I put 3 water lilies in 2 pots when I started this water garden 2 years ago. It looks like all 3 have made it through another winter.
I think I’ve named these correctly. These are the names I recorded of the plants I bought.
I am not allowed to take care of our cacti. I was allowed to put the little flowering one in its new pot. But, now, I am only allowed to admire them from afar. Chuck picked out the other one for himself and has dared me to touch it.
That dry soil drives me batshit. I want to water it soooo bad!!!
It makes my hands itch.
But, they thrive as Chuck ignores them.
And he keeps an eye on me when he sees me walking around the house with my watering pitcher.
I visited my youngest sister a few weeks ago. Her son showed me a cactus he had that was very small and blooming profusely. I told him I’d like a piece of it, thinking he could get it for me sometime when he repotted it. Instead, he dug out a little chunk and stuck it in a peat pot he had handy.
It has survived its transplanting and has even grown its first flower. I am delighted.
Edit to add:
I took those pictures too soon. It wasn’t fully open.
Meg calls them “pink buds” because there are pink when they open. But, when they’re still closed, they are darker.
When I first got a close look at an Eastern redbud, I was quite surprised. The blossoms grow out of the bark and they look like bean flowers. And I learned that they are, indeed, a tree related to beans.
In 2014, the City of Burlington took out a swathe of crepe myrtles that had been planted in the medians of West Davis Street. I don’t remember if they were damaging the pavement, causing problems with utility lines growing above them, or had just been severely damaged by weather (hurricane or arctic blast, we get both sometimes). for whatever reason, they were cut down and the roots pulled up.
But, that’s a moneyed part of town. Mill owners built those houses. So, those medians had to be re-beautified. And rather than putting in crepe myrtles to eventually have the same problem, the City planted ‘Rising Sun’ redbuds. I know this because I stopped my car and got one of the tags that were still on them and I went shopping and bought one.
Notice how it’s a little pink on the leaves? When not overshadowed by the flowers everywhere, the really new leaves are pinkish and they mature through yellow to green. It can look like the tree has flowers at the ends of the branches.
Some years, the amazing leaf color change is really fast. A couple of times it has lingered so that the name makes sense. I hope I can show it to you in a month or so. It appears that I have not taken a picture in all its glory.
I am the Audience 