I have moved

I have moved the Friday Flowers blog to http://www.sherreetales.com/.  Enjoy the new and improved site!

When it rains, it pours

Friday Flowers have not disappeared, nor have I. However, I have been very busy in the creative department. I even took a week off from work so I could devote my full attention to expanding and refining my use of creative tools. I am learning a new web site management program and in the process of doing that I needed to finish another Sherree Tale so I would have something to post. But to finish the Tale I had to illustrate it, and to illustrate it I had to work around my deadly fear of spiders (since the new tale is called "The Spiders"). I know a lot of people are afraid of spiders, but my fear is so severe that I will leave a house rather than share space with one...my fear is so great that I cannot even kill them...it is so paralyzing that I certainly cannot draw spiders! That created quite a pickle for me. So I changed my focus and decided to draw spider webs instead. After all, the tale is about two spiders who create unusual webs. The irony is I was unable to draw creative webs even though I could create spiders who could create creative webs. So I did what anyone in 2011 would do; I Googled webs. That was a good start, but they were still pictures of regular spider webs. So I Googled other web-like things and hit the jackpot. The problem was these were not my photos, but they did give me an idea of how to make web-like pictures.

What has any of this got to do with Friday Flowers? Well, the flower project started because I wanted to share my gardens with people in the hopes they would receive as much joy from them as I do. I didn't know how to do that until I got an iPhone that takes really good pictures and is always in my pocket when I am working in the garden. I started taking pictures, writing little captions and emailing them to my friends and colleagues. I had to learn a bunch of new skills in order to do this (like manipulating photos, posting in a blog, setting up a mailing list, etc).



And what does any of the above have to do with illustrating spider webs? Everything! With my trusty iPhone, I started taking close up pictures of anything around my house or gardens that looked remotely web-like. I then uploaded those to my computer and messed around with the color, shape, tone, etc. until I had pictures that any creative, web weaving, spider would be proud of. I even made 8x10 glossies of the morphed photos and started framing them.



Anyway, that's why I've missed a couple of weeks of Friday Flowers...I've been growing!



Oh, this week's flower is a Rain Lily. They pop up when it's warm and raining. Me too.

Pretty in red

Another week is ending and we finally got a great soaker of a rainstorm after weeks of drought and heat. My plants are very happy as am I. I’ve been trying to grow grass (no, not that kind!) from seed and the ground has to stay moist. Well, with no rain and 90 plus heat for weeks, my grass growing has been quite a challenge. Now I’ve heard on the news that we may get rain through the weekend and into next week. Yippee!! Of course that means the lawn will grow and need cutting. The work never ends, but since I love the work I don’t mind it.




This week’s flower is an orchid. I used to think it was a Vanda, but an orchid-wise friend of mine insisted it is not. I don’t really know or care what kind it is. All I know is it is hanging on a coconut palm and is very prolific. It blooms several times a year and I’ve split it into two other orchids and placed one on the arbor over my Koi pond and the other in an oak tree. We’ll see how the orchid children do in their new environments.



I really don’t have much to say today except enjoy the rainy weekend doing the rain things you like to do.

Ginger by the coconut palm

This is another ginger. Last year I sent you a picture of a pinecone ginger. I wish I could tell you the name of this one, but there are over 1300 varieties of ginger and I haven’t a clue what this one is. I’m fairly certain it isn’t the kind of ginger that helps your digestion or has benefits for your heart. But even if it were, I’m not sure it could heal a broken heart or soothe over an event that makes you sick to your stomach. Still, just looking at it makes me feel better, even happy, for a little while.


I hope this weekend there is a ginger in your life that can make you forget your stomach or heart ache, even for a little while.

Bottlebrush

Today's plant is a bottlebrush. I'm sure you can see why it is so named. This one is leaning out over my pond. Every year it leans a little more. There used to be a chain attached to it that was wrapped around a post. I guess the idea was to keep it from eventually falling into the pond, but it broke free of its chain a long time ago and I just let it do what it will. We're both happier that way.

But today I want to talk about how I made myself unhappy by trying to prevent what was going to happen anyway. As many of you know, I took last week off to spend some quality time outside gardening. It was supposed to be relaxing and rejuvenating for me. I spent the first few days gathering the materials. By day three I was ready to plant. I started working in the little garden outside my screened porch. I loosened the soil, added some cow manure, dug holes, and put in dozens of new plants. I was quite happy with my work and could easily imagine the garden all filled out in a few months. I went to bed happy.



The next morning I went to my newly expanded garden and every plant was dug up. I was so shocked I couldn't even get mad. I spent a good part of that day replanting everything. You know what they say about "crazy" being defined as doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Well, that perfectly described my actions, because the next morning every plant was dug up again! I replanted them all again and headed to Lowes for some help.



The gentleman from the gardening area showed me some products that would (or possible could) ward off digging critters, but he also made a phone call to an "expert" who said mothballs would work better. He took me to the mothball aisle and handed me a box. I said I would probably need at least two boxes. So I left the store with 200 mothballs and a plan to go to war with my mystery digging critters.



I spread the mothballs around the plants. I spread them around the fence that surrounds the garden. I put them in front of the 4 gates that lead into my garden. By the time I had distributed 200 mothballs, I had created a bio-hazard that should have repelled any creature on earth. I mean the place really stunk. I was glad I had the AC on in my house, because I don't think I could have slept there that night with the windows open. As a further precaution, I put some deer prevention netting over a few of the plants. I wouldn't say I went to bed happy that night, but I did go to bed certain that I would win this war.



I was wrong.



The next morning the only plants that were not dug up were the ones with the netting over them. Mothballs were everywhere. I think the digging critters played hockey or soccer with them. Vacated plant holes were full of mothballs; sort of like shooting pool balls into a pocket. And the smell...beyond description...definitely a sinus clearer.



So, I started replanting for the fourth time. Me, bending over, inches away from dozens of mothballs. Then I started to feel dizzy and short of breath. Next I was soaking wet from profuse sweating. Finally, I gathered what wits were left to me and did what I should have done in the first place; I read the warning label on the mothball box. "Toxic if inhaled, or touched, or eaten!" I had done everything except eat them.



I was foolish to think I was going to win a war I started against an unseen, digging critter. Anything I did was going to be just as harmful to me. So, I am back to letting hungry critters dig where they can and hoping that the mothballs eventually dissolve.



Have a great weekend and don't play with mothballs!

Purple Orchid

I have a screened porch on the side of my house. It looks out over a fenced-in tropical garden, past some royal palms, over an oak covered lawn of mowed weeds and spotty patches of grass, and leads my eye to a pond that is framed by a Bottle Bush tree half in and out of the water. The porch is the perfect place to watch the squirrels and birds and the otters when they are in town. I also use the porch as a refuge for Christmas cactus and other succulents and as place to display orchids when they are in bloom.




Some of the orchids spend most of their time on the porch, but I've found they get diseased or weak if they never get any time outside. The balance that the porch cannot provide the orchids is natural predators to eat the various bugs that somehow do end up on the porch and do end up leaving nasty things on the orchid leaves. I don't like to kill anything (even spiders I'm phobic about) unless I'm going to eat it and i sure don't like killing with chemicals. So all the orchids get some time outside with the sun and rain and wind and bug-eating predators. They're healthier that way.



Next week i am going to put myself outside for 9 days. I'm going to plant 50 Caladiums, 3 Elephant Ears, re pot orchids, divide bromiliads, move mulch, and just generally have a healing time in the sun, rain, and wind. The predators will be there too, but its been a long time since any of them have been interested in me so I'll be just fine.



You have a good week too!

Corn Cob Bro

A few months ago I sent you a picture of a bromeliad that I nicknamed “Candy Corn Bro.” Today’s bro is a close relative. I call it plain old “Corn on the Cob Bro.” Unfortunately I waited too long to take a picture of this bloom and the fat little corn kernels sprouted feathers on top. But trust me, a few weeks ago these flowers looked just like corn on the cob. I have these particular bros spread all over my yard and some of the clumps sported many more flowers than this one, but none of them photographed as well.

If you look beyond the last flower you will see clumps of lip stick bros and even a few candy corn bros (the ones with the striped leaves). All of these bros live together between and under a small ficus and a small oak. They love the leaves that fall on and around them, love the shade though they don’t bloom as much, and absolutely love the dew that drops on them on foggy or humid mornings.



I know I’ve said before that living in an environment that suits our needs is very important for plants and people. These bros are a testament to that.



This weekend look around the environment you have chosen and made for yourself. If it doesn’t suit you, change it. It doesn’t matter if you have gardens or not. We all have a space that is our own, indoors or out, a whole house/condo or a room or tent. Whatever the space that you can make your own, make it suit you and keep you healthy and happy.

Banyan Orchid

What a surprise this was. This orchid was just thrown into the base of my Banyan tree because I didn’t have time to split it or find it a proper home. So, years go by and I forget about it, except I do notice it is climbing up the trunk of the tree. It never blooms but makes great foliage, so I let it be. Then I come home from work one afternoon and I see some color peeking out from what has become a mass of orchid foliage. I pull some of the leaves back and viola, this is what is in hiding. Honestly, it took my breath away. Other than being an orchid, I have no idea what it is (someone receiving this email will tell me, I just know it).




I don’t want you to think I am neglectful of my plants, but most of the time I have more than I can care for. I’m pretty sure this was one of the plants that came from a liberation raid that my friend Leslie and I made to Pine Island. Someone she knew was going to bulldoze acres covered in bamboo, and we were permitted to save what we could. Besides bamboo, there were orchids, bromeliads, and other tropicals. We hacked, and sawed, and hauled as much as we could. I think Leslie was probably much more realistic and prudent than I and only took what she could manage at home. I, on the other hand, acted like a kid with my hand in a candy jar; I had too much to be able to get my hand out of the jar but I just couldn’t let go of one piece.



Now I’m glad I wasn’t prudent. Sometimes it really is OK to take more than you need or can handle.



If you get the opportunity this weekend, go ahead and let yourself have more than you can handle. You might be surprised.

Spring at last

Those of you who live in south Florida know spring is here. Even if you are not aware of the changes that have been happening in the last few weeks; all kinds of oaks losing their leaves and sprouting new ones, wild bromeliads in bloom, cypress trees no longer bald but covered with brilliant light green needle fuzz, and otters rolling over and over each other in the ponds…even if you are not aware of any of that, you are perhaps aware of an itch to get outside, play hooky from work, go to the beach, or sit in the sun and pretend to read a book. And even if you are not aware of the natural changes around you or an itch inside you, there is no way you could possibly miss the blooming of the azaleas as an announcement of spring.

Thanks to my mother, I have 4 azaleas on my property; three are fuchsia with huge blooms and the other is this pitiful, little orange-ish thing. It stands about knee high and is leggy and pale, but this year it decided to show me its stuff. Every stem has flowers and, except for 4 or 5 leaf clusters, every leaf is veiled behind a flower. It lives alone in a different part of the yard from the other three azaleas (who are also in glorious bloom) and its environment is not what we would call rich. But still, those nasty cold fronts stopped coming down, February turned sunny and southern California mild, and this little guy just couldn’t help but burst forth in blossom song.



My wish for you this weekend is that you find the spring inside you and sing a renewal song. Being pitiful, little, leggy, or pale is no excuse. Find your song and sing!

Aliens

I don’t know what these plants are. They are some kind of succulents and seem to grow everywhere. I didn’t purchase the first one or liberate it from someone else’s home. They just showed up. They remind me of saucers from outer space, so I call them alien flowers. At first I tried to get rid of them because they are so prolific and grow where they want…not where I want! But that became an impossible task. They grow through underground spreading, they grow from pieces of their leaves that break off, they grow from dried up flowers flying on the wind. Even pulling them up will not work. Some little piece of root is sure to be left behind or leaves will literally leap from the trash bag and hide under a rock.



So I give up. They can stay and grow wherever they want. The invasion is over and this is now their home. Resistance was futile.



Funny thing is, once I surrendered, I started to notice they are sort of pretty.



Have a great weekend.



I have a  follow up to this posting.  I received an email from a friend of mine who no longer lives in Florida.  It said:
 
"When you and I took a trailer and chain saw out to Pine Island to cut bamboo so I could make an orchid house and other stuff circa 1996 or1997, we saw these out on the Reed property and admired them, and when they invited us to come get bromeliads and such since they were bulldozing parts of their land we took some of these with us. I love watching the small birds cling to the tall dried stalks and sway in the wind. Good times, sister, good times."
 
Appenrtly I did liberate these aliens and willingly brought them to my home.  I'm glad someone has a better memory than I do.