The Beanstalk Has Blossomed

The lovely hyacinth bean vine is presenting her beautiful purple flowers (I use purple in a general sense to cover all versions of the color). I’ll have to sit on my hands to keep from “deadheading” these flowers (cutting off spent flowers to keep a plant blooming). I’ll have to remind myself that beautiful glossy purple bean pods and eventually artistic black and white seeds follow these flowers.

In one of my earliest gardening attempts, my parents let me plant English pea seeds in their front planter box. They came up nicely and bloomed. I had read about deadheading in my garden books—my first book club books were gardening books, so I dutifully deadheaded my pea flowers against my parents’ warnings. I unfortunately didn’t make the distinction between decorative flowers and flowers that “produce fruit”. I never did get any peas on that round. (I think there’s a parable in there somewhere. When I find it, I’ll let you know—or if you find it, you can let me know.)

A ladybug has made her way to my garden. May her tribe increase. The hummingbird darted in this morning for a visit while I was sitting in the garden. He or she briefly investigated the hyacinth vine flowers, flitted over the rest and darted away. The garden likes the cooler weather; yesterday the temperature only reached 73 degrees. As a result, more plants are blossoming, the four o’clocks were still blooming at 9 o’clock am and crickets are singing.