New Arrivals: The Coccinellidae novemnotatas aka THE LADYBUGS

In the photograph posted above, all arrows are on a teeney tiny Coccinellidae novemnotata aka ladybug, which is perched on a leaf of my Farfugium japonicum 'Cristata' plant — a lovely plant that "resides" in the southeast portion of my urban terrace garden. The picture was taken before seven o'clock in the morning last Friday — the morning after I had released ladybugs into my garden. Juan V had suggested I use ladybugs as a means of getting rid of some pests that were starting to nibble on my Farfugium japonicum 'Cristata' plant as well as other things which grow in my garden. Since I am legally blind, I do not always notice such things until it is too late, so I was grateful he made me aware of the munching pests, as well as for his suggestion that I bring on the ladybugs.



Prior to Juan V's suggestion, I had not realized that ladybugs were good for combatting plant munching pests. In fact, I had not realized that all ladybugs have    "special organs on their feet to help them smell", or that they "use their antennae to touch and taste". 


I also did not realize that ladybugs "chew from side to side and not up and down like mammals do" — at this moment in time — the ladybug's method of chewing would be a problem for yours truly, because, as you may recall, from a previous post in which I wrote about the Spilanthes oleracea plant, I have recently had a tooth extracted. This tooth was on the lower left side of my mouth, and since its extraction, I have not been able to afford the follow-up treatment needed, which has limited my ability to chew. Whatever ability I did have to chew as a result of the tooth extraction, was curtailed this past Saturday morning, when a bridge in the upper right hand side of my mouth came out while I was brushing my teeth; making the ladybug's method of chewing virtually impossible.


Apparently ladybugs — during hibernation —  feed on their stored fat, now this action,  I suppose, is something I could do as I have plenty of stored fat in my belly. (BTW, my sources for the aforementioned ladybug facts as well as much more information regarding them may be found by going to this link.)


Speaking of eating, it seems ladybugs are quite the noshers and can eat up to 4,000 aphids in their lifetime (read more by clicking here). As I stated earlier, I have not seen any aphids in my garden due to my poor eyesight; but from time to time I've seen some consequences of their having been in my garden, so I welcome the ladybugs to my terrace garden, and I encourage them to do their thing. The ladybugs seem to be enjoying my garden, as indicated in a few photographs where they can be seen on the leaves of my Yellow Rose Bush, as well as the leaves of my Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina) Tree, my Strawberry Plant, and on the pod of my Echinacea Plant. These pictures were taken before the camera-shy creatures headed into the soil for their "real food"  and they are posted (respectively) below.

Perhaps ladybugs feel comfortable in my garden as they are true New Yorkers in that they are our state's insect, or perhaps they are comfortable in my garden because, like the ladybug, I have spots which are due to the fact that I have the neurological condition known as Neurofibromatosis Type One (NF-1) which is something I have referred to in a number of previous blog entries, including ones which you may go to by clicking here, as well as here, and here and here, or to see all of my posts regarding Neurofibromatosis, click on the label in the labels menu (on the left hand side of all blog postings) bearing that name.


Because of my NF-1, I have six cafe´-au-lait spots; but as for the ladybug and its spots, here are some interesting facts (which I discovered in the link that I posted in the fourth paragraph of this blog entry): "most of them have red, orange, or yellow wing covers with black spots, some are black with red spots, they usually do not have their spots for the first twenty-four hours of their adulthood, and the spots on the ladybug fade as it gets older." 


Unlike the ladybug and its spots, the cafe´-au-lait spots of someone afflicted with NF-1 do not fade, ever, but, fortunately for me — because I have an olive complexion — they are not very pronounced. However, what is pronounced, are the thousands of lumps and bumps which appear all over my body as a consequence of having this medical condition. These lumps and bumps are referred to in the medical community as neurofibromas. They are fibrous tumors that wrap around any nerve ending and push up through the skin causing lumps and bumps in varying sizes o appear everywhere, giving one afflicted with NF-1 the appearance of having a case of Elephant Man's Disease.


Since NF-1 occurs at birth, I have obviously had it my whole life, yet I am often taken off guard when someone refers to my appearance. As it happens, i was at the Greenmarket this past friday, and one of the farmers asked me if I was from Queens, which is one of the five boroughs of New York City. I told her that I did not live in Queens, but I also inquired as to why she asked. "A man I have seen living there has your skin condition", she replied gesturing at my lumps and bumps. Perhaps because I was caught off guard, the hurt and shame that I have felt as a result of having this condition welled up inside of me as I tried to explain to her that what she saw on my body was not the result of a "skin condition" but was tumor related as a result of a neurological condition.


While there are many remedies — such as ladybugs — out there to protect gardens from aphids and other invasive pests, I've yet to find a remedy against human cruelty towards those who suffer from a physical condition. According to Wiki, "In many countries, including Russia, Turkey, and Italy, the sight of a ladybug is either a call to make a wish or a sign that a wish will soon be granted." 


Hmmmm . . . I wonder if . . . 

"Cows, Bread and Autism", Bobolink's Answer To What's Cheese got to do with it?

Last Saturday, June 18th 2011, I left you dear reader, with photographs of mouth-watering cheeses, (known as Drumm and Very Special Cave-Aged Cheddar respectively), and a promise to tell you a little bit about them as well as discuss the folks that make them in today's post. So, without further ado:

I have always liked cows and goats, but having had severe allergies since childhood has caused me to admire them from afar. However, once upon a time, after being given allergy shots, I was able to get close enough to some grazing cows and photograph them, and one of the resulting images was my photographic print, Cow with Children, as seen in the first image at the top of today's blog post. This image has also been rendered into a greeting card and both are available for purchase via my web-site, Patricia Youngquist Photo-Art (patriciayoungquist.com.). For specific information on the photographic print, please click here, and for information on the note-card, please click here.

Fortunately, my allergies stop with where these animals graze, and I am able to indulge in the cheeses they produce. "You have a friend in Cheeses," (a play on words of the old time hymn, What a Friend we Have in Jesus), is a "slogan" on "base-ball-style-caps and T-Shirts that a cheese shop in the West Village of New York city sells, and today's blog post explores, a "friendship" related to cheeses which has evidently given Jacob ("Jake") White a lease on life. (More on this later.) Jake is the son of Nina and Jonathan White, who are cheese makers at Bobolink Dairy, a business that now includes rustic bread baking, and a business that they have named for the spirited bobolink song bird whose image is imprinted on the labels they use when wrapping cheeses (this can be seen in the photograph posted below) that they sell at a Greenmarket that serves Tucker Square in the Upper West Side of New York City (where I live) on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The Whites also sell their delicious products at other greenmarkets in New York City, and New Jersey (where their farm is located), as well as via their web-site, cowsoutside.com ,but it is the Tucker Square location, where I first met Nina White, pictured in the photograph posted below, where she can be seen holding a sign that usually is propped up on a table where she sells the yummy cheeses and breads.

The cheeses are seasonal, and the ones being offered at this time of year are Drumm, Very Special Caved Aged Cheddar (again both of those were pictured in last Saturday's blog entry, the other two being offered as of today's posting are Armram and Tower of Bobol as noted on the left-hand side of Ms. White's sign and pictured below respectively.

On the right-hand side of the sign, the Whites give a shout out to local growers whose ingredients they use in their bread. Local is right. Some of the growers that are mentioned also sell their products at Tucker Square. This year round  outdoor market is "the gateway to the Upper West Side" and, as per their web-site, I can attest to their fine offering of "seasonal vegetables" that "range from fresh staples to certified organic and Mexican specialties". The orchards represented at the Tucker Square Greenmarket, "boast sweet berries, stone fruit and over eighty varieties of apples." On many occasions, there are cooking demonstrations which offer unusual recipes and tastings, hence, this market is a great haven. And, like the folks who give the cooking demonstrations, Bobolink Dairy is very gracious in giving tastes of their unusual, distinctive cheeses, as well as making recommendations on what other foods would go best with the cheese of one's choice.

A unique thing about Bobolink is that not only do they offer tours of their farm, but they have internship programs which from what I've heard (straight from the mouth of an intern who moved from Oregon to the east coast to intern with the Whites) are empowering. The Whites are no strangers to the relationship between cows, cheese-making and baking, and empowerment, for these things have had a profound effect on their son Jake. As I mentioned earlier, they have given him a "new lease on life" — and a much needed one at that, for Jake, the eighteen year old son of the Whites, is autistic. I understand that "while he is quite intelligent, he has very limited speech capability, equivalent to a typical three year old." and that he is "very outgoing in matters that engage him" which apparently are "cows and baking". 

Their web-site states that "Jake seems to have a particular affinity with cows, and cows seem to respond well to him." As I read this, I thought about my image, Cow with Children (mentioned earlier in this post), an image that was created long before I had heard about Nina and Jonathan White, or tasted cheeses from their farm, Bobolink Dairy, and I thought about the unconditional love between cows and children, an observation not lost on the Whites, who also  indicate on their web-site that, in terms of Jake, the love from child-towards-cow is reciprocal: "hey they {the cows} don't even know that he has a speech handicap". 

Jake's passion for "kneading, baking, and most importantly eating baked goods" is the impetus for the Whites' recent move to a new farm. They write, "We hope to make a bright future for Jacob. In {our} extensive collection of old dairy and farm books, there are many photos of people working on farms and in cheese factories, who appear to have one learning disability or another."

The Whites take this one step further saying, "one photo that particularly comes to mind is of a young man in perhaps the 1950s, with biceps like Popeye's, operating a manual cheese press. His bright eyed, proud and smiling face belies the markers of Down's Syndrome, although their is no mention of it in the text. This young man had a good job and was proud of it. Nowadays, a Down kid or someone like Jacob is more likely to have a job putting parts in a bag on an assembly line. Agriculture and food production, in simpler times, had more room for people with disabilities. As modernity has taken its toll of the quality and flavor-fulness of food, it has also eroded the opportunities for those of us who are different."

"So, wish us well as we set out to set it right", the Whites ask. And so, with this post, I do wish the Whites well in their endeavor, for as you know dear, reader, I suffer from Neurofibromatosis Type-One as well as Legal Blindness, and  have written about this in posts which you may refer to by clicking here and here as well as here.I am painfully aware of attitudes towards disability — a word I would like to see changed to challenge. Physical challenged as opposed to disabled. Disabled is what they call stalled cars as well as stalled tractors, trucks, busses and trailers. "Disable it", is what techies and geeks tell you to do with a program in your computer when it is not functioning properly.

M y afflictions are mild compared to many folks, including some whom I knew personally including, Colleen Ormond, who died in November of 2010 from complications of her hydrocephalic condition, and my dear friend KM, who died last week after a long battle with near blindness and multiple sclerosis. (You may recall that I mentioned KM in a couple of posts this past May that you may refer to by clicking here and here (when I wrote about one of her sister's passing and now she too has passed away).

The Whites, in their unique attempt to give their son an opportunity to be the best that he can be, remind me of the mother of the dearly departed Jennifer Mahoney (who was born with Spina Bifida, and who died in an accident with her wheel chair, a fact that you may recall, dear reader, because not only was Jennifer an inspiration for my photographic work that was acknowledged by the American Printing House for the Blind, but she is someone that I have written about in a blog post which I referred to in a blog post that you can access here),  Mahoney's mother, as you may recall, spoke to me at her daughter's funeral and of her keen desire to let Jennifer live the fullest life possible, saying "I always knew that I was on borrowed time with Jennifer." 

And so as I conclude today's post, I hope you will indulge me in re-posting the image of Jennifer, 

who embraced life, but realized attitudes were the disability, and did not hesitate to voice her position, leaving a legacy at Hunter College where she was receiving her education before her untimely death. Now, perhaps, Jacob ("Jake") White —even with limited speech — will be able to leave a legacy through his work on the Bobolink Farm, which not only produces great cheeses and amazing breads to feed the body, but provides opportunities to nourish the soul and confidence of the physically and mentally challenged.

    

Easter Season Decor Ends (for the year) in the Indoor Succulent Garden

This past Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost, which ends the Easter Season, and, even though the Easter Season is a fifty day celebration, I am already feeling a bit unfulfilled —  despite my participation in the intense Easter observances as well as the preparation for them during Lent. Therefore, I was consoled to read the following comment by the blogger, Emily L. Hauser who is referring to her experience with her 2011 Passover celebrations. Hauser writes, "It really does seem that every year, Passover goes by faster. One minute I'm hyperventilating over the inhumane amount of cleaning, the next minute I'm saying 'what, it's over?' But here we are. Tonight is the start of the second holiday, the one that closes the week, and boom — its back to bread." I realize that Passover 2011 ended quite some time ago, and that for Ms. Hauser the festival of Shavuot (which is symbolically and historically related to Pentecost) was last week, but it is aways comforting to be reminded of the fact that my emotions are hardly unique to me, and that, in fact quite often, they transcend cultures and belief systems.  

Additionally, as this Easter Season comes to a close, I am also reminded that it is probably time to remove the Easter decorations that are interspersed with my indoor garden of succulents which grow  (under a special lighting system using cold/hot bulbs) in containers that have been lovingly and strategically placed on top of humidity trays (that are laden with pebbles), which are resting on a space I've created for an indoor garden on top of my kitchen armoire. (Please see this past blog entry for details.) You may recall, dear reader, that I initially created this indoor garden during wintertime (a few years ago) to have a home for some of my plants that would not withstand winter temperatures and conditions. (Yes, this does happen with my outdoor plants — on rare occasions —  in spite of my attentive winterizing methods — methods that I have described in a previous blog post which can be found by clicking here.

In any event, indoor gardens are quite nice to have — even if you do have the space for an outdoor garden. You may recall that in an earlier blog entry I wrote about a neighborhood indoor garden, a garden that is a celebration of the textures of succulents; and if you'd like to reread it, you may refer to by clicking here.




As for my "armoire-top" garden, it now contains a variety of succulents found at the Greenmarket at Union Square in New York City. One of the succulents in my "armoire-top garden" — although not totally visible in the photograph posted above —  is known as a Peperomia clusiifolia variegat , and can be seen in the two photographs posted below:

This lovely Peperomia clusiifolia variegat  was sold to me for $3.00, and the "back story" on my purchase is this: The "clerk" asked David, the grower (who owns Fantastic Gardens), if this Peperomia clusiifolia variegat was one of the many $5.00 succulents that he was selling, and he replied to her, "one day it will grow up to be a $5.00 plant, but today it is only a $3 plant . . . "  




I share this story because I have a special place in my heart for David, and his nursery, Fantastic Gardens, because his mother sold me my H.F. Young Clematis a few years ago, and it has thrived in my terrace garden since day one. The H.F. Young Clematis, is a vine that I grow outside in my terrace garden, and it is a vine which I have referred to in a number of blog entries, including ones which you can refer to by clicking here as well as here and here .




The other succulents in my indoor garden are from Cheerful Cherry Farms, owned by a man named Jim, a widower, whose deceased wife Donna (a woman that was also his garden partner), sold me an Autumn Clematis a few years ago. My interaction with Donna at that time has prompted me to not only call the Autumn Clematis that she sold me "Donna's Legacy",  but also to include it in a number of blog posts including ones that you can read by clicking here as well here and here. Additionally, the Autumn Clematis, sold to me by Donna, of Cheerful Cherry Farms, is featured in my first garden movie,"The Kiwi Vine Speaks . . . Fifteen minutes of fame . . . almost",  which is now on Vimeo. Details about this movie as well as a link to view it are available in a blog post which you can read by clicking here.




In any event, the succulents from Cheerful Cherry Farms, are quite unique, as evidenced in photographs of a few of them  (posted below) as they look in my armoire-top garden still interspersed with Easter decorations.

Not only are the succulents from Cheerful Cherry Farms unusual; but the "packaging" (utilizing strawberry boxes — which they also use to sell their luscious strawberries) that Cheerful Cherry Farms gives to their customers to carry the succulents from the greenmarket to their respective gardens reflects their "cheerful spirit"  as seen below in the photographs posted below of my succulents in the boxes from Cheerful Cherry Farms before I planted them in my containers at home.

When I told the girls who work at the booth for Cheerful Cherry Farms about my appreciation for the unique succulent presentation, as well as my heartfelt sadness over the death of  their  bosses' wife, Donna, they posed for a photograph to honor her memory which you can see below.

I hope, dear reader, that today's  blog post has inspired you to think of setting up a succulent garden in your home, or, if you have one, that this post has inspired you to intersperse your succulents with decorations for a holiday season of your choice, or with simple miniature garden gnomes, which I will be using when I put away my Easter decorations.




When it comes to growing succulents, the only limitation you have in creating a place for them is your imagination, as evidenced by Arthur Lee Jacobson, who "took a damaged rear bike wheel, cleaned off the grime and rigged it into a planter for succulents",  as seen in the screen shot posted below, and which you can read about by clicking here.

Ardith Mae and the "Special, Secret Service" of Goat Cheese

Perhaps, these three kids (in the photograph posted above which is a screen shot of a photograph taken by Michael Poster for the web-site of a well known cheese maker) look familiar to my cheese loving readers, and if not, you definitely will want to get to know these cover girls —  as well as the folks that take care of them: Shereen and Todd —  who do this on their farm in Northern Pennsylvania, a farm they bought after living in Brooklyn and working in the city.  On their farm they allow "animals to be animals" as they most likely realize "girls just wanna have fun . . . "
So, I speculate that because Shereen and Todd's girls "have year around access to a lightly wooded five acre paddock, and during growing season are rotational grazed/browsed on an additional thirty acres of raspberry, grasses and various saplings" and additionally "are only bred every other year which alleviates the health stress of yearly pregnancy" (I wish my young niece would take this lesson in breeding — she is an unwed mother of three and no father in sight). 



Moreover, Shereen and Todd's goats "are never given hormones or unnecessary antibiotics", and it appears that Shereen and Todd are rewarded with what it takes from a goat to produce a fantastic variety of fresh and raw milk aged cheeses year around, which are enhanced by "local season forage", then packaged beautifully, bearing a label with the name Ardith Mae (for Todd's mother),  a detail appreciated by me, having had a loving grandmother, named Clara May (shown in a photograph in a previous post), as seen below:

After this, Shereen and Todd's reward for their great goat care becomes a cheese lovers' reward, and I was reminded of this when I passed a Greenmarket location where they sell their cheeses on my way home from my Sunday volunteer work that I wrote about yesterday.


This location, known as the Green Flea (the 77th School Flea Market), takes place on Sundays, in New York City, and it spills over from the school yard to the nearby American Museum of Natural History, where along the westside of the museum, at Columbus Avenue, Ardith Mae, with a wonderful assortment of cheeses, (including the selection n the photograph posted below) can be found.

Having Ardith Mae participate in the Green Flea, provides a Sunday haven for Upper Westsiders like myself — especially gardeners who go to this market to pick up annuals (to stick in their gardens amongst their seasoned perennials). It can be pretty chaotic and even competitive getting some plants — especially after a long winter when the natives are restless — so it is nice that greenmarket farmers, such as Ardith Mae, grace the market with their goodies, which often calm even the most disgruntled gardener.


Then again, surely you have heard the saying "get your goat" or "get one's goat", but did you know that (according to the Huffington Post) it "is a twentieth century phrase relating to horse racing? It used to be common practice for goats to be used to keep restless horses under control — they had a calming effect on the horses and they made them all the more race-ready. On race days, goats were stolen ('got') by wiling thieves who, expecting the horse to be distressed by the absence of his bearded friend, would then place a bet and lose. Today, if something or someone gets your goat, it annoys, distresses and irritates you, as if you were a horse whose goat had been stolen." 


If this is true, then perhaps it is no wonder that disgruntled gardeners (or other "normal folks"), are calmed by indulging in Sunday brunch by partaking in a goat-gouda cheese and heirloom tomato omelet served with a Bloody Mary, or by indulging in green olives stuffed with goat cheese that are served with a glass of chilled Obergen, (the Pinot Gris from Germany) at the cocktail hour.


So, if one believes the Huffington Post, then perhaps, dear reader, one could concede that it's not the accompanying beverage which calms the soul, but rather it is the goat, doing his magic of calming (but why do they need to be mutually exclusive?) — a much needed "service" in New York City and I dare say throughout the world.

It's still very much October: Rites of Autumn, Moon-Lit Skies and soon All Hallow's Eve

H alloween is a week and a day from the date of this posting. I have honored it by placing orange candles and pumpkin decorations in various places in my garden as seen in the photographs above. My decorations are subtle, I find the orange colors to be a way of celebrating the hues offered by the Cheerful Cherry Farm's Clematis, discussed in previous posts. The orange also compliments the hues of my Strawberry Plants, Thom-Thumb Shrub, Contorted Hazel-Nut, and English Lavender. Fall is a lovely season for gathering in the garden with friends to enjoy rosemary-infused cocktails  and conversation. Or just to simply be alone and sip on a Hot Chocolate (made with Chauo's special blend swirled into Ronny Brook Farm milk -- a find at the Greenmarket in Union Square) while gazing at the stars.
If you are thinking of having any Autumn soirée, or inviting friends over to gaze at the moonlit sky, my line of Halloween cards will make fine invitations that will surely enhance your occasion. These are included in the card selections of the store-front pages of my web-site, patriciayoungquist.com .

Juan's Breathtaking Installation of Trivets Allows Donna's Legacy

The blooming of my Clematis paniculata in my urban garden, is in full swing; the vine and its flowers are playfully wrapping around Juan's Installation as evidenced in the image posted above this entry.The precious delicate flowers against the rough brick provide a legacy to Donna, the grower from Cheerful Cherry Farms (whom I posted about in an earlier post). Donna sold me the Clematis paniculata plants a couple of years prior on that hot May morning, when she wore a wool cap and winter coat. I say legacy, because a few weeks ago I went down to Union Square (USQ) to tell Donna about the growth of my Clematis paiculata, but I only saw her husband, Jim.It was unusual not to see her with him, and I suspected that something had happened to her, but I said nothing. Recently I returned to USQ again, and Donna still was not there. This time I asked Jim about her.

He told me that she had been very sick and had died. He remarked that I must have noticed that she had worn a wool coat and hat on days when the temperatures had been very hot. Evidently she'd been quite ill for a long time, and her husband had even suggested that she not make the trip from the nursery to vend at USQ. He laughed when I told him what she had said about my eyesight. She was a real 'diamond in the rough' and I think of her in the morning when I water my garden - Donna, the diamond in the rough, like my delicate Clematis paniculata flowers climbing about the rusty trivets that Juan so carefully placed on my tattered brick wall. I am in the process of producing a collection of cards with images of the stages of growth of my Clematis paniculata, which will be called Donna's Legacy.

Juan's Installation

If you look to the right of this page at the first photo posted in the sidebar (the photo associated with my on–line brochure), you will notice quite a difference in my brick wall. As you can see, I now have a vine trailing up that wall, and it is jumping on trivets that have been placed on the wall by the artist, Juan. I had seen Juan’s “installation” of trivets on a wall at a shop on the Upper West Side of New York some years ago and had long admired their placement. This year Juan has been working with me in my urban garden because, in addition to being an artist, he is a gardener extraordinaire. Since I had so many trivets from years gone by, I asked him to do an “installation” on my brick wall so that my Clematis paniculata (Sweet Autumn Clematis) would have a place to play. The Clematis is loving it! This vine is somewhat of a newcomer (one year old) to my outdoor space.

This vine had been suggested to me by Jay, another talented gardener, when he was in New York City last May. I got this plant from Donna, a talented grower from Cheerful Cherry Farms who, with her grower–husband, Jim, had a booth at “USQ” — the Union Square Greenmarket. The morning that I bought this plant, I had arrived at the market at about 7:30 A.M., and they were just setting up their booth for the day. Because the print on the plant tag was small, I had to press my face against it to read it in order to make sure that I was getting the Clematis paniculata. Donna looked over at me and, with a cigarette dangling from her mouth, remarked that I must need new glasses. Although it was extremely hot that morning she had on a winter coat and wool hat; her long gray pony tail hung out of her hat and trailed more than halfway down her back. Donna assured me if I planted this plant in a deep container it would trail wherever I trained it to go by the fall. It did not bloom that fall, but the foliage was lovely and did trail up a small trellis that was behind its box–planter. From the trellis, it began to attach itself to a nail on my wall. To protect that foliage on the wall last winter, I tied the vine up and attached to another nail on the wall and dreamed of it trailing against my wall. When Juan came to my garden one day this April, he lovingly untied the vine. I knew both my vine and collection of trivets were made for each other. Immediately they fell in love as evidenced by the photo at the top of this post and the one posted below.

The H.F. Young Clematis Keeps on Giving

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, and like a new mother joyful over moments of her new child's life (the first time she sees a smile or hears her child's first utterance), so am I with my H.F. Young Clematis that I have in my urban garden (another great find from the USQ  - Union Square Green Market. From the moment a bud first appeared on the vine, it traveled boldly up the pole,

to its magnificent unfolding,

and even now, when petals have fallen has left me with sweet memory.

Buds: The Potential of Developing into Something Beautiful

Every flower bud has the potential of developing into something beautiful. At this time, I have an array of buds in my  urban terrace garden, and the exquisite  bud in the photograph above is from my tree peony, Paeonia suffruitticosa, a shrub that is known to last longer than the gardeners that plant them, so at least I will leave some legacy. I had hoped to leave some legacy of meaningful writings, but often I fail to write about things that interest me as it might prove to be embarrassing, or hurt someone's feelings; and so these days, my muse is busy with my gardening endeavors and my peony tree, which I have had for only one year, has proved to be inspirational.
For a number of years I've had fun watching various vines trail up a pole at the northeast corner of my terrace. When I first started gardening I had Morning Glories and this annual vine gave me pleasure for a number of years, especially seeing their heart-shaped leaves and vibrant azure colored flowers. At that time, I was not a "morning person" and often missed the flowers, which were only open from dawn to mid-morning. However, Morning Glories had deep meaning for an elderly friend of mine who often recalled a poem she wrote about them in Catholic Elementary School, claiming the nuns wrote the last line - a punchline -which can be read (in her handwriting) below:

The Morning Glory vine's short life caused me to replace it with Clematis lanuginosa ('Canidia') which I  bought at USQ - The Union Square Greenmarket in New York City, but I have included a link to detailed information about this plant in this post. This vine trailed happily up the pole, and because it is a perennial, I enjoyed the flowers for years and even rendered a photograph that I took of it into a petite wrap-around greeting card as seen below:

This Clematis also provided inspiration for the design of  general all occasion large wrap-around cards as well as wedding invitations, program covers for special events as indicated in my paper brochure and is part of a mini-movie in my on-line brochure. A sample is posted below:

Information about purchasing these products is available on my web-site. These will be the last of the Clematis lanuginosa themed works, as this plant was attacked by web-worms whose unwelcome presence was discussed in a previous post. Fortunately, I was able to replace it with another Union Square Greenmarket find, the H.F. Young Clematis. A link is posted here to provide information on this plant but I do not know the grower who posted that link. I do know that I am looking forward to seeing the H.F. Young Clematis flowers if their beautiful buds (seen in the photograph below) are any indication of how gorgeous the flower will be.

What I said at the top of the post bears repeating, "Every flower bud has the potential of developing into something beautiful."