Wildflowers and Wild Weather
Jun. 24th, 2009 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forest_choirSummer is here and it's not shy.
The gardens are in full bloom, both here at the Down and at work, where I co-designed and tend an organic flower and herb garden. For the next few weeks, daylilies will be the main attraction.
This year, I have a new variety of bee balm in the garden.
I spotted its fragrant leaves growing wild on a Pennsylvania mountainside while we were camping with Badger last April. I took a small stem-cutting home and rooted it. It's now covering 3 square feet of a raised garden bed and is tall enough to tickle my nose. At first I was puzzled when it began to flower: most bee balms develop dark-coloured bracts before the flowers open. This one stayed green and got even paler toward the flower buds, which finally opened white. Courtesy of the trusty internets, I was able to identify it as Monarda clinopodia. Apparently it's only really common in mountainous regions and is actually listed as "endangered" in New York and New Jersey.
We've also been having thunderstorms almost every day. While the farmers aren't liking all the water on their fields, it certainly makes for some dramatic skies for the rest of us. These were taken near my parents' house. Mum heard the thunder and wondered what the clouds looked like. (They live in the woods and can only see a small portion of the sky.) I offered to drive her round the block so she could see what was going on. This was the sky to the east.
Directly opposite, in the west, the sunbeams were shining brightly through the clouds.
The gardens are in full bloom, both here at the Down and at work, where I co-designed and tend an organic flower and herb garden. For the next few weeks, daylilies will be the main attraction.
This year, I have a new variety of bee balm in the garden.
I spotted its fragrant leaves growing wild on a Pennsylvania mountainside while we were camping with Badger last April. I took a small stem-cutting home and rooted it. It's now covering 3 square feet of a raised garden bed and is tall enough to tickle my nose. At first I was puzzled when it began to flower: most bee balms develop dark-coloured bracts before the flowers open. This one stayed green and got even paler toward the flower buds, which finally opened white. Courtesy of the trusty internets, I was able to identify it as Monarda clinopodia. Apparently it's only really common in mountainous regions and is actually listed as "endangered" in New York and New Jersey.
We've also been having thunderstorms almost every day. While the farmers aren't liking all the water on their fields, it certainly makes for some dramatic skies for the rest of us. These were taken near my parents' house. Mum heard the thunder and wondered what the clouds looked like. (They live in the woods and can only see a small portion of the sky.) I offered to drive her round the block so she could see what was going on. This was the sky to the east.
Directly opposite, in the west, the sunbeams were shining brightly through the clouds.
