Category Archives: Flowers

Apple Bouquet

Posted by Lesley on October 9, 2011 None comments

We celebrated my sister’s birthday tonight; and about an hour before dinner, I was feeling inspired.  Over the summer, I saw a magazine article that featured a watermelon centerpiece.  The melon was cut in half and again on the bottom, so it stood straight up.  Gerber daisies were stuck into the pink flesh.  The fluid and sugar in the watermelon feed the daisies to keep the arrangement fresh.

Ubermommy’s gift was Linda Watson’s book, Wildly Affordable Organic.  But when there’s a chance to bring flowers, I do.  So what better vase to accompany that particular book than an organic apple?  I thought it might require some fiddling or possibly carving but not so if you have a skewer on hand.  Poke some holes, and the stems will slide right in.  Then pop it in the fridge until you need it.  Easy, quick, fun, quirky – to all my friends, there are apple bouquets in your future.

5-minute Craft Project: Porterweed Wreath

Posted by Lesley on September 27, 2011 1 comments

Life gets busy, but it should never be so busy that you can’t stop for five minutes to make something look pretty.  It just feels good.  Today after work, I combined my two loves-gardening and crafts-to make our front door a little more appealing. The grapevine wreath was in the closet completely bare, and the porterweed had once again tripled in size.  That girl needed a haircut.  Porterweed plants bloom in spikes.  Tiny purple flowers open in a cluster along tall textured stems.  The rope-like stems are easy to weave in and out of the grapevine, and the only other step is to hang it.  Even as the flowers dry, the wreath still looks nice.  But even if it only lasts until morning, who cares?  It only took five minutes to put together.      

Orchid on a String

Posted by Lesley on August 25, 2011 None comments

More aftermath from the Great Grapefruit Massacre of 2010…

When the grapefruit tree was full and lush, out of season the spiders would move in and create a hammock of webs along the bottom branches.  Spiders eat wasps, and they never interfered with the grapefruit harvest, so I learned to duck when mowing under the tree and left them alone.  But this year I feared strangulation by spider strings as the webs began to envelop my orchid.  The orchid didn’t bat a bloom.  It started budding in the beginning of the month and is now in full bloom with its blossoms strung up marionette-style.

The orchid’s brilliant blooms in the midst of an overbearing web reminds me again of a quote my sister recently texted me:

The peacock eats poison and that’s what makes the color of its tail so brilliant…the poison becomes the source of much beauty and joy. -Pema Chodron

The orchid without the spider last year was about to plummet out of its lopsided pot, but this year the orchid was lifted up by the creepy, sticky, usually unwanted strings of the spider’s web.Imagine me as a porcupine voodoo doll, trade the quills for poison pins.  But inspired by the beauty of the peacock and the orchid, I’ll keep on blooming with tolerance and joy.  Wonder Woman was my hero in childhood; Pema Chodron is my hero in adulthood.

Porterweed: The Drama Queen of the Garden

Posted by Lesley on July 26, 2011 2 comments

When we planted our butterfly garden, part of the installation was one pretty little blue Porterweed plant.

Less than a year later, and the once petite plant is now a Medusa taking over the patio.

I think it ate the Button sage that was to its right, and the Cassia tree looked to be next.  The flowery snakes were starting to slither up through the tree’s branches.

It was tolerable because the blue spikes were so striking.  But then the rain came, and its as if the big, blue diva had a tantrum.  Almost every flower was dropped to the bricks overnight.

So even though it scratched my skin like a dry loofah to do it, it had to be done – the Porterweed was lopped into manageability.  Porterweed is in the Nettle family, aka stinging nettle.  The leaves are covered in stubble – fine, itchy, little hairs. 

I love anything that’s flowered and anything that’s blue (ask my sister and she’ll gladly tell you about my affinity for Smurfs – can’t wait to take D to see the new movie) but the Porterweed is about to be banished to the only place suited for a Medusa – the corner. 

It’s not all bad; this will actually solve three problems at once:  One, the Porterweed will have plenty of room to spread out.  Two, I’ll never have to touch it again because, Three, it needs to grow tall enough to hide that darn fence board that keeps coming undone. 

:)

Legacy Trail is for Fairies

Posted by Lesley on July 7, 2011 None comments

So here’s what I did for myself today – took an hour out of the morning to bike a new leg of Legacy Trail with John and Cooper.  The weather was overcast with a constant sprinkle, just enough to stave off the heat but not so much to get soaked.  This may seem strange to a Northerner, but it was nicer than any average sunny July day in Sarasota.  And we spotted tons of birds along the way – herons, egrets, cardinals, and cranes.   

This leg lost some of its appeal with our first failed attempt a few years ago, and we hadn’t been back until today.  It really doesn’t matter how many wheels, if I’m on them, some sort of accident is looming.  The parking for this trail head is at the YMCA on Central Sarasota Parkway, but you have to travel the surrounding roads and trails to actually get to Legacy Trail.  The pictures above were taken on the Stoneybrook Nature Trail that connects to the trail head.

But John and I didn’t know all that the first time we went and ended up riding around on the trails behind the Y looking for it.  It’s pleasant back there.  We were riding side-by-side, chatting the whole way until my entire head was enveloped by a patch of hanging vines.  They caught my face like a triple-looped lasso.  Two snapped across my nose and one under my eye.  The latter did some damage.  John kept telling me I looked fine, but he was especially unconvincing when I kept waiving my index finger around my right eye saying, “It really hurts right here…are you sure it looks okay?”  We headed back to the car and it absolutely did not look okay.  The vine rubbed off the skin on my lower eye lid, so it looked like I had a black eye for a week.  We got a good laugh but headed home without ever actually making it to the trail.        

This trip was much less painful and a little more mysterious. We spotted a flower with holes. Google won’t even help me out with this one.

The flower looks like it belongs to the Morning Glory family.  Railroad vine falls under this category, which would be fitting since Legacy Trail is a rails to trails effort.  But the holes don’t match up with any plants or pictures I’ve seen, and they look too perfect to be the result of a hungry bug.  Combining my recent magical thinking with the preciseness of each duo of holes, today’s item-of-the-day-worth-noticing is a fairy’s flower version of a paper snowflake.      

Rediscovering the Garden

Posted by Lesley on July 6, 2011 2 comments

My life has become a hectic soap opera version of Freaky Friday lately.  Those of you who know me will laugh and agree.  Those of you who don’t, I welcome your suppositions in the comments section.  Here’s a little tidbit to clarify the Freaky Friday reference…John and I have switched roles Monday through Friday.  While I’m now working out of the office full-time plus; John is working from home and taking on more of a domestic role.  We’re still in the adjustment period…

Oh well, that was last week.  This week, even if it is half over, I’m going to focus on the plants that are still alive.  I’m going to step over the heaping pile of laundry with a smile.  And thanks to what I’ve learned over the past few weeks, I’ll grab a jar when all the glasses and mugs are dirty in the sink.  

So every day for the rest of the week, I’m also going to take at least five minutes to step away from it all to take notice of all the little things around me that in a more peaceful time I would never miss…like how the recent summer rain showers have rejuvenated the Blue Daze in my favorite recycled planter. 

It’s an old rusted out watering can that had to be Gooped back together.  John drilled holes in the bottom a couple years ago, and I’ve only switched out the flowers once.  My first choice was purple Daisies, but they weren’t a good fit.  Blue Daze works better because it’s a hardier plant and the branches fall over the edges making the watering can appear less dull and rusted than it actually is.       

Blue Daze is more formerly known as Evolvulus glomeratus.  Native to Brazil and Paraguay, this plant is perfect for hot, sandy South Florida gardens.  It’s best used as a ground cover or in containers.  

The Power of Pentas

Posted by Lesley on June 14, 2011 2 comments

It could be the bright red color or the stars filled with nectar, maybe it’s the landing pad that’s created from all those little stars.  Most likely it’s the combination of all three that make Pentas the most sought after flower in my garden.  Butterflies can’t keep their proboscises out of them.

I love them because even in the heat of summer when all the other leaves and petals are curling inside themselves to escape the sun, pentas are still perky.  And any flower that is a friend of a butterfly’s is a friend of mine.  The bees like them too.

Pentas are perennials in Florida but annuals in other parts of the country.  They’ll grow up to 4-feet tall, a fact that eluded me until I planted two in full sun.  They dwarf their shaded counterparts.  Ideal growing conditions for pentas are under full sun in moist, well-drained soil. 

Plant Shopping Locally vs. Walmart

Posted by Lesley on June 7, 2011 None comments

The scent of Star Jasmine left the garden a few weeks ago, which makes me very sad.  The fragrance is so potent that two small climbers blanket every inch of the garden, and you don’t have to tickle your nose with petals to take it in either.  The minute the back door opens, the smell strikes. 

Now, a little over a month after the full-blown bloom of the Jasmine vines, there is a regular Star Jasmine plant blooming in the corner, completely scentless.  WTF?  It’s a cheeseburger with no cheese.  So now guess where I bought this particular plant – Walmart, of course.  They get me every time with their bargains.  I bought that one and a Gardenia at two for ten dollars.  The Gardenia is also big, beautiful and scentless.

Above is a five-dollar bell pepper plant bought from a vendor at King Family Farm and Market.  She owns and operates a local nursery nearby and grows for our gardening zone.  There are peppers ripening every day and more just starting to grow.  The peppers alone would cost more than five dollars at the grocery store without a plant attached. 

A plant should be healthy not root-bound.  They should smell good if they’re supposed to and be grown for local conditions not mass markets.  The next time I’m in Walmart, I’ll try to exercise some constraint and avoid the Garden Center.  Here’s a list of my favorite local plant sources in Sarasota and Manatee Counties:

The Loveliness of Laziness

Posted by Lesley on May 10, 2011 1 comments

Beyond our picnic at Ken Thompson Park on Saturday, our weekend was mainly filled with movies and naps.  It was wonderful…until Monday.  Because then, all the things that should have been done over the weekend were glaring at me – the knee-high grass especially.  So I complained to John last night, dusting off a vague recollection of him saying he would mow the grass last week, and woke up to this.

Maybe I should thank him for my 30+ stem bouquet.

Some Things Never Change

Posted by Lesley on May 5, 2011 None comments

The ground is bursting with rain lilies, and the air is thick with love bugs.  Summer is around the corner; those are the signs.  Plants, insects, animals, they, we are all so predictable. 

He’s feeling better, but my father is in the hospital right now.  And although his heart rate is currently unpredictable, he is normally one of the more predictable characters in my life.  Like a cardinal is red, my father’s feathers are blue and khaki.  Every single day he wears a blue shirt, khaki pants or shorts, and work boots.  He wore a gray shirt one Christmas Eve, and I’ll never forget it because I may never see it again.  When I asked about the shirt, he rolled his eyes and told me my step-mother made him wear it.  Thank God his hospital gown is blue.  There must be at least a little comfort in that for him…that and his boots.  He’s allowed to keep those on.