly and lightly, and there it is again --- beauty the brave, the exemplary, blazing open. Do you love this world? Do you cherish your humble and silky life? Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath? Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden, and softly, and exclaiming of their dearness, fill your arms with the white and pink flowers, with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling, their eagerness to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are nothing, forever? Mary Oliver