I put the hummingbird feeders away last week because we thought they were all gone for the year. Then, one female hit the cypress vines for 5 more days. I hope she migrated before it was too cold for her. Haven’t seen her since Tuesday.
I love to watch the hummingbirds just hovering for hours
They look like mini helicopters pollinating flowers.
And yet I still feel sorry for the little hummingbirds
They always have to hum because they never learn the words.
(poem by Al Yankovic)
I really love flowers. And I love planting things that come back the next year. It’s kind of a running joke how proud I am to come back from a trip to Lowe’s without bringing another plant with me.
A fond memory of my mother is a tiny garden she planted when I was little. I don’t even remember how old I was. There were marigolds and radishes in a little space beside the driveway. I remember trying to eat the radishes in salad and thinking they tasted like hot dirt. (I still don’t care for them.) And I remember her showing me how the marigolds had made seeds we could save to plant the next year. I’m not sure we actually saw them happen. We may have moved.
I reminded her of that recently and she didn’t remember the marigolds. She said she did remember the radishes and wasn’t sure why she planted them because she never liked the taste.
When I bought this house, I thought “there is no reason for me to have house plants or pots on the deck with this much yard.” Then, Chuck moved in with his small collection of apartment plants and it was Kitty-bar-the-door.
So, there is a yard of grass, all sorts of flowering things, fruit trees and berry bushes. And pots on nearly every flat surface in the house.
I have 4 colors of Xmas cactus! Who needs that? But, I can’t choose one to get rid of because I think they’re all lovely.
Once I started planting fruit trees, I learned that it only takes five to make an orchard. I have 2 grafted Arkansas Black apple trees, 2 peaches I started from seeds, a “self pollinating” pear tree we have never gotten any fruit from and a plum and a sour cherry we think may be dead. Also, we have hazelnuts and blueberries galore.
The blueberries were so prolific this year that Chuck put fresh ones in his morning shake all season, I made 3 pies and we have a gallon in the freezer to make a pie at the solstice. (I made tomato pie for the last 3 years. But, our tomatoes weren’t as enthusiastic this year. It amuses me to make a dish with summer produce at the solstice. My little “bring back the sun” effort.)
A lot of the flowers in my yard are reminders of particular people.
My dad liked the Mexican evening primroses and the crepe myrtles I put in when I bought the house. And he was a fan of bonsai. So, he is in my mind when I work on my trees. My mother’s favorite flower is peonies. (She even had them in her wedding.) My maternal grandmother was fond of irises and always had hollyhocks growing by the pasture fence. My paternal grandmother always planted petunias and loved gardenias.
Chuck asked for chrysanthemums, picked out particular trees and planted the hazelnuts.
My cousin, Missy, sent me a basket that had an African violet in it after I had surgery. So, they always make me think of her even though that one eventually died and I replaced it with a different color.
I got the bat flower because my kid thought I needed it.
A particular friend turned me on to the joys of zinnias. A friend gave me a bear’s breeches, some salvia and a mammoth calla lily. Another friend gave me a dogwood tree. I have a particular iris because I took a stained glass class with a friend and traded with a classmate. A couple of other irises were gifts from particular people and those friends always come to mind when the flowers bloom. Another friend grows tea. The yucca and 2 irises were gifts from a coworker. Lavender puts me in mind of an old boyfriend and a German woman I met online. The black elephant ear was a gift and reminds me of the road trip to her house and the people who were gathered there. Hellebores came in when a beekeeper was clearing out his paths from volunteers that were creeping out of the bed he has.
All that to say that it isn’t just a yard and stuff in pots. It’s memories.
Lilies. HA!
About 15 years ago, a friend gave me some red Lycoris bulbs. They are commonly called resurrection, mystery, spider or magic lilies. This is because they do a trick. The leaves come up in the Spring and die back in the Summer. Then, in the Fall, they bloom. Stalks just pop up out of nothing and open a cluster of bright flowers.
They didn’t do much at the end of the walkway from the deck to the driveway. But, they didn’t die either. I don’t know if they were crowded by the mint or St. John’s wort (which has since died) or if they just had soil they didn’t like. Whatever the reason, they did not thrive. Some years not even blooming at all.
In September of 2017, we were staying in New Bern and popped over to Kinston for the day. Resurrection lilies were blooming everywhere. Chuck was amazed by the flowers just springing up out of lawns and I had never seen them so prolific.
When we got home, mine were blooming. So, I knew where to find the bulbs to move them. And I put some in the front bed by the road and some in the ring bed in the back. They seem to be doing pretty well. Slowly spreading and blooming regularly.
This morning, Chuck went out to water the fall greens and, when he came back in, he said “I think there’s a resurrection lily coming up in the yard. I don’t know what else it could be.”
I looked for it and didn’t see it.
I walked around, pulled a little grass from the beds, took pictures and missed it completely. So, he came out to show me.
That’s definitely what it is. We have no clue how it got to the other side of the yard from the driveway and that far away from either of the flower beds.
All we can figure is that all flowers make some kind of seeds and that a bird planted that one. Or else, I dropped a tiny piece of root when I was carrying bulbs around 4 years ago and it took this long to grow into an actual flower.
Either way, if it’s that determined, I’m not moving it.
I finally googled “jingle dance history” this morning. I have seen the dance at powwows and and it’s a lovely thing.
My great aunt famously stood on the stairs of her sister’s house when a party went on too long and said “Come on, Bill. Let’s you and I go to bed so these nice people can go home.”
Lena and her sister, Della, were best friends and absolute characters. Bill was Della’s husband and Lena was leaving her sister to lock up since the party was at their house.
Later, after Bill died, Della moved in with Lena and her husband until her dementia required moving her to a care facility. She stayed gracious and entertaining, even though her short term memory crumbled away.
Lena was a competitive bridge player and was packed to go to a tournament when she simply did not wake up one morning.
I am the Audience 