Golden Hollyhocks
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| From Neddy’s The Plains Album |
“Hollyhocks! Stiff as starch!
Oh, fix your bayonets!
Forward! March!”
Flower fads come and go, but to old timers like me, Summer means hollyhocks. In long ago England the Crusaders returned from the Middle East bearing mallow plants which became “holy hocks”, because “hock” meant “mallow” in English. The bright flowers were a hit in the dark and drab Middle Ages.
In America, the common hollyhock arrived with the colonists. Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello. In the late 19th century the plants were beautifully cultivated on Appledore Island, off the New Hampshire coast, where they were immortalized by the American Impressionist painter Childe Hassam.
Legend of the Dogwood
Dogwood blossoms on a dogwood tree that I planted about three years ago. It gets more beautiful with each season. Dogwood is both the state flower and state tree of Virginia, although it is the white wild dogwood. There are natural wild dogwoods here that are pink too, however they are a much lighter colored pink and not seen as frequently as are the white dogwoods
There is a lovely legend associated with the dogwood tree. The dogwood’s blossoms are in the form of a cross — two long petals and two short petals. At the outer edge of each petal there are rust-stained and blood-stained nail prints and in the center of each blossom is a crown of thorns. This came about at the dogwood tree’s great grief and distress at being used to make the timbers of Christ’s cross. Thenceforth, in the Springtime, it reminds all who see this to remember
In Jesus’ time, the dogwood grew
To a stately size and a lovely hue.‘Twas strong & firm it’s branches interwoven
For the cross of Christ its timbers were chosen.Seeing the distress at this use of their wood
Christ made a promise which still holds good:“Never again shall the dogwood grow
Large enough to be used soSlender & twisted, it shall be
With blossoms like the cross for all to see.As blood stains the petals marked in brown
The blossom’s center wears a thorny crown.All who see it will remember me
Crucified on a cross from the dogwood tree.Cherished and protected this tree shall be
A reminder to all of my agony.” ~~Anonymous
Flowers of a Virginia Forest
These are actually broken stems that I gathered from my woodland garden after a windstorm. The wounded blossoms resulted in a cheerful display.
once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower.~~Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni is a celebrated poet who has been a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech since 1987. She is a dynamic speaker and it was she who delivered the powerful and passionate memorial ceremony’s closing speech. The above poem by Giovanni is entitled “Winter Poem.”
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Lord Illingworth’s Orchid
“Lord Illingworth told me this morning that there was an orchid there as beautiful as the seven deadly sins.” ~~”A Woman of No Importance” by Oscar Wilde.
Lady Slipper in the Orchid Pavillion, Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
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Fungi
Indian Pipes in God’s Garden, on the Nature Trail at the Saint Anthony’s Franciscan Monastery, Kennebunkport, Maine, September 2006.
The colorless, heterotrophic Indian pipe secures all its nourishment from mycorrhizal fungi that are attached at the same time to the roots of some autotrophic plant such as a pine tree.
Indian Pipe was used as a medicinal plant by Native Americans and the early Colonials, both as a sedative and a remedy for sore eyes. Modern medicine shuns such use, noting that the plant contains various toxins, including several different glycosides.
From my Picasa album “The Franciscan Monastery“.
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My Golden Orchid
“… the immortal, entrancing, and exquisitely lovely orchid.” from “The Soul of Man under Socialism” by Oscar Wilde, as seen in the greenhouse at Hillwood Gardens.
As I return home to recover from almost four weeks in hospital, I am pleasantly surprised to learn that my photograph of the “golden orchid” at Hillwood Gardens survived to make it to the bottom twenty of the “Top Twenty Flower Pool” at Flickr.
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Greenhouse Jungle
I entered the door of the greenhouse at Hillwood Gardens and I found myself to be the only human in an enchanted orchid jungle. No orchids anywhere in the entire world could be happier than those living in this perfect environment. It was July 2006, in Washington DC.
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Bearing Witness
The Signature of God
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Reflections
Keukenhof Gardens, Lisse, Holland, April 2006
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Kincheloe Rose
Kincheloe Rose Garden during the noon day heat of a July day, Clifton, Virginia
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Neddy's Wondrous World 