Don's Blog Happy Halloween 10-25-21

There has been an increased interest in Halloween home decorations since the Pandemic started.

Here is the Best of the Best in out neighborhood. 

Don't wait too long for Mr Right.

Flower for the Day Bristleleaf Sedge 10-19-21

As the garden settles down for its winter rest I would like to sing the praises of a wonderful little ornamental grass, the bristleleaf sedge

(Cares eburnea).  This Missouri native sedge makes a first-rate ground cover or a welcome addition to rock gardens. Its delicate appearance hides an innate toughness and superb adaptability to heat and drought. It handles dry conditions best when planted in shade. Carex eburnea has green, needle-shaped foliage and a clumping habit, and it solves the dilemma of finding the right plant for shade gardens. The inconspicuous blooms arise in late spring. Its native habitat consists of conifer or mixed forests, often on limestone bluffs and ledges where it gets sharp drainage. It thrives in drier conditions with more shade. It stays small and delicate and catches everyone's eye. This one is growing on a well drained hill.

The Background of the Objective World

 

                            Sound, form, touch, taste and smell can never exist by themselves. 

They always need a background to support them.

 

                                                                                                                                The background cannot be seen by the sense-organs. Names are usually given to it without its nature being known.

 

                                                                                                                                There is the scent and the beauty (form) of a flower. But who knows what a flower really is?

 

                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                There is this same ignorance regarding the background of every sense-object.

 

                                                                                                                                The substratum of all is one and the same. Diversity is only of things perceived.

 

                                                                                                                                The substratum remains unperceived; therefore there is no diversity in it. That is existence, that is one's self, that is ,                                                                          

                                                                                                                                 consciousness pure,beauty transcendent  and the abode of peace.

                                                                                 Sri Krishna Menon (Atmananda), a 20^th Century proponent of Advaita-Vedanta, or non-dualism.It appeared in the author's 1952 publication, Atma-Nirvriti.

Flower for the Day Sweet Coneflower 10-18-21

The weather has begun to cool and the leaves are beginning to change  but some flower are still thriving. 

Sweet coneflower (Rudbeckia hurt) or black eyed susan is still striking. Yellow ray florets circling conspicuous brown or black, dome-shaped cone of many small disc florets. 

The plant is thought to be an herbal medicine by Native Americans for various ailments.The roots but not the seedheads of Rudbeckia hirta can be used much like the related Echanaciae purpura  with unsubstantiated claims to boost immunity and fight colds, flu and infections. The Ojibwa people used it as a poultice for snake bites and to make an infusion for treating colds and worms in children.

           Autumn's golden girl,

           pretty black-eyed susan smiles

           with summer's last rays.

           Girl with a Dog and Good Shoes

pretty black-eyed Susan smiles

with summer's last rays.

Flower for the Day Sweet Coneflower 10-18-21

The weather has begun to cool and the leaves are beginning to change  but some flower are still thriving. 

Sweet coneflower (Rudbeckia hurt) or black eyed susan is still striking. Yellow ray florets circling conspicuous brown or black, dome-shaped cone of many small disc florets. 

The plant is thought to be an herbal medicine by Native Americans for various ailments.The roots but not the seedheads of Rudbeckia hirta can be used much like the related Echanaciae purpura  with unsubstantiated claims to boost immunity and fight colds, flu and infections. The Ojibwa people used it as a poultice for snake bites and to make an infusion for treating colds and worms in children.

           Autumn's golden girl,

           pretty black-eyed susan smiles

           with summer's last rays.

           Girl with a Dog and Good Shoes

pretty black-eyed Susan smiles

with summer's last rays.

Flower for the Day Tickseed sunflower 10-13-21

This fall bloomer is Tickseed sunflower (Bidens aristosa). It is not a true sunflower (Helianthus). It fills the wildflower garden. The flower heads are like daisies. The fruit is flattened and black with 2 needlelike awns(stiff bristle) which attach themselves to clothing. Thus the name beggar tick. I have spent many an hour removing these from my clothes by hand.

 

Still

A. R. Ammons - 1926-2001

I said I will find what is lowly  and put the roots of my identity  down there:  each day I'll wake up  and find the lowly nearby,  a handy focus and reminder,  a ready measure of my significance,  the voice by which I would be heard,  the wills, the kinds of selfishness  I could  freely adopt as my own:    but though I have looked everywhere,  I can find nothing  to give myself to:  everything is    magnificent with existence, is in   surfeit of glory:  nothing is diminished,  nothing has been diminished for me:    I said what is more lowly than the grass:  ah, underneath,  a ground-crust of dry-burnt moss:  I looked at it closely  and said this can be my habitat: but  nestling in I  found  below the brown exterior  green mechanisms beyond the intellect  awaiting resurrection in rain: so I got up    and ran saying there is nothing lowly in the universe:  I found a beggar:  he had stumps for legs: nobody was paying  him any attention: everybody went on by:  I nestled in and found his life:  there, love shook his body like a devastation:  I said  though I have looked everywhere  I can find nothing lowly  in the universe:    I whirled through transfigurations up and down,  transfigurations of size and shape and place:    at one sudden point came still,  stood in wonder:  moss, beggar, weed, tick, pine, self, magnificent  with being!

Flower for the Day Globe Amaranth 10-8-21

I am not much into containers but I really like this one for my globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa). A native of Central and South America, gomphrena has been planted in ornamental gardens for centuries. Although not native to this country, it has a long history of use in North American gardens.  Introduced in Europe in 1714, this plant found its way to Virginia as early as 1737. Thomas Jefferson first planted the seeds at Shadwell, his boyhood home, on April 2, 1767. It continues to be grown at Monticello to this day and is one of the most asked-about flowers in the Monticello gardens. Who couldn't love little purple balls?

It blooms from June to October. I dry the seed heads over the winter and the process continues for 15 to 20 years.

Flower for the Day Sedum 10-7-21

Sedum is a large genus of flowering plants in the Crassulaceae family. Its members are commonly called stonecrops. They are leaf succulents in that they have water storing leaves. The flowers have four and five petals and usually twice as many stamens ( male pollen producing organ of a flower) as petals. This sedum always flowers late but a close view shows how beautiful these little stars are. It was a gift more than fifty years ago.

The House I Grew Up In

The House I Grew Up in

had a hole  

in the hall closet door

  

father's fist-size  

with jagged edges 

punched 

at mother's eye level 

unseeing relations hung 

winter coats inside 

innocents asked: 

"what happened here"? 

it was part of the decor 

like the living room schefflera plant 

and the wooden crucifix 

above Patricia's bed 

 I covered it with a cardboard Santa 

for the holidays, still 

at night I heard its screams 

years later, in my garden 

I unearthed that hole 

and filled it with the roots 

of a sedum

Kathy Camacho (2017)

Copyright © kathy camacho | Year Posted 201

Flower for the Day Verbena 10-6-21

Verbena (Vervain) has been growing since May and is only now beginning to fade. It is also known as common verbena, wild verbena, simplers joy, holy herb, enchanter's plant, mosquito plant, wild hyssop, Indian hyssop, blue vervain, juno's tears, pigeon's grass, pigeonweed, and herb of the cross, vervain answers to many names. It is a simple plant with  small flower heads on long sturdy stalks.

 

  Tall verbena flowers 

line purple gardens
swaying to tango music
in old Buenos Aires' good air.

Gilda Castillo

Flower for the Day Verbena 10-6-21

Verbena (Vervain) has been growing since May and is only now beginning to fade. It is also known as common verbena, wild verbena, simplers joy, holy herb, enchanter's plant, mosquito plant, wild hyssop, Indian hyssop, blue vervain, juno's tears, pigeon's grass, pigeonweed, and herb of the cross, vervain answers to many names. It is a simple plant with  small flower heads on long sturdy stalks.

 

Flower for the Day Zinnia 10-5-21

The Flower Guy  has been traveling and more recently delving into some interesting

Ontological matters. The gardens have continued to produce flowers and weeds. As you know gardens are

always coercive, always urgent and always here and now. On the other hand nature always wins anyway so I have

enjoyed observing as well as playing in the garden.

This has been the year of the zinnia. They are in the aster family and are growing i  almost all of my sun gardens. The are almost three feet high now. I grow them from seed as the ones in pots do not thrive for me. Here is a circle of fall zinnias.

The images do not do the colors justice.

 

zinnias: fireworks
explode in green sky dimming
the bright summer sun.

                                                                                   Kanzen Sakura