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 I I think, I dreamed of falling leaves, Of dark forests and dark lakes, Of sad words' echo - However, I could not understand their meaning. I think, I dreamed of falling stars, Of the weeping entreaty of pale eyes, Of a smile's echo - However, I could not understand its meaning. Like falling leaves, like falling stars, So I saw myself eternally coming and going, A dream's immortal echo - However, I could not understand its meaning. Georg Trakl
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 Of course, the title suggests only a handful of possible connotations tulip flowers may invoke. To my little surprise a lot of them are not extremely flattering. I would like to be understood correctly: flowers are morally neutral but they have great potential to trigger passionate emotions, which is not their fault, but only their mission. But we always need to find a culprit of our wrong choices and questionable expectations. That has been the case of tulip, whose CV contains numerous illustrations of greed, theft, treachery, misfortune and death, to name just a few. As an example, let us refer to the so- called "tulip-mania", an unusual period which took place in the 17th century, when tulip bulbs infested with viruses were as precious as gold and made whole nations go crazy. Nobody knew they were diseased but the craziness spread just like the virus itself. And the source of contamination has been active ever since, making us plant new tulip bulbs every fall, very often with little guarantee of seeing flowers. Strange, isn't it?
 Being very close cousins to onions, leeks, chives and garlics, ornamental Alliums are simply extraordinary beautiful. Their taste is far less important. Once we saw the perfectly shaped spherical inflorescences, hardly anyone could fathom the idea that a bulb capable of producing such a spectacular flower head might be eaten. No, living fireworks are to be admired with eyes not taste buds.
The best time for the show is in May and June. Then the garden explodes in pink, lavender, white, yellow, blue or deep purple shades. Some of the alliums are quite small while others can be seen from a long distance. No matter their height, they always bring a touch of universal perfection as they reflect the ideal shape: the globe.  "The sweet narcissus opens its eye,
A tear-drop glistening on the lash, As though 'twere gazing piteously Upon the tulip's bleeding gash." (Hafiz. The Lesson Of The Flowers. Translated by E.H. Palmer)  I am positive that even the silky touch of a trap does not make the experience of being trapped enjoyable. Every garden is full of hardworking spiders building their silky webs non-stop. And they catch whatever can be caught crating new surprising dimensions in the architecture of a plant and garden as well. Wilted flowers or dry leaves caught in mid-air not to mention poor insects. Some spider webs show a striking resemblance to the wooly or hairy flower structures we can now observe while having a walk in the country side. The source of inspiration seems to be the same although the objectives are totally different. Among the pictures in the slideshow presenting spider webs are six illustrations of innocent plants. Try to find them while listening to one of the best - if not the best- Queen of the Night sung by Zdzisława Donat. The queen is trying to catch her own daughter in the trap of vicious feelings and her voice is pure silk!
 And both treacherous! Can't be? The truth is merciless: colchicums are very poisonous being really beautiful. The combination does not seem to be uncommon, though. Fortunately, we do not have to eat the colchicum tubers nor colchicum leaves. And the sight of rosy-lavender colchicum flowers is not venomous but only a little addictive. You can not stop admiring them.
Colchicums are surprise plants. Not because of the chemical content of their tubers but because of the sudden way the appear in the garden, literally out of nowhere. It is a good idea to have a lot of "nowhere" locations in the garden so that we can enjoy one of the last autumn flowers before long and dark winter months.  Windflower? Now?In the fall, when the last late flowering plants hurriedly open their flowers to make it before the frostbite season starts? Yes! Some windflowers announce the springtime has come, others prefer the summer season, and the protagonist of today's post likes to bloom when the days become shorter and colder. And it does it nonstop until the persistent flowers are cut down by heavy frosts. Before that sad moment happens, let us enjoy the masterpiece each flower represents: white, rose-pink, silvery-pink or bright rose-purple petals and brilliant golden stamens surrounding the globular centre. That is not all. The ornamental leaves decorate the garden the moment they emerge from the soil and make a perfect background for tall, slender stems bearing the numerous flower buds. And then they break open and we know the fall has arrived.
 Malcolmia is a dream flowering plant for every gardener. You sow its seeds and in no time you smell its flowers. And I swear by it. What is four weeks of waiting for Malcolmia's lavender four-petalled blossoms compared to a period of time, e.g. twice as long, other species make us wait? Nothing!
Virginia stock (Malcolmia maritima) is an annual which produces a profusion of fragrant flowers. The plant naturally grows in Mediterranean Europe and shows clear predilections to become a natural part of any environment where it finds suitable growing conditions. Being not very demanding, it thrives in every decent garden soil in full sun or light shade, which means, it can easily transform part of your garden and make it look Greek. In four weeks!  That it is high time we planted their corms. Right now! The summer is in a hurry to leave us but before it mercilessly vanishes we have some homework to do. It is quite a lot of hard work unless someone finds digging holes in the ground enjoyable and relaxing. De gustibus non est disputandum!
Planting crocuses requires a little planning but first of all it requires new corms. The garden centers are full of them, carefully labelled with a lot of important tips. I suggest that we concentrate on the flower size and flowering period of the crocuses we are about to purchase. Crocuses vary from quite small (and usually the most early ones) to relatively big, flowering a week o two later then the previous ones. These two characteristics let us prolong the festival of bright whites, yellows and purples so that we can get a fair reward for our late summer toil with a trowel. In order to make that reverie real, look for a real trowel. Right now!  The meaning of the Greek origin of the name Ipomoea leads us to... worms. That must have been the association between the twining stems of this heavenly vine and the earthly creatures. Fortunately, future cultivars of morning glory do not contain any references to worms, even the most beautiful ones. One of the most attractive cultivars of Ipomoea tricolor is called 'Heavenly Blue'. As a matter of fact, that was the only possible choice to name the exceptionally blue flowers that way. When they open early in the morning and the sky is cloudless, we can understand the reasons why. The sun rays make the morning glory spiral buds untwine and form a blue trumpet with a greenish and white - yellow centre. A few hours later the same sun rays make the trumpets close up and they never reopen. But don't you worry! New buds will unfold the next morning to glorify the break of the day. And every day until the first frost freezes the little skies scattered all over the trellis, hidden among branches and nestled in red climbing roses.
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AuthorI was destined to be born gardener. In order to become a professional one I had to enjoy years of studying at various schools and universities... read more Archives
May 2017
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