Bad Air Day

With an ozone alert today I couldn’t spend much time gardening but I could bring in some cut flowers for a little bouquet. The purple asters that came in a bouquet I bought at a gourmet grocery had to leave their main stem behind when I changed their water today. Changing flower water daily extends the life of flowers and prevents “bad air” indoors. So to the relocated asters, I added one of my “Becky” rudbeckia flowers, a stem of magenta and white Sweet Williams and some swirling, trailing lettuce flowers. For “greenery” I added some ferny yarrow leaves, leaves from a deep magenta shade plant whose name I didn’t catch and flat-leaved parsley. Oh yes, I cut a peppermint bloom to add to the mix. Using all kinds of things from the garden makes a bouquet more interesting.

Their Own Space

The more I garden, the more interesting “new” things I see. I’ve grown “baby lettuce leaves” before but this is the first time they’ve flowered though I had heard of lettuce “bolting” or going to seed. Since seeding isn’t what I want from my lettuce, I cut the white flowers’ long stems and gathered them with a few other cut flowers from my garden in my favorite yellow-green glass vase. When I worked in flower shops I learned that each flower should have its own space-- “light and airy,” we called it. The wayward, curving stems certainly have found their own space!

Season’s First

These long-stemmed Sweet Williams make up my first garden bouquet of the season with flat-leaved parsley leaves for a fresh fern-like backdrop.

After weeks of record-high temperatures—even into the eighties, it’s suddenly cold again. Though the heat is switched off for the season, it’s warmer inside at night than it is outside so I’ve hauled the newer plants back in. Hopefully the frosty nights won’t last.

Saving Seeds

The hyacinth bean vine and the four o’clocks have produced mature seeds for the harvesting. They can be planted next year for a new crop; until then, they, and the remaining ones can be saved for several years in a cool, dry place. Glassine envelopes are often recommended but I’ve noticed that many seed companies are packaging their seeds in resealable foil packs so I’m saving foil-lined tea bag packages. I once met the guy who invented foil-lined packaging—thanks Mr. B!

Saving seeds of old varieties has become an important endeavor as hybrids are quickly replacing them. Hybrids can only be grown from patented seeds that you buy from the grower. While hybrids will often produce seeds in your home garden and even grow, the plant will revert to one of its parents rather than the beautiful hybrid that you bought. Sometimes that’s good but it’s not usually what you’re looking for. When we lived in New England, we learned what a problem this is for farmers. They can no longer save seed from their harvest to plant for next year’s crop—they have to spend a lot of money to buy more seed.

I enjoy hybrid flowers but many hybrid flowers and vegetables are “designed” for a particular market such as tough-skinned tomatoes that can withstand long-distance trucking and a long shelf-life in stores, but are fairly tasteless—that’s why home-grown tomatoes taste so much better. While roses aren’t generally grown from seed, they’re an illustration of contrast between the old varieties and those grown “for the market”. The voluptuous old-fashioned “cabbage roses” with their full-blown petals and heady fragrance are unmatched in their style of beauty but they could never stand up to the rigors of the floral industry. The closely-wrapped petals and long, sturdy stems of the American Beauty–type rose are better suited to last for their trip from the greenhouse to the wholesaler to the florist to your home but lack much fragrance (you can make them last longer still by changing their water every day and recutting the stems at an angle). It’s a trade-off but our planet would suffer loss if the only plants cultivated were those of market convenience.

Besides, it’s fun to share seed with other gardeners. My friend R. gave me hyacinth bean vine seeds from her garden.

The Last Flowers of Summer?

Perhaps this is the last arrangement of my garden “flowers” for the season. The Victoria Blue Salvia is more intensely blue violet with the cold weather and the Parrot Leaf is as bright as ever, not seeming to mind the cold one bit (yet). When I uncovered them this morning I was struck by the intensity of their colors and knew that a cobalt blue “vase” would magnify that intensity. Why not bring some in before they were gone since both “flowers” were plentiful? (When I was younger, it seemed that all the “older” women referred to everything in a garden that wasn’t vegetable or tree as “flowers”).

I spent several years in the floral industry but I still like my grandmother’s flower arranging style, “They need to look natural like they do when they’re growing.” She was ahead of her time. ☺

In the garden I saw two bright red male cardinals vying for territory and, probably, a mate. I can’t remember when I last saw cardinals around here.

Reason to Smile

The return of the sun isn’t the only reason I’m smiling—even laughing today. I’m moving quickly through my gardening and other activities today because I want to spend the bulk of the day reading the Bible and praying about the next step or layer in the revival the Lord has sent me. The fire hasn’t gone out—the embers are still glowing and sparking back into flame. Now that I know deep down in my spirit how marvelous and complete Jesus’ payment of the penalty for my (and your) sins is, I want to get the same level of understanding of how God wants his people to live here on earth. Salvation absolutely affects life on earth but is more about getting to heaven. I need to fully grasp the here and now as a follower of Jesus. Since love is the major command of Jesus and the reason he came, the next step is to really learn about God’s love and have it overflow to others.

Today in my gardening, I replaced ragged-looking cuttings of sweet potato vines with fresh yellow green ones and purple ones, planting the worn ones in a pot where they can cascade over the front landing. In the process of transplanting the cuttings, a purple mum branch (not blooming) and a yellow, green and red coleus branch broke off; I’m not sure why the branches are so brittle. It was however, time to refresh my flower arrangement. I added the broken branches, trimmed the other stems and poured fresh water. Since mums have woody stems, I had to lightly pound the end of the stem with a hammer so it can take in water. I was pleased to find that the Parrot Leaf had rooted, though nothing else had; it now has a new home in a front planter where its roaming tendencies can be admired. I had been looking for something colorful in that spot—I love it when I can fill a “need” with something I already have. (I also have a site on stretching money: http://www.stretchednotbroken.blogspot.com ).

See you later, I have more “blooming again” (reviving) to do! (I’d love to hear from you at leafyjournal@yahoo.com if you’re starting to “bloom again!”)

When Life Breaks Things

When life gives you broken stems—make a flower arrangement! Two of the Angel Face Angelonia stems were hanging at an angle, broken by the weight of the sheet that kept them warm.

I snipped the flowerful branches and put them in a vase with a tall, narrow neck. I added the smallest branch of Persian Shield and the straightest Parrot Leaf I could find. When I take cuttings, I always try to leave at least one set of nodes (growth joints) behind so the remaining stem will branch out (grow again or “revive”).

I needed a third flower to complete the arrangement since design, whether floral or art calls for an uneven number. The deep pink Penta’s color seems to be made for the Parrot Leaf’s beautifully “painted” leaves (a member of the Joseph’s Coat family), so I gave the star clusters the starring role. I stripped the Penta’s leaves before adding it to the arrangement, or they would have hidden the more colorful ones.

Much of art these days is made of things not often thought of as art, broken things, cast aside things. But this isn’t just modern art; in past centuries--even millennia as they are today, many artists’ pigments are made from soil/dirt. Pigments such as burnt sienna and burnt umber are made from baked dirt. We artists use what’s around us--granted, we have to pay a lot for art materials companies to process them, but we make something beautiful out of the ordinary, even the broken. God, the ultimate Artist does the same with people giving us—when we turn to him through Jesus, the most wondrous beauty, a reflection of his glory.

A Change in the Air

Today is one of those “golden” days when the temperature is cooler and a light breeze stirs. The slant of the sun has changed ever so slightly and sunset paints its colors half an hour earlier. I could stay in the garden all day in this weather, especially if I had a computer that could operate outdoors!

And it’s a good thing since Monday always calls for extra attention to the garden after a weekend of only hurried watering. There are dead leaves to trim and spent flowers to deadhead, vines to reroute. Often, as today, I have weekend plant purchases to repot; the garden centers’ small flimsy plastic pots cause the plants to dry out too quickly in my setting.

Happily, I finally found one of my all-time favorites, peppermint. I’ve been searching all season but all were either gangly or too expensive or both. Now, I finally have a nicely branching plant at a good price but after its sojourn in the dimly-lit parking garage entrance to Trader Joe’s, it’s stretching for every bit of sun it can get. To keep it branching, I think I need to make some tea. I grew up in “ice-tea” country and often enjoyed a sprig of mint in a tall glass but a brief trip to North Africa intrigued me with hot mint tea. Either way, I enjoy it’s fragrance as I brush against it so I put it within easy reach My iced tea sprigs often do double duty; when the tea is gone I often put the mint in a flower arrangement where it then roots and can later be planted—the ultimate “reuse”.

This particular peppermint plant doesn’t have a variety name but last year’s Kentucky Colonel Mint of “mint julep” fame proved too strong a flavor for my tastes, so I passed that one by.

I’ve seen no sign of the “giant” grasshopper since I last sent him flying. The birds like the weather too!