Flower for the Day Last of the Oriental Lilies 7-1-26

Do you believe that half of the year is gone - in a blink - an Augenblick. Here are the last of the oriental lilies (Lilium). You may remember that in distinction to asiatic lilies, the orientals bloom later on tall sturdy stems featuring massive, heavily scented downward facing flowers. They are a feast for the eyes. These lilies survived the Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) because of their geographic placement in the center of areas with multiple flowers surrounding it.      And here is tiger lily which is distinct from its day lily namesake (also known as a ditch lily). Jan started this process in the 1970’s and we have multiple stands of both.  The Tiger-Lily ….. O thou wast from life’s weltering ore Breathed by enchanting mind before Man was in his own shape. Far, far Thou seemest as the evening star! Yet movest me like that lone light Fetched through the ages of the night Into this breathing garden--close; Or like the things that no man knows In a child's eyes; or like, for one Watching a seaward--sinking sun, Beyond cold wastes of water pale The dim communion of a sail. Ah! though I know not what thou art, Yet in the fastness of my heart How shall I tell what lies unwrought Into the figured films of thought, Uncoloured yet by sharp or sweet, Or what forge of transforming heat Threatens this world of use and fact Wherewith the busy brain is packed? Thou art of me, O Flower of Flame, What is not uttered, has no name, The springing of a want unmated, A joy no fallen hour has dated. Some of my mystery thou holdest, Secretly, splendidly unfoldest. Robert Lawrence Binyon

Flower for the Day Field Coreopsis 6-30-26

> > This time of year the garden flowers appear. My favorite for depth of color is field or plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria). Its leaves are pinnately-divided, glabrous and tend to thin at the top of the plant where numerous flower heads sit atop slender stems. >  > > The flower heads are brilliant yellow with notched tips and profound maroon disc florets. There is no deeper and pleasing color. >  > Grow Wild and Free > > Grow wild and free > Let your spirit be > taken by the wind > Run fast and far > Let your spirit soar > skyward without end > Find a space in the soil > Spread your roots without toil > amongst the tangled weeds > Sow your seeds down deep > Where the wind can’t sweep you seeds > Away with the breeze > Mia Verità >

Flower for the Day Field Coreopsis 6-30-26

This time of year the garden flowers appear. My favorite for depth of color is field or plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria). Its leaves are pinnately-divided, glabrous and tend to thin at the top of the plant where numerous flower heads sit atop slender stems.  The flower heads are brilliant yellow with notched tips and profound maroon disc florets. There is no deeper and pleasing color.  Grow Wild and Free Grow wild and free Let your spirit be taken by the wind Run fast and far Let your spirit soar skyward without end Find a space in the soil Spread your roots without toil amongst the tangled weeds Sow your seeds down deep Where the wind can’t sweep you seeds Away with the breeze Mia Verità

Flower for the Day 6-29-26 Blackberry Lily

> > When our neighbor Russel Kraus sold his house and grounds to the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park > foundation he gave us some of his blackberry lilies (Iris domestica). It is known for its fanlike leaf cluster, its orange, > red-spotted flowers and its namesake seed pods which split open in the fall revealing clusters of black shiny seeds resembling blackberries. >  >  > > Blackberry Lily Haiku > > Unfurling petals > > Like rays of golden sunshine. > > Burst open and bright. > > Sarah J. Flackett > >

Flower for the Day 6-29-26 Blackberry Lily

When our neighbor Russel Kraus sold his house and grounds to the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park foundation he gave us some of his blackberry lilies (Iris domestica). It is known for its fanlike leaf cluster, its orange, red-spotted flowers and its namesake seed pods which split open in the fall revealing clusters of black shiny seeds resembling blackberries.   Blackberry Lily Haiku Unfurling petals Like rays of golden sunshine. Burst open and bright. Sarah J. Flackett

Flower for the Day Daylily 6-25-26

> > This year has been catastrophic for our day lilies (Hemerocallis). The plants are entirely healthy but the deer each evening have eaten the fresh buds before they could bloom. Out of multiple stands of daylily there are very few blooms > and as you may know they only bloom for a day. > Here are a few of the flowers that made their brief appearance. The flowers have three similar petals and three sepals, collectively called tepals. The centermost part of the flower, called the throat, may be a different color than the more distal areas of the tepals. Each flower has six stamens joined to the perianth tube, each with a two-lobed anther The unequal stamen filaments are curved upward. >  > > On the right is the classic ditch-lily found along our rural highways. Its one of the flowers with which I > started my gardens. >  > > Below is a more classic day lily which was in the front garden when we moved into our house in 1978. >  > > Lilies > I have been thinking > about living > like the lilies > that blow in the fields. > > They rise and fall > in the edge of the wind, > and have no shelter > from the tongues of the cattle, > > and have no closets or cupboards, > and have no legs. > Still I would like to be > as wonderful > > as the old idea. > But if I were a lily > I think I would wait all day > for the green face > > of the hummingbird > to touch me. > What I mean is, > could I forget myself > > even in those feathery fields? > When Van Gogh > preached to the poor > of coarse he wanted to save someone-- > > most of all himself. > He wasn't a lily, > and wandering through the bright fields > only gave him more ideas > > it would take his life to solve. > I think I will always be lonely > in this world, where the cattle > graze like a black and white river-- > > where the vanishing lilies > melt, without protest, on their tongues-- > where the hummingbird, whenever there is a fuss, > just rises and floats away. > > Mary Oliver >

Flower for the Day Daylily 6-25-26

This year has been catastrophic for our day lilies (Hemerocallis). The plants are entirely healthy but the deer each evening have eaten the fresh buds before they could bloom. Out of multiple stands of daylily there are very few blooms and as you may know they only bloom for a day. Here are a few of the flowers that made their brief appearance. The flowers have three similar petals and three sepals, collectively called tepals. The centermost part of the flower, called the throat, may be a different color than the more distal areas of the tepals. Each flower has six stamens joined to the perianth tube, each with a two-lobed anther The unequal stamen filaments are curved upward.  On the right is the classic ditch-lily found along our rural highways. Its one of the flowers with which I started my gardens.  Below is a more classic day lily which was in the front garden when we moved into our house in 1978.  Lilies I have been thinking about living like the lilies that blow in the fields. They rise and fall in the edge of the wind, and have no shelter from the tongues of the cattle, and have no closets or cupboards, and have no legs. Still I would like to be as wonderful as the old idea. But if I were a lily I think I would wait all day for the green face of the hummingbird to touch me. What I mean is, could I forget myself even in those feathery fields? When Van Gogh preached to the poor of coarse he wanted to save someone-- most of all himself. He wasn't a lily, and wandering through the bright fields only gave him more ideas it would take his life to solve. I think I will always be lonely in this world, where the cattle graze like a black and white river-- where the vanishing lilies melt, without protest, on their tongues-- where the hummingbird, whenever there is a fuss, just rises and floats away. Mary Oliver

Flower for the Day Late Allium 6-23-26

> > This late allium (Allium schoenoprassum) just bloomed. It is also known as wild chives, Rush leek, Onion grass and Schnittlaugh. Chives are a perennial herb in the onion family which form clumps of hollow tubular leaves and edible globe-shaped flowers >  > > Chives > > You chop an onion, bone a breast, cradle > an artichoke's dense, thorny crown, you pluck > a chicken, a leaf, an eyebrow peddling luck > with love, you set a table, you seat, you ladle > your soup, you chomp an apple, you agitate > the linens. You agitate for justice. You piece > on chocolate, awaiting calls. You grease > your skids. You rot. You rule. You fail. You rate. > A verb intransitive is a claptrap thing. > Dredge it in flour, you might as well. Let tense > run riot. You pinch spent bloom, craving bitters > and Pimm's when you could go a-rummaging > through chives—those volunteers who in their dense > tufts at least know how to get together. > > Julie Sheehan >

Flower for the Day Late Allium 6-23-26

This late allium (Allium schoenoprassum) just bloomed. It is also known as wild chives, Rush leek, Onion grass and Schnittlaugh. Chives are a perennial herb in the onion family which form clumps of hollow tubular leaves and edible globe-shaped flowers  Chives You chop an onion, bone a breast, cradle an artichoke's dense, thorny crown, you pluck a chicken, a leaf, an eyebrow peddling luck with love, you set a table, you seat, you ladle your soup, you chomp an apple, you agitate the linens. You agitate for justice. You piece on chocolate, awaiting calls. You grease your skids. You rot. You rule. You fail. You rate. A verb intransitive is a claptrap thing. Dredge it in flour, you might as well. Let tense run riot. You pinch spent bloom, craving bitters and Pimm's when you could go a-rummaging through chives—those volunteers who in their dense tufts at least know how to get together. Julie Sheehan

test 3

Foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) is a native flowering plant in the Plantaginaceae family. It is also known as talus slope penstemon and white beardtongue.It is a glabrous (hairless) tall plant  with opposite, shiny green, simple leaves, on slender, purple stems. 

The flowering panicle (a loosely branched compound flower cluster or inflorescence) extends to almost one third of the plant's height and has pairs of branches which repeat with two flowers multiple times. The flowers are two lipped and tubular. At the base you can see the white ‘beardtongue’.

Waiting for Beardtongue

Were you here with me under the tangle
of contrails, we’d wait for the beardtongue,
and I’d show you where the none-too-demure
stands will erupt in the hard places:
the sorry, washed out soil of the hillside,
road cuts, and abandoned mounds of ballast.

Although I know this stamp of land as well
as a scribe knows his vellum, I’m not
inured to the surprise and ecstasy
of waiting for beardtongue: waiting is how
we measure time here. Not by Chronos,
Kairos, A theory, B theory, or relativity —

But rather by the exquisite waiting:
first for the gray-green leaves to clasp
the limber, nimble stems, then for the stems
to bear the loads of two-lipped, chaliced white
flowers turning the field into a mural
of serene, white-robed Etruscans.

In the all-too-brief two weeks when
the beardtongue blooms, I become
the great shirker of obligation,
look askance at my pressing labors,
leave be fields that should be tended
and barns that should be mended.

For this is the season of untethering
oneself from the dogged troubles of tomorrow;
this is the season of surfeit, when the plain
is aproned in the raiment of beardtongue.

Lagniappe