From Instagram
From Instagram
Category Archives: flowers
Excellent Succulents
Lunchtime. Here’s a brief report on my garden activity this morning. It’s all about the succulents. Or the succulence. Take your pick. I’ve been meaning to plant these out for almost a year, I sheepishly admit…
…and also it was time to transplant the large aloe to a more suitable pot.
[…] Click to continue reading this post
Green
Orange
It always surprises me how delightful the strong scent from these blossoms can be. […] Click to continue reading this post
Seeds!
Time to begin a round of planting. It is 7:30am, and I’ve had my morning cup of tea, […] Click to continue reading this post
White and Green
The camellia bush is happy again this year, putting out lots of smiling faces.
Fast Visitor
I thought I’d share with you a little video of one of my favourite visitors to the garden! These hummingbirds love Mexican sage (salvia leucantha). I grow quite a bit of it, and they flock to it when it starts blooming in the Fall. As I said over a year ago in talking about the sage and the birds, in a post “Soon They Will Come”: […] Click to continue reading this post
They’re Back!
Wow! Almost to the day (see last year’s post), they have returned, perhaps stronger than ever! I had two big waves of them this year, one about ten days to a fortnight ago, and another new one starting a couple of days ago. Here’s one:
Flower from my San Pedro cactus (trichocereus pachanoi). (Click for larger view.)
I love these flowers dearly for many reasons. First and foremost, they are beautiful, but there’s an additional enhancement of my love brought about by their short-lived nature. They’ll appear all of a sudden, somewhat unexpectedly, and last just one day […] Click to continue reading this post
Saturday Calm
Well, another super-busy week has gone by. Work has been crazy, life has been crazy, and so forth. It is so good to be able to sit here for a while on a sunny Saturday morning and reflect. I thought I’d take you with me on some of the reflections.
The Nobel prizes seemed to come up so much faster this year, and go by even more quickly. I’ve not had as much time to contemplate them as I’d have liked. It was certainly really good to see that the physics one was a celebration of some of the key ideas in my field (see here), of course, but I’d have liked to have had more chatter about all of them, as I usually try to do. It is good to learn more about other things – get out of one’s comfort zone. Two years ago while I was departmental colloquium organizer, I set aside one date to be a colloquium where the three science prizes were highlighted – “Who, What, Why?” There’s always going to be local faculty who can […] Click to continue reading this post
Glory
The battle is in full swing, and it is a rather glorious one indeed. What battle? Well, I deployed some ground troops of legendary tenacity to do battle with some ground cover of relentless ivy. I don’t like the ivy much. Since it keeps coming back, and since there is no end to its inventiveness at returning and spreading, I decided to try a different tactic that I knew would have certain other benefits. Deploy the Morning Glory.
I remember my first true appreciation of the powers of morning glories. I was an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky living in a nice cabin with a nice bit of back garden, not far from campus, in Lexington. I’d spend my Summers in New York back in those days. One late spring I planted some morning glory seeds, and watched the little plants that resulted struggle through the dirt and face the sky. Then I was away for the Summer, on my usual (for the time) retreat to the excellent Morningside Heights neighbourhood, the whole of Manhattan my office.
Upon returning to Lexington, finding everything still in the clutches of the humidity that reigns supreme at that time of year, ready to begin teaching in the new […] Click to continue reading this post
Pink Legs
I love the shape of this flower. (Click for larger view.) I don’t know what it is called, but it is morphologically very similar to a Columbine.
The colour is different and it does not seem to open up as much, but I bet they’re cousins. This is also confirmed by a similarity in leaf shape.
I’ve been spotting them occasionally up at around 10,000 ft and above in these Aspen surrounds, in very small quantities.
Somehow their relative rarity (at least here and now) makes them more alluring to me.
Delicate Star
Dandelion seeds just outside my door. (Click for larger view.) […] Click to continue reading this post
Yellow Lamps
I don’t know what they’re called [update: glacier lillies*], but they were so lovely, I thought I’d share:
They look a lot like little street lamps, if you look closely, having a lovely curve to […] Click to continue reading this post
Tassels
Tassels or Fronds? Can’t decide, but I that know the former is probably the better choice. Either way…
Purple Grand Opening
I’m repeating myself, I’ve noticed, but it’s ok. Turns out that after I decided today that it was time to post a photo of this lovely flower (click for larger view), I noticed that I’d done exactly the same thing last year, on the same day. It’s the first of the buddleia (budlea) flowers to bloom in the garden, and it’s always a welcome sight. It takes a […] Click to continue reading this post
