Flower for the Day Day Lily II 6-21-24

Recently I was feeling great about how my day lilies were turning out, well really a little smug.

The very next day an entire stand of flowers and buds were gone - eaten by my deer population overnight.

Over the next few weeks more day lilies have appeared. Good thing I have the numbers or it would look pretty bleak.

Here are some of the replacements.

And more to come.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan,  and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention,  how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me,  what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

Flower for the Day Delphinium 6-20-24

Delphinium are native perennials in the family Ranunculaceae. They are quite old and were placed there by Linnaeus himself. The name delphinium derives from the Ancient Greek word for dolphin which describes the flower shape. It comes in various colors.

It is also called larkspur. Each flower consists of five petal-like sepals which grow together to form a hollow pocket with a spur at the end, which gives the plant its name. Note the flower on bottom lower left.

It is toxic to humans and animals so don't put them in your salad.

  

        storm warnings -

     the deep blue reach 

       of delphiniums

       Billie Wilson (Alaska)

Flower for the Day Wild Onion 6-19-24

Here is the wild onion (Allium canadense). I have never seen the flower before as I pull the stems and bulbs out

each spring. I missed several and this is what showed up. Interesting.

This poem is not about onions but it showed up in my reading yesterday.

             On the Parables of the Mustard Seed

             

             Whoever has seen a mustard plant

             wayside weed or tended crop

grow tall as a shrub, let alone a tree, a treeful

of shade and nests and songs?
Acres of yellow,
not a bird of the air in sight.

No, He who knew
the west wind brings
the rain, the south wind
thunder, who walked the field-paths
running His hand along wheatstems to glean
those intimate milky kernels, good
to break on the tongue,

was talking of miracle, the seed
within us, so small
we take it for worthless, a mustard-seed, dust,
nothing.
Glib generations mistake
the metaphor, not looking at fields and trees,
not noticing paradox. Mountains
remain unmoved.

Faith is rare, He must have been saying,
prodigious, unique —
one infinitesimal grain divided
like loaves and fishes,

as if from a mustard-seed
a great shade-tree grew. That rare,
that strange: the kingdom

a tree. The soul
a bird. A great concourse of birds
at home there, wings among yellow flowers.
The waiting
kingdom of faith, the seed
waiting to be sown.
 

Denise Levertov

Flower for the Day First Dahlia 6-18-24

This dahlia is the only one  that wintered over and it bloomed about a month ago. It will continue to bloom until the fall. 

The dahlias that i have planted newly will not bloom until August. Dahlias are in the Asteraceae  family which name refers to the appearance of a star with surrounding rays. The dahlia has a flower head that is actually a composite (hence the older name Compositae) with both central disc  florets and surrounding ray florets. Each floret is a flower in its own right, but is often incorrectly described as a petal. 

     florid blossom

  adorned in dew drops
    dahlia sunrise

        J. White

Flower for the Day Butterfly Weed 6-14-24

There is an extraordinary stand of butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) in the meadow this year. It is a milkweed that

attracts butterflies with copious nectar. It has many names: butterfly milkweed, Canada root,  chiggerflower, fluxroot, Indian paintbrush, Indian posy, orange milkweed, orange root, orange Swallow-wort, pleurisy root, silky swallow-wort, tuber root, yellow milkweed, white-root, windroot, and butterfly love.

The flowers have been blooming for more than a month. They appear in wide umbels of bright orange with 5 petals and 5 sepals.

For years I tried to grow them by transplant. They lasted the year but never came back. My med school roommate

sent me some seeds and the butterfly weed  has been flourishing. Thanks again Charlie.

    The Tuft of Flowers

I went to turn the grass once after one

Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.

 

The dew was gone that made his blade so keen

Before I came to view the levelled scene.

 

I looked for him behind an isle of trees;

I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.

 

But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,

And I must be, as he had been,—alone,

 

'As all must be,' I said within my heart,

'Whether they work together or apart.'

 

But as I said it, swift there passed me by

On noiseless wing a 'wildered butterfly,

 

Seeking with memories grown dim o'er night

Some resting flower of yesterday's delight.

 

And once I marked his flight go round and round,

As where some flower lay withering on the ground.

 

And then he flew as far as eye could see,

And then on tremulous wing came back to me.

 

I thought of questions that have no reply,

And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;

 

But he turned first, and led my eye to look

At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,

 

A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared

Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.

 

I left my place to know them by their name,

Finding them butterfly weed when I came.

 

The mower in the dew had loved them thus,

By leaving them to flourish, not for us,

 

Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.

But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.

 

The butterfly and I had lit upon,

Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,

 

That made me hear the wakening birds around,

And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,

 

And feel a spirit kindred to my own;

So that henceforth I worked no more alone;

 

But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,

And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;

 

And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech

With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.

 

'Men work together,' I told him from the heart,

'Whether they work together or apart.'

 Robert Frost

Flower for the Day Magnolia 6-12-24

Included with the blooms of our magnolia (Magnoliaceae) is the wonderful scent which lasts for weeks. Magnolia is an ancient genus that appeared before bees evolved. They are thought to have been pollinated by beetles instead. Fossils of plants belonging to the family date to 95 million years ago. The flower bud is enclosed in a bract. A bract is  a specialized leaf, different than a foliage leaf which surrounds the flower. Its parts are called tepals rather than distinct sepals or petals. They are 'right purty'.

   the sky I see

   seems full of 

 magnolia blossoms

  Natsume Soseki

Flower for the Day Celandine Poppy 6-10-24

Celandine poppy (Stylophorum dyphyllum) has been one of my favorites for years. It's a North American native that grows from underground rhizomes. The flowers have four yellow petals, two sepals, many yellow orange stamens, and a single stigma. The flowers produce pollen but no nectar.

The plant has taught me a lot in the 30 years I have tended it. The most important lesson is that plants grow where they want to and not where I want them to. Once located in a shady gentle sloped 'ravine' with plenty of water it has flourished.

Gazing Inside

Look deep inside
That place only you really know
That somewhere, always home
Never too far away
In reach when you need it
There in a glance

No need to linger
Longer than a moment
You already live there
It's your place to be who you are
Everyone else, just a guest
At your invitation

See that stargazer lily over there
Its stamen jutting outward
It's an invitation to you
Step inside, yourself
Smile
Give yourself a hug

Don Iannone

Flower for the Day Day Lily I 6-7-24

The lilies are still bursting open and for a week we have begun to see the day lilies. Their color is less 

spell binding but is pleasingly subtle. They live for one day.

Here is my favorite day lily poem written by Stan Thawley,

my long time friend and colleague who passed way too soon.

THE FIRST OF MY SUMMER LOVERS

   Just out of the shower

   Wearing only lacy dew

   She has arrived early

   Voluptuous, steamy.

   She is no coy one

   Her petals spread open

   Waiting for mating.

   Comfortably naked in the sun

   With her soft creamy skin

   and dark inner lips

   She has come for adulation,

   Sex and sun.

   Confident , she winks 

   At me with those dark eyes

   Saying ,come, adore me.

   Embarrassed, I have forgotten

   Her name... Misty Maude I believe.

   Undulating in the wind

   She whispers,

   Come closer,closer

   Love me, love me.

   Quick now, skip the foreplay.

   We haven't much time you know.

   I'm only passing through,

  Just here for one day.

  Stan Thawley, 2009

Flower for the Day Lily III 6-6-24

The lily extravaganza continues. We spray the buds so the deer will not eat them. But the most important thing is the amount of rain we have had this year has provided the deer with enough that they don't have to search my gardens for forage.

Here is my favorite to date.

And some more for our pleasure.

This one looks like a tiger lily but is different. The tiger lily  will bloom next week.

And another off red one.

Flower for the Day Lily II 6-5-24

Here are some more lilies. They speak for themselves especially in their 

depth of color.

Did you see the cicada?

This is what happens after a pea sized hail storm.