Storms of Flowers
Amidst the storms in our skies – there are flowers in the garden.
When I as young and had about the same amount of time for the flower garden as I do now, I used to plant piles of annuals that grew from seed. Riots of cool colors and white blooms.
In New Zealand my borders were legendary, wide and full and tiered.
Now when I walk my big American flower garden beds, I realise that my gardens have drifted into collections of flowering trees and bushes. The magnolias, and lilacs and hydrangeas, flowering pears and native apples and plums. Underbellies of lilies and softer ground covers.
Each year my borders here on the prairies start to resemble jungles more than country borders. I think the vast prairies have influenced these unconscious decisions.
Because there is just so much sky, and the eye drifts unimpeded; my Self needs more foliage and more strength to the plants to kind of anchor my bobbing balloon self in the summer. Annual flowers seem too flippant.
Have you noticed that in the winter when all the trees lose their leaves and the gardens go dormant and the house is once more exposed to the elements and eyes, my little balloon self bobs away from home. The trees anchor me.
Today I am digging up all the daffodils, many did not bloom this year, they need dividing. It is the wrong time of year to dig up bulbs but I was never one for rules. More for time. It is overcast and wet – they will be ok. I will cover the rows for wind protection. I will dig them and carefully divide them then line them up in one of my vegetable gardens. Like a picking garden but only daffodils. The trees and bushes have over-grown them, they need sun and fertiliser.
And it is Saturday – so after chores I can work on my jungle beds – like a little holiday.
Yesterday everyone had a good day. The first batch of meat chicks arrived and are ensconced in the turkey house with their warm table mamas. They are nice healthy birds. Alex was working on the chicken tractor, doing the maintenance that will keep it moving across the fields for another few years.
It was warm – we had sun and only one of the promised showers. It will be windy today and even warmer.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
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Weather
Saturday 04/15 10% / 0 inWindy with sunshine. High around 80F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph.
Saturday Night 04/1550% / 0.07 inPartly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
34 Comments on “Storms of Flowers”
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thekitchensgarden 
most beautiful pictures Celi, but the sky does not look blue and clear it looks more like a thunderstorm about to let loose its rage….
Yes you do flit off in the winter months, much like the plants and flowers that hibernate but also like them you pop up every year refreshed and beautiful
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2017 at 2:37 PM
Not blue and clear – that’s for sure..
The trees bursting into flower bring forth smiles and happiness, that’s for sure! 🙂
They do! I love flowering trees..
I garden in Zone 7, in the suburbs outside DC, but I regularly lift and relocate daffodils when they are blooming, so I can see what they will look like later, with no problems — they sail right on, as long as you allow the foliage to live its full life in the new location. This does not work for tulips, however; those I lift when their foliage has completely faded, and I may store them in pots under the porch for the summer, since they really want to be completely dry when dormant. I am thinning my daffs now; would you like some?
Thank you! That makes me feel better and YES! If you are thinning daffs i would love some – that is so kind of you – lets switch to email -if you don’t have it, mine is celima.g.7@gmail.com.
Those clouds look threatening and too close to the ground ….the magnolias are grand, I hope they survive this weekends windy storms. Laura
I think these will be the best pictures we will get – already there are petals on the ground – c
Beautiful. I love nature’s fierce contrasts, don’t you? Flowers under ferocious skies.
Yes – the bright against the dark – times endless battle (though battle is not the word I am looking for – I need coffee then i wil think of the right word.. c
“Refashionings ” if time is concerned about appearances
“Recalibrations,” if time is an engineer.
“Revamping,s” if time is run like a business
“Refornations,” If time is a priest
“Mutations” if a scientist
“Revisions, ” if a poet
“Changes,” If time is like the rest of us.
Quite brilliant, Albert..
I plant daffodils in pasture fields, along fences
or on the hillside where its too steep to mow
cows won’t eat them. makes for a bright, unexpected spot of color
What an excellent idea – on the big sheep stations in NZ – the home paddock out the front of the house almost always had daffs – the sheep would not eat them either.. c
This is the first year I have thought of growing anything but food in our garden spot. I’m sure it’s because it has been such a long winter. My white weary eyes are longing for color of any sort. So we have lots of flower starts in the basement garden~ just waiting for true spring. My daughter is delighted! She is a color fiend.
I have never seen any color of magnolia but white. Even living in the south for almost my whole life I’ve never seen any other magnolia but white. Now here I am discovering that these lovely trees grow all sorts of other colors! Amazing!
Happy East C
what a lot of wind turbines you have along the horizon
tempestuous skies…glorious flowering bushes! Now you have a lovely day!
I love how you are aware of your need of more substantial and grounding plantings to hold you in place. What a beautiful read this was. I often wondered why I gravitated to shrubs rather than flowers and now I understand. As another gypsy, the anchoring seems to help. Your skies are incredible if not scary. Glad you have the chicken tractor again in good repair. Have a lovely weekend yourself.
What awe-inspiring storm clouds, almost solid, and so dark. The blossom looks wonderful against it. I’m wondering if your garden needs some assertive flowers, like peonies, hollyhocks, delphiniums, stocks, agapanthus, and so on. Things that will grow happily left alone, but have wonderful flowers and big presence…
Lovely and poetic prose today, my friend. I welcome the beauty and intense power of storms, and the same of flowers – both lovely and invasive. I think it is what I love of nature… the wild and untamed of it all. And perhaps that is what we are too…
Great photos
My friend bought jonquils at Trader Joe’s and was told not to put any other flowers in the same vase, as jonquils will kill other flowers. Is this true?
No, I don’t think that is right – we should ask a florist – c
Gorgeous photos as always 🙂
I love storms! The bigger the better.
same!!
With skies like that, who needs flowers? 😉
And I look at the beautiful magnolias and away from any storm clouds . . . have a happy Easter Sunday, you and yours . . .
What a gorgeous selection of photos. x
You can always tell where the old old farm houses stood because of the trees and dense bushes are still there lined up in a rectangle. Planted for protection from wind and blown dirt as well as shade in the summer. Somehow the plants were/are like sheltering arms hugging the vulnerable human pets. And near where the porch are remnants of daffodils and hardy flowers planted for a bright spot by some wife.
Sometimes plants, like people need to move on to a new spot to flourish. Once planted in the best place, they will bloom excellently even if everyone said they won’t.
Cheers Ci. You are a true farmer of life, plants, animals and humans. 🙂
You’re so right. In my part of South Western Ontario, you can tell where the old farmhouses were by the lilac trees (long ago gone rogue) and where the lanes and driveways were by looking for the day lilies. The common day lily – usually a lovely orange – was the simplest thing to plant, hardy to cold winters, resistant to drought and disease, self spreading, and gave blooms for perhaps two weeks, one per stem per day. Not for picking, they were just a lovely spot of colour that could be depended on.
I do enjoy the hybrids that have come along, but I have to admit to a fondness for the simple old-fashioned “farm” day lily.
Chris S in Canada
Beautiful images Celi .. good luck with those bulbs 😃
Your storm cloud views are fantastic – they remind me of when I used to live in Oklahoma. Lots of sky!