Flower for the Day Chrysanthemum 11-3-23

One of the enduring traditions in late fall is to have chrysanthemums for color. For years I would put them in but never could get them to 'come back' the next year. Now i just purchase them and enjoy them for about a month. They start just with mostly buds,

and grow into mature beautiful yellow flowers.

They also sell them in smaller containers.

This year the deer found the buds to be tasty, but only in the back out of the picture.

It is the only plant that I have covered (with Jan's nylon hammock) at night when the 

freeze would kill them. It has worked and we have another week of warmer weather

to enjoy them.

A Blackbird Singing

It seems wrong that out of this bird,

Black, bold, a suggestion of dark 

Places about it, there yet should come

Such rich music, as though the notes'

Ore were changed to a rare metal

At one touch of that bright bill.

You have heard it often, alone at your desk

In a [brown October], your mind drawn

Away from its work by sweet disturbance

Of the mild evening outside your room.

A slow singer, but loading each phrase

With history's overtones, love, joy

And grief learned by his dark tribe

In other orchards and passed on

Instinctively as they are now,

But fresh always with new tears.

  RS Thomas

Flower for the Day Silver Grass 11-3-23

Silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) is my favorite ornamental grass. It is inexpensive and easy to care for -it essentially needs only water.

The gnome is my newest acquisition and my largest and oldest. He has a flower in one hand and a trowel in the other. 

Truly a 'gardening' gnome

In view of what is occurring in the world these days here is a poem from Rumi.

           Who Am I

What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature's mint, nor of the circling heavens.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsín;
I am not of the kingdom of Irãqain, nor of the country of Khorãsãn.

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell;
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwãn.

My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless;
'Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.

He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I know none other except 'Yã Hú' and 'Yã man Hú.'

Rumi - thirteenth century poet and Sufi

Flower for the Day Tropical Milkweed 11-1-23

Last week I found this tropical milkweed (Asclepias curasavica) in my garden at the Lake House in Warren County.

I have absolutely no idea how it got there. I have never heard of it before.

This is what I found out about it:

Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) is a non-native milkweed that has exploded in popularity in response to the demand for milkweed. It is simple to propagate, allowing growers to rapidly produce the plant for quick sale. The plant is also attractive, both to humans and monarchs, providing flowers and lush green foliage throughout the growing season – and that's a problem.

Tropical milkweed becomes a problem when planted in temperate areas where it does not die back in winter. A protozoan parasite of monarch butterflies, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha or OE for short, can travel with monarchs visiting the plants and become deposited on leaves. When caterpillars hatch and start eating the plant, they ingest the OE. High OE levels in adult monarchs have been linked to lower migration success in the eastern monarch population, as well as reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability.

I don't want to reduce anyones 'mating success'.I'm going to cut the sucker out before it propagates. Monarchs don't need more problems than they already have.

Flower for the Day Dahlia IV 10-29-23

Today we say farewell to the dahlias as the temperature plumets into the 20's - by far our best dahlia season ever.

And we will miss the huge bumble bees that have been gorging themselves.

But there is always new action on the plantation. Here is a young buck with a really healthy rack

that ambled by in the meadow yesterday. We have been watching them grow ( the buck and the rack).

       Autumn

I saw old Autumn

in the misty morn

Stand shadowless

like silence,

Listening to silence

Thomas Hood

Flower for the Day White Snakeroot 10-27-23

Snakeroot (Ageratina altissimo) has been more than plentiful this fall. It has filled the

partially shady woods.

Although it has a pretty flower it is toxic to mammals. It is most famous

for being the cause of death of Abe Lincoln's mother. She drank milk from

a cow who had eaten the snake root and it did her in. It is more than invasive

but I just leave it alone in the woods.

Flower for the Day Dahlia III

So we have had a banner year for the dahlias which are about to disappear with next weeks frost.

Here is what we do with them.

and we even have them in the comfort room.

           Dahlia

     florid blossom

  adorned in dew drops
    dahlia sunrise

     J White

Flower for the Day Dahlia II 10-23-23

Here are some of the different colors of dahlias that are flourishing in our front garden.

'Nuff said.

Flower for the Day Dahlia I 10-20-23

This has been dahlia year in the garden. Dahlias are in the aster family and the flowers have magnificent color.

Some of my dahlias wintered over and began blooming in late May. As per usual they  do well in the fall and are in  the prime of their bloom right now.  If you do not stake them they flower on the ground. If you do stake them they flower on long erect stems making them available as cut flowers.

The buds and flowers open slowly 

and continue to open over many days which make them fun to follow.

The mature flowers become very large.

Dreamy Petals

   dreamy petals
   in full blossom
   proud dahlia

   

   M.L. Kiser

Flower for the Day Bluestem Goldenrod 10-16-23

Bluestem goldenrod  (Solidago caesia) is the only goldenrod that I love. Its also called wreath goldenrod and woodland goldenrod. It is native to North America. Its identifying features include a dark , wiry stem which turns blue in late maturity and flower heads on the leaf axils instead of in a large array at the top of the plant like other goldenrods.

These tall perennials have sweet nectar. They attract a large number of insects including moths and butterflies which attract insectivorous birds. Later after the flowers are gone the bluestem goldenrod produces hundreds of seeds for the juncos , sparrows  and finches in the fall and winter.

     Goldenrod

  Here they meet

Under whispers of moonlight

  To gather golden stardust

To greet the coming adventure 

  As the magic begins

 Taylor Stone

Flower for the Day Scarlet Sage 10-11-23

Surprisingly this Scarlet Sage (Salvia splendens) came up several weeks ago. It must have been in some wild flower seeds that I put down. I have not see it before.

The flowers  arise erect spikes that sprout from the centre of the plant in groups of 2 to 6 together in each leaf node. they are scarlet and tubular with two lobes towards the apex. Up close it is quite striking.

   A Western Awakening

All my life I wanted to be brave like you. How you never apologize for being what you are. Like scarlet sage and prairie-fire, all it takes is a spark of color to make the dull brittlebush shiver. Did you know what you did to me? How the Earth pulled my jaw to the floor when you spoke. And though I told the truth, I swore you would find me a fraud. I thought you had lied because I could not yet accept my truth.

That night, my heart was strong enough to burst through my chest. It had been revived long enough to strangle the part of my brain that wanted the body to flee. You and her and I. The beautifully-ugly and the disgustingly perfect. What angelic creatures we were: to be dancing and writhing at once.

I had thought I was everything, but that harrowing scythe cut me down too. But I will not disperse with the wind and dust and conform to insignificance. I let myself be refined into that which feeds and nourishes, as the cottage baker composes sleeping wheat to glorious bread. You showed me what I am. I beg you to show me more.

chalk.poems

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