Plants | wordsfromanneli

November 11, 2022
by wordsfromanneli 31 Comments

Mum’s the Word

Imagine these flowers as the size of a potted chrysanthemum that a friend brought me as a hostess gift about a year ago; maybe a five-inch potted plant.

The potted plant looked so pretty and I thought what a shame that the flowers would soon die and that would be the end of it. But later when the blooms wilted, I put the pot outside and cut back the dead flowers. Out on the deck, I kept the worst of the frost off the plant all winter.

In the spring it got new green growth and wanted to be a tall plant. I should have cut it back, but didn’t, so it got a bit leggy.

But look how it bloomed in spite of me! Next spring I’ll try to keep it pruned better and who knows, I might get even more flowers – if that is even possible.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful way to remember a friend. I smile whenever I look at this mum.

If you should want to please a chum,

Just give them a chrysanthemum,

These yellow blooms are like the sun,

They tend to cheer up everyone.

A hostess gift that stayed alive

And has a strong will to survive,

It blooms for such a long, long while,

Eliciting a frequent smile.

February 7, 2022
by wordsfromanneli 29 Comments

Flower Power

I was happy that my orchid was blooming bravely through the winter, but the room cheered up considerably when our dinner guests brought a pot of primulas. Such bright colours made it hard to be anything but happy.

The winter colours all around,

Seem mute, and stay benign,

But springlike colours popping up,

Are bright and so divine.

Absorbing rays that warm and heal,

The blossoms open wide,

Displaying cheer, inviting joy,

I know they’re on my side.

***** If you like writing, why not pop over to my other blog that is dedicated to books and writing, at https:///annelisplace.wordpress.com .

August 22, 2021
by wordsfromanneli 33 Comments

Be Careful What You Wish For

We waited all through the long cold, wet winter and spring for a few sunny days to come our way.

Since the middle of June, the heat and sun have been pretty much relentless. Now, in late August, I’ve learned to be careful what I wish for.

Grass is parched and plants have wilted,

Weather forecasts all sound stilted,

Every living thing has thirst,

How I’d love a good cloudburst.

Hanging baskets wilt and wail,

“Give me water from that pail!”

Sun is great, but heat’s a pain,

Don’t you think it’s time for rain?

I no longer wish for sun

Too much heat is not such fun,

Sunshine scorches all I see,

Moderation is the key.

May 31, 2020
by wordsfromanneli 32 Comments

Lupines

I hadn’t thought of these beautiful flowers as wolf plants, but the Collins Dictionary definition asserts that the word is 14th century in origin, from the Latin lupīnus, “wolfish,” as it was believed that the plant ravenously exhausted the soil (info from Wikipedia).

Seemingly contradictory is this edited quote, also from Wikipedia: Like other legumes, they are nitrogen fixing plants. This adaptation allows lupins to be tolerant of infertile soils and capable of pioneering change in barren and poor-quality soils.

My sister took these pics in her backyard. What a feast for the eyes.

I had no idea that the seeds of lupines are eaten in many parts of the world. However, when I read on, and learned about bitter tastes and that the seeds were often soaked and toasted or boiled and dried, I thought — too much work — I would probably enjoy them more just as a flower to be admired.

May 29, 2020
by wordsfromanneli 33 Comments

Are you Flagging?

With all the restrictions and isolation due to Covid-19 rules, is it any wonder my friend Iris is flagging?

She and those in her bubble have been keeping their distance from others–in fact, firmly rooted as they are, they haven’t been able to move from their living space except for a few wild waves at the wind going by.

We tried to keep our sanity by playing games in the garden, but I got worried when a friend of mine just keeled over. Must have been the heat that made her just wilt. So I called for help from the wise, bearded one.

Sorry, I may be the bearded one, but the best I can do is give you a date for a telephone appointment.

You can see I look pale. I don’t know if I can last that long, waiting for a date when you’ll call me and I still don’t know if you can help me.

Actually, it will be me who calls. I’m a nurse. I live just across the street, so I’m handy. See my blue and white uniform?

Take her up on it, Iris. You need to get your colour back so you can be vibrant like us.

Yeah, I agree. Your colour isn’t good at all. Look at me, how bright the back of my throat is. Yours is quite a yucky yellow. You should get that looked at.

That’s right. I’m a good doctor. I also have assistants to advise me. You can see that I have two distinct colours, one for each area of medicine.

I’m the assistant. I’m branching out in three fields of medicine so you’ll be in good hands.

So no more talk of flagging. You can feel better soon and be with your friends, like I am … in your own bubble of course … or at least six feet apart.

My advice, Iris, is to get that appointment and let them at least give you some suggestions, or you could end up like me with the blood vessels showing – they’re not varicose veins, are they? … but I can’t say too much because the cat(erpillar)’s got my tongue.

February 1, 2020
by wordsfromanneli 30 Comments

Daffy Dolls

After weeks and weeks of cold, sunless days of wind, rain, and even some snow, is it any wonder we get desperate as we anticipate spring weather?

I was unreasonably happy when I noticed these daffodil leaves poking through the winter’s mess.

I’m hoping that by the time it’s Easter, the daffodils will bloom and announce that our winter ordeal is over.

Daffodils are tough. They are among the first flowers to put out feelers to gauge the temperature above that layer of fall leaves.

Can I come out yet?

And is the snow gone?

Will I be frozen

While waiting for dawn?

Gather your courage,

My buddies all say,

Be brave together

And we’ll win the day.

First we may shiver,

But then you will see,

The sun will shine longer

For you and for me.

Set up your blossoms

To open in spring,

Yellow and cheerful

Is just the right thing.

We are the bravest

The gutsiest here,

Being the first to bring

Snippets of cheer.

Sooooooooon!

I cheated here and put in a photo of daffodils from another year, but they are the same ones that belong to those green stems in the previous photo.

Daffodils have a special place in my heart. My mother loved flowers and when, as a new Canadian, she learned the name of these flowers, she couldn’t help always mixing up the syllables. To this day I think of them as daffy dolls, her name for them.

Please visit my website if you need more winter reading until spring comes for keeps.

http://www.anneli-purchase.com

August 17, 2019
by wordsfromanneli 18 Comments

Rich Without Money

Having money can help make life easier, but wealth need not always be measured in dollars.

After supper, a quick trip to the beach, just five minutes away, is a rich experience of another kind. The Sleeping Princess presides over the valley. Looking down on the bay, this glacier, unfortunately, is melting a little more every year, but it is still unique and beautiful.

If she turned her head, the Sleeping Princess could see the beach I’m standing on. She would see the morning glory, or field bindweed, in bloom. It is invasive and tenacious and widespread. Just ask me!! I want to hate this flower because its vines tangle up everything in my garden. But it has a beauty of its own. I imagine this bell flower holding rainwater for Tinkerbell to drink from.

Here are more of these morning glory flowers popping up among thorny blackberry vines. How tough must it be to endure the pain of those prickles?! And yet how daintily these two invasive plants complement each other.

Glory be! Look at those blackberries! They want picking. I ate a few of them. Sweet, sweet, sweet! But my arrangement with the Captain was already made. We have a lot of blackberries at the back of our own yard and the deal was that if he picked the berries (and endured the thorny scratches and spiders and wasps and stickiness), I would make jam.

I didn’t know he would be so enthusiastic. I had a challenge to use up those berries. But now we have enough blackberry jam to last the rest of our lives. So we’re rich! Rich in jam.

I think I have the sweetest pantry in town.

August 3, 2019
by wordsfromanneli 29 Comments

Flower Favourites

Four favourites are growing in my garden (along with many other favourites that have finished blooming).

The hollyhock is amazing me this year with its flowers and the height of its stalk. It must be at least ten feet tall.

The lily doesn’t bloom for long but is so pretty.

And who doesn’t love the sunflowers which, the Captain hopes, will provide seeds to salt and toast? They are a necessity for cracking and chewing and spitting out while waiting for the fish to bite.

One of my special favourites is the snapdragon. My first experience with snapdragons was when I was a very little girl in Germany and my mother showed me how these flowers could open their mouths. They’re not called snapdragons in German but Loewenmaeulchen (little lions’ mouths), and if you press the sides of the flower together, it opens up like a mouth. As a child I was fascinated by this idea of a little lion flower opening its mouth. Of course in Canada they are dragons who open their mouths to snap.

Do you have favourite flowers in your garden?

June 27, 2019
by wordsfromanneli 32 Comments

Over, Under, Upside Down

I wanted to show you the water lily, but I ended up studying the photo and seeing all kinds of crazy things.

I’m in the boat (you see the edge of the aluminium skiff at the bottom of the photo), and over the water. The lily is over, on, under, and above the water. But what is that big hill doing, hanging upside down from the top of the photo?

Once I started looking at the way the lily was growing, I was quite fascinated by the roots on the lake floor, the stems reaching for the surface of the water (some unsuccessfully, so far), and the leaves floating on the surface, some of them half sunk, others lifting up, yet others lying flat on the bottom of the lake.

And then there are the two flowers that are really only one plus a reflection.

The longer I looked the more I could see.

And to think that at first glance I thought it was just a boring weed in bloom.

April 13, 2019
by wordsfromanneli 45 Comments

The Tulip’s Story

Before any other tulips open up in my yard, still among weeds that I haven’t dealt with, here is the first of the season, just “born” today.

I’m surprised at how happy it makes me, after such a long dreary winter.

The name of the tulip is thought to have come from some connection to the turban, or to the fact that a tulip was sometimes worn on a turban as decoration.

Thought to be originally from Persia, the tulip arrived in northwestern Europe in the 16th century.